As a scramble builds to establish rights over the valuable natural resources hidden under the Arctic sea floor, U.S. researchers embarked from Barrow, Alaska, in mid-August on a three-week mission to map regions of the vast underwater landscape.

Continue reading

In a highly anticipated decision, the Interior Department on Wednesday declared the polar bear "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act because of shrinking Arctic ice due to global warming. Two analysts consider the impact of the decision.

Continue watching

The Arctic is a receptacle of the planet's air pollutants -- from forest fires to human-produced carbon dioxide emissions -- and a coordinated international effort is geared toward learning more about pollutants' effects at the top of the globe.

Continue reading

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service postponed a recommendation originally due Wednesday on listing the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act due to changes in its habitat from global warming.

Continue reading

An international team of researchers has found more than 700 new species in the extreme depths of Antarctica's Weddell Sea, surprising scientists who had thought the region was largely devoid of life.

Continue reading

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed listing the polar bear -- a species whose survival depends on the sea ice that is melting as the Earth's temperature rises -- as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act.

Continue reading

NASA-funded studies conducted last year found that sea ice present year-round in the Arctic is melting at a rate of 9 percent per decade, and in two recent summers, the ice was at record lows.

Continue reading