Many scientists believe that global warming is melting Arctic ice so rapidly that the region is beginning to absorb more heat from the sun, causing the ice to melt still further and so reinforcing a vicious cycle of melting and heating. The vast expanse of permanent ice that has characterized the Arctic Ocean for millennia is fated to disappear far faster than anyone imagined, and will certainly be gone before the century is out, says a NASA satellite study. The NASA survey shows that an area of ancient ice roughly as large as Alberta is vanishing every decade as the climate warms. Over the course of this NASA survey, which ran from from 1978 to 2000, about 1.2 million square kilometers of supposedly permanent ice melted away -- more than the total area of Ontario. And the rate of the melt -- roughly 9 per cent a decade -- is speeding up, said physicist Josefino Comiso, senior scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and author of the study. A good and brief interview with someone who was just at the North Pole explains what is happening there. See this link and click on the listen button: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5572495

global warming...another ice age...the world becoming whatever-percent water....

The polar ice cap is melting because average global temperatures have increased by about 0.2 degrees Celsius in 20 years. That average global temperatures have increased is proven by empirical data. Obviously, ice melts when temperatures increase. The debate is around WHY average global temperatures have increased (global warming). Scientific consensus is that greenhouse gases have caused global warming. Evidence also strongly suggests that the sun is burning hotter in the past 100 years than it has at any time during the previous 1,000 years. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/18/wsun18.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/07/18/ixnewstop.html Scientists have taken core samples of artic ice and confirmed that the levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are at their highest levels in the last 800,000 years or so. This highly suggests that the increase in these gases is not due to cyclical planetary climate changes, but due to human activity. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5314592.stm Ramifications? The oceans will become warmer at an accelerated pace. Not only will global warming affect their temperatures, but the cooling effect of the ice will diminish. The level of the Oceans will rise. The warmer water will change weather patterns. Cool water also has a cooling effect on the air around it. The breeding cycles and numbers of animals will be affected, thus affecting the surrounding ecosystem. (See Alaskan Spruce Beetle.) The life of our planet is very dependent upon our planet's climate. http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/qthinice.asp In summary, the repercussions will be significant and global; however, the exact extent of them is heavily contested and debated.

It's not (http://www.dailytech.com/Article.aspx?newsid=13834).

the ice caps are melting because the earth is getting warmer. this may be a somewhat normal climate cycle, or it may be entirely caused by pollution leading to global warming. some repercussions are: artic animals, such as polar bears, are losing hunting territory and food sources. if enough ice melts, they could become almost extinct in the wild. also, as the ice melts, the levels of the ocean rise slightly. right now this is not a concern, but if all the ice melts, then it would be.