This year, Arctic ice melted a lot more than a few decades ago, nearly setting another worrying record. On Friday, ice covered 1.74 million square miles, this year's lowest point. Last summer, the Arctic ice melted even more, covering only 1.59 million square miles, the smallest area since record-keeping began in 1979.

The NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder reported thick, older sea ice was continuing to decline, covering only around 30 percent of the Arctic, much lower than the more than 50 percent in the past. NASA provides accurate readings of ice surfaces and thickness via readings from microwave sensors in space.

It is now clear that melting has already passed a tipping point, most scientists agree, meaning that soon we will have ice-free summers at the Arctic. Ice reflects sun's energy, which means that less ice will accelerate the planet's warming process.

Ten days ago, it was announced that the Markham ice shelf, previously located off of Ellesmere Island’s northern coast broke off early this August. The 19 square mile ice mass, roughly the size of Manhattan, is now a free-floating island in the Arctic Ocean.

The disintegration of the ice shelves destroys microbial habitat, and kills its unicellular inhabitants, which are an intrinsic part of the arctic food chain and also useful to biological research. The breakup of the ice banks creates more open water which would give rise to autumn temperatures along arctic coasts over the next few years, which in turn will prolong the permafrost melt season, increasing the rate at which it releases enormous amounts of stored carbon as greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide or methane.