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After a 2007 polar meltdown that sparked global concern, experts say the stage is set for another record-setting retreat of Arctic Ocean ice - with a top Canadian climate scientist already bracing for the once-unthinkable: open water at the North Pole. "The North Pole may be free of ice for the first time in history," University of Manitoba polar specialist David Barber told Canwest News Service on Monday.

SYDNEY: A reversal of the Earth's magnetic poles could happen sooner than we think, according to Dutch scientists who report that the planet's magnetic field is becoming gradually less stable. A reversal could affect everything from navigation and communications equipment to the composition of the atmosphere, say experts. The report, published today in the U.K. journal Nature Geoscience, found that reversals have been far more common in the last 200 million years than they were deep in the planet's history. Wandering polesResearchers, led by Andrew Biggin of the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, made the discovery by analysing rocks...

Here's the good news: this summer's Arctic ice melt means an early start to the Hudson Bay shipping season. Forecasts show Coast Guard icebreakers will no longer be necessary for shipping to Churchill after July 16. That's 15 days earlier than the average ice-free shipping date of July 31, which means re-supply barges should able to reach communities in Nunavut's Kivalliq and Kitikmeot regions that much earlier. But the down side to the retreat of the Arctic's thin ice cover is a 50-50 chance that the North Pole will become ice-free this September - for the first time in more...

ON THE NBC nightly news there was a heart-throb report of an attractive British teen-ager who had skied across the North Pole with her father to demonstrate how the Arctic ice pack is receding in the face of global warming. Oh, horror. Oh, how terrible. The pictures were beautiful: Her pretty face, her gentle smile, her soft voice, her snow-crusted parka, the blue skies, the brilliant white ice, the cascading chunks of ice calving from glaciers, the two penguins standing on an ice flow. Wait a minute. Penguins? At the North Pole? Not that we ever heard of. So much...

You know when climate change is biting hard when instead of a vast expanse of snow the North Pole is a vast expanse of water. This year, for the first time, Arctic scientists are preparing for that possibility. "The set-up for this summer is disturbing," says Mark Serreze, of the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). A number of factors have this year led to most of the Arctic ice being thin and vulnerable as it enters its summer melting season. In September 2007, Arctic sea ice reached a record low, opening up the fabled North-West passage that...

Seattle - In an open letter to Santa last week and a speech to children at Seattle’s Annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony at Westlake Center, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels last week offered a Grinch-like tone, grumbling about climate change threatening Santa, telling kids “I hope the reindeer can swim,” and blaming them and their energy-sucking video games for melting Arctic ice. As Nickels spoke, his assistants handed out stickers admonishing the crowd to “Save Santa.”

BERLIN, Oct. 1 (UPI) -- What may turn into a Cold War-like resource conflict started quietly, with a vehicle called "Peace 1" some 2,500 miles below the North Pole. The Mir 1 miniature submarine, manned with three Russian scientists, on Aug. 2 planted a titanium capsule with a Russian flag into the seabed -- a symbol for Russia’s controversial claim of the vast resources that are believed to be stored below it. For the Russians and other states surrounding the North Pole, global warming may yet mean a financial blessing. U.S. scientist published a piece in Science that foresees record...

The Russian Natural Resources Ministry says samples of earth taken from where their navy planted a flag on the seabed below the North Pole show beyond doubt that the Arctic is Russian. “Extensive testing has shown that these soils are thoroughly permeated with the DNA of Russian prisoners who perished in the Gulags,” said Josef Zhukovsky, spokesman for the Ministry. “It is incontrovertible that Russians got there first. This precedence proves our claim to this land.” Apparently, the thousands of corpses thrown into the northerly flowing rivers that ran past the numerous concentration camps that served to house opponents of...

Russian bombers fly Alaska, Canada coastsPosted : Fri, 21 Sep 2007 15:08:47 GMT MOSCOW, Sept. 21 Russia resumed long-range military flights along the coasts of Alaska and Canada after a 17-year hiatus. The two Russian Tu-95MS strategic bombers participated in scheduled exercise drills that began Tuesday and were to end Friday, Itar-Tass reported. The bombers, monitored on their flights by NATO planes, returned to their home airfield Thursday via the North Pole, Col. Alexander Drobyshevsky told Itar-Tass. Russia resumed long-range flights to remote areas on order from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has said the flights are a security precaution...

Russia recently planted a flag under the North Pole. (Reuters: Reuters Television) Norway has called on countries with land bordering the Arctic region to stop the race to claim sovereignty over the region's vast mineral resources. Two weeks ago, a Russian mission to the North Pole planted a Russian flag on the Arctic sea-bed, while Denmark and the United States have sent expeditions to the region. But Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere says there are established procedures to deal with the issue. "If anybody is under the belief that we solve this by racing up there with flags or...

