Record melting of the Arctic sea ice this summer has seen it shrink to an area one million square miles below the average minimum, scientists said.
The National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) in the US said the minimum extent of the sea ice this year shatters the previous all-time low in September 2005 by 460,000 square miles - an area five times the size of the United Kingdom.
The melting, which occurs each summer in the Arctic, has seen the sea ice drop one million square miles below the long-term average minimum, which is equivalent to an area the size of Alaska and Texas put together, or 10 UKs, the scientists said.
The centre believes the sea ice has reached its minimum area for 2007, measured over a five-day average, and ice is now beginning to re-form for the winter.
At its lowest point during the summer melting season, which stretches from around March to September, sea ice coverage in the Arctic plummeted to 1.59 million square miles, compared with the previous low of 2.05 million square miles in 2005, and 2.6 million square miles for the long-term average between 1979 and 2000.
A combination of higher temperatures, clear skies, warm winds from Siberia and thinner ice have all contributed to the record-breaking sea ice melt this year.
Earlier this month scientists at the NSIDC warned that at current rates, the Arctic could be ice-free in the summer by 2030 and pointed the finger at climate change for the record melting.
In the wake of the news of the record sea ice melt, Greenpeace executive director John Sauven said: "The canary in the coal mine is singing very loudly now. At this rate we could see the end of summer sea ice in our lifetimes. It's well known that the loss of ice at the North Pole means the Earth absorbs more heat from the sun, instead of reflecting it, and that means even more warming. And yet the world's greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise."
He urged politicians to realise climate change is a planetary emergency and react accordingly.
"As it is, Britain is on the cusp on building new runways and new coal-fired power stations. It's almost unbelievable," he warned.
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