Scientists have just a completed a study called State of the Arctic report which seeks to determine just what state the northern polar region is currently in. The results are not very encouraging. As a matter of fact, one might conclude that they're downright grim.

Scientists now fear that the melting of the polar ice may already have exceeded the "tipping point" which is the imaginary threshold of ice melting without permanently damaging the region. If the worst has come to pass, this will severely impact the world in more ways than one.

The loss of sea ice near the North Pole and the gradual thinning of ice layers in the Arctic are just some of the manifestations that climate change is taking a toll in nature. Scientists now say that ecosystems in land and sea are at risk more than ever.

And unlike in Las Vegas, "what happens in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic," says research administrator Richard Spinrad as he points to the temperate regions as the next in line to become affected of what's going on in the Arctic.

James Overland, a scientist with National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory explains that the damage they've seen this year was so great that it would be a long shot at best to get the region back to where it was two decades ago. "It won’t necessarily be a continued acceleration of more ice lost, but we’re certainly not going to go back to where we were before," he adds.

Scientists continue to disagree on when exactly the Arctic tipping point lies, or if we've already crossed the line. The only thing certain is that if we're not there yet, we're certainly closing in on "full steam ahead".