The day in numbers: 2040

By Sunaina Gulati for CNN

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(CNN) -- The Arctic may be free of all summer ice by as early as 2040, a study by a team of U.S. and Canadian scientists reveal.

Marika Holland, lead researcher from the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) says, "We have already witnessed major losses in sea ice, but our research suggests that the decrease over the next few decades could be far more dramatic than anything that has happened so far."

20: The number of years in which the ice may begin retreating four times faster than at any time in observed record.

29: In 29 years of satellite record-keeping, 2006 is the fourth lowest in the minimum recorded amount of sea ice.

770,000: According to a modeling done on supercomputers, the September ice will shrink from about 2.3 million square miles to 770,000.

10: The number of years it will take for the ice to shrink to 770,000.

2.7: The amount in meters by which the winter ice will also thin.

-8.59 percent: The amount by which the September rate of sea ice will decline every decade.

23,328: The amount in square miles by which sea ice will decline per year.

20: A U.S. Geological Survey last month found that polar bear cubs in Alaska's Beaufort Sea are much less likely to survive compared to about 20 years ago because of the melting sea ice.

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