Antarctica & Arctic

"The United States is not ready to clean up an oil spill in the Arctic, the head of the Coast Guard said yesterday."

"Global warming may be unleashing new sources of heat-trapping methane from layers of oil and gas that have been buried deep beneath Arctic permafrost for millennia. As the Earth's frozen crust thaws, some of that gas appears to be finding new paths to the surface through permafrost that's starting to resemble Swiss cheese in some areas, scientists said."

"McMURDO STATION, Antarctica — The American research station on the edge of this frozen continent may look like a mining camp in the wilderness, but it is actually one of the glories of American science."

"One of the biggest icebergs ever recorded has just broken away from Antarctica."

"An enormous iceberg, more than 2,000 square miles in area — or nearly the size of Delaware — is poised to detach from one of the largest floating ice shelves in Antarctica and float off in the Weddell Sea, south of the tip of South America."

"Scientists have documented a recent, massive melt event on the surface of highly vulnerable West Antarctica that, they fear, could be a harbinger of future events as the planet continues to warm."

"A Delaware-sized iceberg is very close to splitting off from one of the largest ice shelves in Antarctica, scientists say, after a fast-growing crack stretched to within 8 miles (13 kilometers) of the open ocean this week."

"Due to congressional budget cuts, the 38-year continuous U.S. Arctic satellite monitoring program is about to end, leaving researchers blind to ongoing Arctic sea ice losses."

"Researchers in Antarctica have discovered rapidly growing banks of mosses on the ice continent’s northern peninsula, providing striking evidence of climate change in the coldest and most remote parts of the planet."

"We went to Antarctica to understand how changes to its vast ice sheet might affect the world. Flowing lines on these maps show how the ice is moving. ... The acceleration is making some scientists fear that Antarctica’s ice sheet may have entered the early stages of an unstoppable disintegration."