Global warming and subsequent climatic changes have resulted in tangible changes in the Arctic region, where the sea ice thinned dramatically between the winters of 2004 and 2008, as per satellite data provided by the US-based space agency NASA. Global warming caused ice at Arctic sea to thin by 17.8 centimeters in a year and 67 centimeters over four winters.

Data from NASA's Ice, Cloud and Land Satellite (ICESat), and an intensive study by the University of Washington in Seattle, have warned against further global warming that can prove fatal both for human beings and vegetation.  

ICESat, which measured the thickness and volume of the Arctic Ocean's ice cover, has given clear picture of climatic changes on the atmosphere, aquatic life and more precisely on flora and fauna.  

The study, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans, shows that the total area covered by ice has shrunk by 42 percent, and is likely to further shrink under the impact of global warming.  

The researchers said: "We must recognize our grave duty to hand the earth on to future generations in such a condition that they too can worthily inhabit it and continue to cultivate it."