It's starting. Satellite images have revealed that the Arctic ice has retreated from its neighboring continents. The region has become an island for the first time in recorded human history. A further sign indicating that the North Pole will lose its ice this year. More details in the full article.

Good news, 2008 is set to be the coldest year this century! Hold yer horses though - remember, this century is only a few years old. This year is actually also set to be the 10th warmest year since 1850. Mother Nature has a weird sense of humor that way. More in the full article.

A study released on Tuesday revealed that elephant seals were instrumental in gathering additional information on ice formation, ocean currents, and climate change. Learn more about this after the jump!

Now here's one of those news items that blends a little bit of gaming and science. Now we're pretty sure why MMORPG giant NCSoft has been named in this particular press release, but we'll also tell you: it's amazing what the human race can think of in the brink of its "serious and pending" extinction. Learn more about Operation Immortality - a part-game, part-reality project aimed at preserving the human race - at the full story.

Santa Claus is coming to town... because his home is melting. A four square-kilometer chunk of ice has broken off the Arctic's largest remaining ice shelf. Is this the beginning of the end of the North Pole as we know it?

If it isn't polar bears in the North Pole, it's penguins in the South. Hundreds of dead baby penguins have washed up on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro over the past two months. Story in the full article.

So the North Pole is melting and polar bears are on the verge of extinction. Solution? Ship 'em off to the other pole, to Antarctica. Lame. Story in the full article.

If "when hell freezes over" means a firm "no," then "when the North Pole melts away" should mean "yes," yes? Am I mixing metaphors or something? Anyway, it seems that the North Pole is in danger of being bare of ice this year. Santa and his elves are reported to have moved to Hawaii.

While the talk on global warming is all the rage these days, one scientist says the phenomenon isn't to blame for everything. Tom Knutsen put together a study that leads him to believe that the rise in hurricane frequency is due to multi-decade weather patterns, not warmer seawater. More in the full article.

Another alarming study regarding global warming has surfaced, revealing that tropical species are also in trouble. According to the UCLA and the University of Washington, warming can cause population of animals and insects in the tropics to decline, which adversely hurts the ecosystem. See the full article for details.