The Arctic is the north polar region consisting of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Alaska, Northern Canada, Finland, Greenland Iceland, Norway, Russia and Sweden. Land within the Arctic region has seasonally varying snow and ice cover, with predominantly treeless permafrost-containing tundra. Arctic seas contain seasonal sea ice in many places.
This fragile and unique environment is under threat from climate change and pollution.
The evidence of global warming is in no place more obvious than in the Arctic region. The Arctic has warmed rapidly during the last four decades. The magnitude of temperature increase in the Arctic is twice as large as the global increase. The effect of Arctic climate change will have profound local, regional and global implications.