In a new study recently completed, the United Kingdom based Catlin Arctic Survey proposes that we soon may be experiencing ice-free summers in the Arctic regions. The study was compiled by both Catlin and the World Wildlife Foundation, and adds to research that suggests an Arctic ice melt could completely eliminate the ice pack at certain times of the year.

The expected culprit is global climate change, which numerous scientists claim will cause major changes in the world's climates, cooling in some regions, heating in others, over an unspecificed but possibly immediate time frame.

This study is not the first that suggests ice-free summers in the Arctic, and like others, has used data gathered over several decades as well as expeditions to the Arctic to measure how deep and how solid the ice currently is.

The teams, headed by UK explorer Pen Hadow, worked at the Beaufort Sea, manually drilling into the ice to see how old the ice there was. They discovered mostly new ice, as opposed to what they expected to find, much older ice. They explored a 450 kilometer route and reported that traditionally this area was covered in much older ice. "Discovering this area of younger ice provides another body of information that supports the rapidly emerging scientific consensus that it's going to be nearer 10 years from now that we see roughly 80-85 percent free waters in the Arctic Ocean," Hadow reported to CNN.

Professor Peter Wadhams, head of the Polar Ocean Physics Group at Cambridge University in England added, "With a large part of the region now in first year ice, it's clearly more vulnerable. The area is now more likely to become open water each summer, bringing forward the potential date when the summer sea ice will be completely gone."

Wadhams expects the Arctic to be ice-free in summer within 20 years at most. Previous research has also brought up the dangers of water ocean waters world-wide, indicating that cooler sea waters hold more CO2 than do warmer waters. The oceans hold a significant part of the CO2 in solution, and releases of this greenhouse gas, when added to other sources of greenhouse gasses, may do much harm to an already delicate system.

Some researchers also wonder if the frozen methane on the sea floor might also melt and come to the surface, entering the atmosphere in large quantities.  Methane is considered a much more potent greenhouse gas than is CO2, and significant additions may further exacerbate an already growing problem.  Since no one knows where a tipping point exists, most speculation is based upon current data, which is being expanded every year, but which makes creating exact and accurate models more difficult.

Added to this, there are some who believe these changes to be entirely natural, and that this entire issue a lot of noise about nothing.  Be that as it may, if indeed greenhouse gasses, natural or man-made, will be affecting our climatic future, nations around the world would be wise to prepare for possibly drastic changes in their own climate. And as stated by many who study this global climate change effect, changes will not be the same in every part of the globe. Some areas will experience cooling while others heat up, causing yet more confusion about the causes and effects.

No matter what the reason, any major loss of Arctic ice will affect the climate of the world because the ice mass has a major role in the entire Earth's climate control. If sea ice is taken out of the equation, the equilibrium of climate will change from what we know today.  Also, large amounts of cold fresh water may also change ocean currents such as those which keep England and the British Isles and Ireland temperate most of the year round.

While no one expects sudden changes such as those portrayed by Hollywood, such changes over time may be just as deadly.