Swedish researchers have joined Danish colleagues in an attempt to establish Denmark's claims to parts of the Arctic region. The expedition follows the planting of a flag on the underwater Lomonosov Ridge by a Russian expedition last week. The expedition, led by Swedish icebreaker Oden, set off from Norway on Sunday. It is being led jointly by Martin Jakobsson of Stockholm University and Christian Marcussen of the Geological Survey of Denmark. The Danes claim that the ridge is on the same continental shelf as Greenland, which is a Danish territory. They hope that the expedition will prove the country's claim...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Coast Guard cutter is headed to the Arctic this week on a mapping mission to determine whether part of this area can be considered U.S. territory, after recent polar forays by Russia and Canada. The four-week cruise of the Coast Guard Cutter Healy starts Friday and aims to map the sea floor on the northern Chukchi Cap, an underwater plateau that extends from Alaska's North Slope some 500 miles northward. This is the third such U.S. Arctic mapping cruise -- others were in 2003 and 2004 -- and is not a response to a Russian...

CANADA has said it will build two new military bases in its far north as the battle for claims over Arctic Ocean resources heats up. Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the announcement during a tour of Canada's northern territories. It comes as a Danish mission prepares to sail to the North Pole to map the seabed under the ice. Last week, a Russian expedition planted the country's flag on the floor of the Arctic Ocean under the North Pole. Mr Harper said a cold-weather army training base would be set up at Resolute Bay and an existing port at a...

News agency Reuters has been forced to admit that footage it released last week purportedly showing Russian submersibles on the seabed of the North Pole actually came from the movie Titanic. The images were reproduced around the world - including by the Guardian and Guardian Unlimited - alongside the story of Russia planting its flag below the North Pole on Thursday last week. Titanic error: Reuters issued this film still with a story about the Russian flag being planted beneath the North Pole. Photograph: Reuters

OTTAWA (AFP) - Canada dismissed Russia's flag-planting at the North Pole on Thursday as a "15th century" stunt that does not bolster its disputed claim to the resource-rich Arctic. "Look, this isn't the 15th century. You can't go around the world and plant flags and say, 'We're claiming this territory,'" Foreign Minister Peter MacKay told broadcaster CTV. Earlier, a Russian mini-submarine reached the bottom of the Arctic Ocean under the North Pole at a depth of 4,261 meters (13,980 feet), to carry out scientific tests and leave a Russian flag. The dive is believed to be the first of its...

After claiming the Pole, Russia looks south By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow Last Updated: 2:47am BST 04/08/2007 Russia stirred memories of the Cold War yesterday when the country's senior admiral called for the establishment of a permanent naval base in the Mediterranean for the first time since the Soviet era. Russia planted its national flag under the North Pole claiming sovereignty over the Artic territory Coming a day after an audacious mission to the North Pole to bolster Russia's territorial claims in the Arctic, Moscow's renewed naval ambitions are likely to spread further unease in Nato capitals. "The Mediterranean Sea...

Russia criticised for planting Arctic flag Last Updated: 1:42am BST 03/08/2007 Russia has been condemned for planting its flag on the seabed at the North Pole in a symbolic bid to stake a claim to the vast mineral wealth of the Arctic. Explorers from the country descended 14,000ft in a mini-submarine to place the titanium flag in an area that is home to a quarter of the world's untapped energy reserves. Russia also used the expedition, disclosed in The Daily Telegraph , to gather samples to substantiate its claim that the Lomonosov Ridge, a shelf that runs through the Arctic,...

Russian sub plants flag under North Pole By Guy Faulconbridge Russian explorers dived deep below the North Pole in a submersible on Thursday and planted a national flag on the seabed to stake a symbolic claim to the energy riches of the Arctic. A mechanical arm dropped a specially made rust-proof titanium flag onto the Arctic seabed at a depth of 4,261 meters (13,980 ft), Itar-Tass news agency quoted expedition officials as saying. Russia wants to extend right up to the North Pole the territory it controls in the Arctic, believed to hold vast reserves of untapped oil and natural...

via translation - Both Russian corruption reached the bottom of the Arctic Ocean at the North Pole Moscow. August 2. Interfax-Russia says "Mir-1 and Mir 2, safely reached the bottom of the Arctic Ocean near the North Pole. As the program "Vesti-24", says the Russian "Mir-1" slipped to a depth of 4261 meters and reached the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, and the second says "Mir-2" continues to fall to the ocean bottom. Sinking a record depth began with a half behind schedule and should take several hours. To launch vehicles was chosen polynya size 10 by 25 metres. As...

MOSCOW, Russia (AP) -- An expedition aimed at strengthening Russia's claim to much of the oil and gas wealth beneath the Arctic Ocean reached the North Pole on Wednesday, and preparations immediately began for two mini-submarines to drop a capsule containing a Russian flag to the sea floor.