Scripps researchers see evidence that melting polar ice could alter climate by slowing ocean circulation...or speeding it up

January/February 2011

By Robert Monroe

Imagine the ocean as a giant swimming pool - devoid of topographical features like seamounts and trenches and with smooth walls instead of jutting continental shelves or jagged coastlines.

By: Jonathan Murray

Changes such as a decrease in sea ice have consequences elsewhere, the report says.

The Arctic's warming trend is beginning to affect the climate farther south, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said this week in its annual Arctic Report Card.

Washington, DC—In a year where record summer heat followed the winter of ‘Snowmageddon,’ Environment America released a new report Wednesday documenting how global warming could lead to extreme weather events becoming even more  common in the future.  The report also highlights the damage caused by recent extreme weather events in the United States, including the snowstorms that paralyzed the Mid-Atlantic region in February, the floods that claimed 30 lives in Tennessee in May, and the 2008 California drought and subsequent wildfires that burned through 1.2 million acres of land.