Santa Chased Away by Global Warming

24-Dec-2007

Santa may have to retire from the North Pole soon, because arctic is
becoming more and more like the weather in California. Climatologist Mark Serreze
says, "The Arctic is screaming." What does he mean? It's MELTING. And it turns
out the melting in Greenland is not only due to global warming—there's also
the problem of underground heat wafting up from the interior of the earth.
In LiveScience.com, Andrea Thompson reports that "global warming may not be
the only thing melting Greenland. Scientists have found at least one natural
magma hotspot under the Arctic island...the newly discovered hotspot [is in]
an area where earth's crust is thinner, allowing hot magma from earth's mantle
to come closer to the surface…" She quotes researcher Ralph von Frese as
saying, "Where the crust is thicker, things are cooler, and where it's thinner,
things are warmer." Could the ice be covering up a live volcano? Von Frese
says that scientists just aren't sure yet.

Science wrtier Seth Borenstein reports that global warming may have "passed
an ominous tipping point," since the Arctic is now melting even faster than it
was before. In fact, melting has accelerated at both ends of the earth.