As the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly gets under way, Greenpeace International hosted an event to discuss dramatic changes in the Polar environment and debate an appropriate response from the international policy and political community. Greenpeace International Executive Director Kumi Naidoo, 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben, NASA Climate Scientist James Hansen, Caroline Cannon, Inupiat leader and 2012 Goldman prize winner, Solar Power expert, K Subramanya, former chief executive officer at Tata BP Solar India Ltd and Professor Wieslaw Maslowski, of the US Naval Postgraduate School participated in the event, moderated by Bryan Walsh, senior energy and environment writer for Time Magazine. The event occurred on the day that scientists from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) released preliminary figures suggesting that Arctic sea ice has reached the lowest recorded extent since records began in 1979.