The Northwest Passage

Arctic ice has been melting slowly for two decades as temperatures have climbed, but in the summer of 2007 that gradual thaw suddenly accelerated. By the time the long Arctic night finally descended in October, there was 22 percent less sea ice than had ever been observed before, and more than 40 percent less than the year that the Apollow capsule took its picture. The Arctic ice cap was 1.1 million square miles smaller than ever in recorded history, reduced by an area twelve times the sive of Great Britain. The summers of 2008 and 2009 saw a virtual repeat o the epic melt; in 2008 both the Northwest and Northeast passages opened for the first time in human history. The first commercial ship to make the voyage through the newly opened straits, the MV Camilla Desgagnes, had an icebreaker on standby in case it ran into trouble, but the captain reported, "I didn't see one cube of ice."

--Bill McKibben, Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet