"We kind of have an informal betting pool going around in our center and that betting pool is 'does the North Pole melt out this summer?' and it may well," said the center's senior research scientist, Mark Serreze.

It’s nice to see that even scientists have a sense of humor about global warming. I guess that probably comes from the years of people ignoring what they have to say.

But it doesn’t stop him from saying the inevitable … "It's a situation where we hate to say we told you so, but we told you so," he Serreze.

But it seems that even though the North Pole might be ice-free this fall, the scientists say it’s not that big of a deal.

I’m glad to see that they aren’t playing Chicken Little with us. Because if nothing happened, that seriously would put their creditability on shaky ground because I am sure there are still people out there that think global warming is a hoax.

But still, this is one story I would keep from the kids. Imagine the story you’d have to come up with to explain that even though there is no ice in the North Pole, Santa and his elves are OK and there will be a Christmas.