Arctic

As the melting Arctic ice cap opens a new ocean to the world, governments and private speculators are rushing to cash in on lucrative resource deposits and shipping lanes. But they may find these virgin waters a dangerous place to do business…

Canadian coastal communities are faced with rising sea levels as the government continues to support destructive tar sands mining

In the second part of a special programme looking at the significance of the Arctic in the context of climate change, Phil England hears about the rush to exploit the region's oil and gas supplies...

Put the date on your calendar: global oil supplies peaked in the first quarter of 2008.

One of the most memorable parts of Al Gore’s film 'An Inconvenient Truth' was the cartoon polar bear trying to climb on the last piece of sea-ice in the Arctic, failing, and despondently swimming off into the sunset. With scientists this week reporting that autumn Arctic sea-ice coverage reached a record low this year, Al Gore’s cartoon may not be as far-fetched as it seems.

Levels of sea ice around the North Pole now stand at their lowest ever levels, the Guardian has reported.

Arctic sea ice is melting faster than climate models predicted and there is less sea ice in the Arctic now than at any time since records began, scientists from the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) have discovered.