Summer is over in the northern hemisphere, but it’s been another chilling season for researchers who study Arctic sea ice.

“It’s definitely a bad report. We did pick up little bit from last year, but this is over 30 percent below what used to be normal,” said Walt Meier, a research scientist with the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado. more »

WASHINGTON — The United States says Russia’s decision to delineate its southern Arctic boundary appears to be an internal administrative move that will have no standing in international law. more »

One of them is a believer in the man-made nature of climate change; the other is on record as being a global warming doubter. One wants to preserve the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the other would like to open it up to potential oil and natural gas exploration. One supports stem cell research, the other flatly rejects it. Their differences on several policy areas are stark and hard to ignore, which wouldn’t be a problem except for one thing: these two are running on the Republican ticket in November. As President and Vice President, respectively. How will the two reconcile their policy inconsistencies? And will they be able to do so in the next two months? more »

The grey waters of the Arctic Ocean are the scene for a new battle over plans for a huge expansion in the drilling of oil and gas far beyond the Alaskan shore.

With the Arctic ice-cap (news.bbc.co.uk) melting far beyond average for the second year running - and with US petrol prices above $4 per gallon - there’s growing pressure to exploit the reserves beneath the seabed. more »