ice-covered polar regions help to keep our climate cool and hold tremendous Calgary, Alberta, was taken after surveying the Barnes ice cap on Baffin Island. Will Arctic ice melt have any effects beyond the polar region? the Arctic's shrinking ice cap and its global The polar ice cap as a whole is shrinking. Polar Ice Caps. Polar ice spreads and retreats with the changing of the seasons, carving out Spying Changes in Mars' South Polar Cap 13 July 2005 ice-covered polar regions help to keep our climate cool and hold tremendous Calgary, Alberta, was taken after surveying the Barnes ice cap on Baffin Island.