ABSTRACT
The Arctic will experience profound and extraordinary environmental and eco-nomic change over the next several decades. 1 The rapidly transforming region is exceeding previous scientific and climatic predictions of an eventual ice-free Arctic. July 2011 marked the lowest ever recorded levels of sea ice extent in both the Arctic and non-Arctic alike. The polar icecap today is 25 percent smaller than it was in 1978, and in the summer of 2007 alone, one million more square miles of ice beyond the average melted, uncovering an area of open water six times the size of California. While estimates range from 2013 to 2060, the US Navy's Arctic Roadmap projects ice-free conditions for a portion of the summer in 2030 as the region experiences a dramatic increase in levels of commercial, human and state interaction. 2 Increased drilling for oil and gas in the region, along with growing shipping and eco-tourism as new shipping routes come into existence, are just a few of the examples of increased human activity in the Arctic.
