LONDON, England (CNN) -- New data released Thursday suggests
that the Arctic Ocean will be "largely ice free" during summer
within a decade. As the Arctic sea ice melts, polar bears face
extinction. The report, complied by the UK-based Catlin Arctic
Survey and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), is the latest research
into ice thickness in the Arctic. Researchers predict that
within 20 years ice cover will be completely gone during the
warmer months. The expedition, which was completed in May, was
led by UK explorer Pen Hadow. He and his team collected data by
manually drilling into the ice and noting its thickness along a
450-kilometer route across the northern part of the Beaufort
Sea. They found that the area surveyed was comprised almost
exclusively of first year ice. Scientists think this is
significant because traditionally the region has been made up of
much older, thicker ice. "Discovering this area of younger ice
provides another body of information that supports the rapidly
emerging scientific consensus