Arctic Ocean

"After a few years at sea I've grown more scared of the Arctic Ocean, but I've also come to respect and value it for all its power and beauty."

When the Arctic Ocean has less than 1 million square kilometers of ice, scientists say the Arctic is ice free.

The paper, published in the journal Scientific Reports, is entitled: "Vulnerability of Arctic Ocean microbial eukaryotes to sea ice loss."

Or this: You keep seeing headlines about melting ice caps — that the Arctic Ocean may be ice-free by 2050 — and you wonder, fleetingly, if you will outlive the polar bears.

As Earth warms, the Arctic Ocean’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is waning due to melting permafrost and worsening coastal erosion, according to new research.