Arctic Rising

Tobias Buckell, author of the very entertaining SF book Arctic Rising, points out that China recently sent its first ship from the Atlantic to the Pacific via the Arctic Ocean.

Per the article linked above, if the ice melt were to stop today, we'd be at the 3rd-lowest level of ice ever. There is, however, another two weeks of melting to come. Based on that, I think Buckell's Arctic Rising isn't so much fiction as fact that hasn't happened yet.