With the smallest winter sea ice coverage since record-keeping began and the second warmest year ever in the Arctic, a new NOAA-sponsored study out Tuesday reveals the polar region continues to bear the brunt of the world's climate crisis.

"While 2017 saw fewer records shattered than in 2016," NOAA noted in a statement, "the Arctic shows no sign of returning to the reliably frozen region it was decades ago. Arctic temperatures continue to increase at double the rate of the global temperature increase."

Citing historical data, the research found that "the current observed rate of sea ice decline and warming temperatures are higher than at any other time in the last 1,500 years, and likely longer than that."

The #Arctic saw its 2nd warmest year on record, says @NOAA's Arctic Report Card issued at #AGU17. This #satellite-based animation shows Arctic sea ice concentration was below average during much of 2017. More info: https://t.co/PmPCRjrUVL pic.twitter.com/10u2elJvXz — NOAA Satellites (@NOAASatellites) December 12, 2017

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This is the twelfth year for the annual report, called the Arctic Report Card, a peer-reviewed collaboration sponsored by the agency that brought together the work of 85 scientists from 12 nations.

During his a presentation of the report on Tuesday at the meeting of the American Geophysical Union, taking place this week in New Orleans, Jeremy Mathis, director of NOAA's Arctic Research Program, explained that the Arctic region is currently "going through the most unprecedented transition in human history, and we need better observations to understand and predict how these changes will affect everyone, not just the people of the north."

Among the other major findings of the report: