We can probably really do that now:

I think ship's props would still get too clogged up with Polar Bears.. but soon.

About one month of melting left ... we might even be able to do NE passage too.

Not visible from that rendering are the thousands of polar bears that are starving.

The polar bears are starving, the moose are under serious stress in Minnesota, the puffins are dying, and these are just the big/photogenic species that made the news in the last month or so.

http://www.northernwilds.com/press/shawn/moose-decline-merits-prio.shtml

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&add...

I saw an article a month or two ago - polar bears are so stressed they're coming to land to give birth and biologists ar starting to see polar/grizzly crosses in the wild.