This Issue:

Table of Contents

Cover Story

Grades 2-3

Across the Ice

Will Steger wants to take you to the North Pole. The polar explorer is about to lead a team of six young adventurers on a trip across Ellesmere Island, in the Canadian Arctic. The team will travel by dogsled. The rest of us can follow Steger's 1,400-mile journey on the website globalwarming101.com.

Steger and the others aren't going just for the beautiful sights. They will be looking for the ugly signs of global warming. Rising temperatures have already changed the Arctic. Glaciers and thick sea ice are melting.

They will visit the site where part of the Ward Ice Shelf broke into pieces in 2002. The team will be uploading videos, stories and photos to the website as they go. Kids in classrooms will be able to follow along. "We can bring the audience up there," Steger says.

Take Action, Young People

On a 1995 Arctic expedition, Steger experienced climate change up close. The ice he was traveling across broke up earlier in the season than usual. He barely escaped.

Temperatures are increasing faster in the far north than they are in the more temperate areas of the world. Recent studies indicate that the North Pole could be underwater during the summer in less than 10 years, instead of coated in thick sea ice.

Steger wants people to know that climate change is happening. But we can make changes to slow global warming. A world in which everyone is working to use cleaner energy and stop pollution, says Steger, would be a healthier place for all living things.

Next: The Power of Music