mystique and anyone who is insterested. Here is one scientific source that reconstructs how the extent of Arctic ice changed since the industrial revolution (https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-piecing-together-arctic-sea-ice-history-1850):
Sea ice cover in the Arctic has undergone a widely reported decline in recent decades. The decrease has been greatest during summer, with sea ice extent reducing by around 12% per decade since the satellite record began in 1979.
The main cause of this rapid decline is rising air temperatures. The Arctic is warming twice as quickly as the global average, a phenomenon known as Arctic amplification. Other factors, such as wind patterns and ocean warming, also play a role in the diminishing sea ice.
(Words in bold by me). The satellite data for the end of summer each year looks like this:
![Arctic Sea Ice Trend](https://www.carbonbrief.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Arctic_Sea_Ice_Trend.png)
Where ice is gone, the oceans or terrain underneath absorb energy from the sun that would otherwise have been reflected resulting in a feedback loop.