The Arctic’s summer ice coverage could hold its ground or even bounce back slightly, even as global average temperatures rise. But like a Guns ‘n’ Roses tour, the comeback will be short lived and eventually doomed to disappear.

A computer climate model created by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) found that in some of the runs of the simulation, Arctic summer sea ice actually halted its retreat or even expanded for a decade or so. But in the long run, climate change won out and most of the summer ice melted away completely within 50 to 60 years.

‘One of the results that surprised us all was the number of computer simulations that indicated a temporary halt to the loss of the ice,