Meltdown: a scholastic reporter sails far north to learn how a warming world is changing the Arctic.

At 9:35 on a May morning, I board a small dual-propeller plane. It has enough seats for roughly 45 people. My destination: Unalaska, Alaska. The propellers start to swirl with a deafening whir. For two hours we fly westward from Anchorage, soaring high above a chain of islands known as the Aleutians (see map).

Soon, the flight attendant makes an announcement that causes the passengers around me to groan: If the winds and visibility around Unalaska are bad, we might have to "boomerang." In other words, the pilot might have to turn the plane around and fly all the way back to Anchorage.

Luck is on our side. An hour later, the plane starts its descent to the airport. From my window seat on the left, I can see only water. Nervous, I lean forward and peer out of the window on the plane's right side. More water. Then steep, snow-covered islands pop into view. I look left again. Suddenly I see a wall of rock with a narrow airstrip. I clutch the armrests and hope for the best.

With a gentle thud, we land. "Welcome to Unalaska," the flight attendant says.

I step off the plane, ready to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. I will be joining Lee Cooper and Jackie Grebmeier, oceanographers from the University of Tennessee, for one month on the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy. The Healy will set sail from Unalaska's port of Dutch Harbor and make its way to the northern Bering Sea. There, the scientists will sample the waters to learn how global warming is affecting the walruses, bearded seals, and other animals and plants in the area.

The Heat Is On

The Healy has just set sail. I join Cooper for dinner at a metal table lined with a long rubber mat. Its sticky grip keeps our cafeteria-style trays in place as the ship rolls with each unsettling wave. "The northern Bering Sea is warming," Cooper tells me between bites.

For 20 years now, he and Grebmeier have sailed the Bering Sea for weeks at a time to study its environment. Their research shows that the region's air and water temperatures are rising. Although the Healy is soon surrounded by ice, the ice cover is not as expansive as in past years, Cooper says. The ice also melts earlier in the year than it once did.

What is to blame? People around the world burn oil and other fossil fuels to power appliances, cars, and factories. Most scientists agree that this releases heat-trapping greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere. As those gases accumulate, the planet heats up.

In Search of Sea Creatures

One of my onboard duties is to help the team study the region's animals. So I head to the Healy's rear deck, where most of the research takes place. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, the deck buzzes with experiments.

Everyone working on the deck must wear protective clothing. I pull a red one-piece survival suit over my clothes, slip on waterproof boots, and don a hard hat. Then I join the scientists outside.

Snowflakes pelt my face, and a cold wind blasts my body. I zip up my coat, but there's no escaping the chill.

As the ship plows through the icy sea and stops at various sampling stations, we lower a huge metal scooper to the seafloor. It pulls up a chunk of mud. The scientists collect a portion of the mud to take back to their universities for study. Then we filter the rest through a screen to catch the small creatures living inside. I see everything from tiny clams to slimy-looking sea worms.

We also lower a large net to the seafloor. As the Healy sails forward, the net drags behind, gathering bottom-dwelling animals such as crabs, sea stars, and fish.

When we pull up the net, it is filled to overflowing. Eyeball-like sea anemones spill onto the deck, and multi-legged brittle stars (marine animals that resemble starfish) are everywhere.

It is time to sort the catch by species. Later, we'll look at our catches to learn about the diets of the various animals. This will give the researchers a better picture of who is gobbling up whom. Such knowledge is important because as the Bering Sea warms, the ecosystem changes. "Crabs and fish from the southern Bering Sea are moving northward [because they like] the warming waters," explains Jim Lovvorn, a scientist on the Healy.

A Changing Menu

The crabs and fish that are moving north eat clams and other wildlife that live on the seafloor. But seals, walruses, and other animals eat those same types of food. They will likely suffer from the increased competition for food. They might even begin to decline in number, Grebmeier says. That would be bad news for the Arctic people who rely on those animals for food (see "On Top of the World," pp. 12-14).

With that in mind, I go up to the ship's bridge. The Healy's crew navigates the ship from this room. Here I have a clear view of the many animals that are at risk from a warming world.

We sail past herds of walruses as they rest atop sheets of ice. Seals dive into the water, and seabirds flap gracefully past the ship. I can't help but wonder what people can do to slow the process of global warming.

Turn Down the Heat

Many people are working to reduce heat-trapping gases. In 1997, world leaders agreed to a treaty called the Kyoto Protocol. The treaty went into effect in 2005, after it was ratified (approved) by 166 countries. These countries promised to cut air pollution back to 1990 levels by the year 2012.

Two major polluters, the United States and Australia, did not agree to the treaty. Even so, several U.S. states, including California, have passed laws aimed at reducing air pollution.

Although I am at sea for 30 days, the time flies by. Soon, I find myself back on solid ground in Unalaska, where my adventure began. After learning about global warming's effects on this polar region, I've concluded that everyone can do their part to limit greenhouse gases--even you (see "Ahoy, Mate!" p. 9). Lee Cooper agrees. "I feel optimistic that there's still time to [reverse global warming]," he says. "But the clock is definitely ticking."

Words to Know

* ecosystem: a system formed by the interaction of a group of organisms with their physical environment.

* fossil fuel: a fuel, such as coal, oil, or natural gas, that was formed from the remains of dead plants and animals.

* global warming: an increase in the Earth's atmospheric and oceanic temperatures. Most scientists believe that the warming results largely from pollution.

* greenhouse gases: gases (such as carbon dioxide, methane, and ozone) that trap heat in the atmosphere.

Ahoy, Mate! Scientist-in-training

Meet 11-year-old Ruth Cooper from Knoxville, Tennessee. Ruth sailed aboard the icebreaker Healy for 30 days. She helped her parents, scientists Lee Cooper and Jackie Grebmeier, study the changes taking place in the Bering Sea.

Ruth wants kids to know that ice is decreasing in the Bering Sea, and that they can help to change that. How? Turn off the lights when you leave the room, and set your computer and printer's sleep function to go on after five minutes of inactivity. Saving energy cuts down on the amount of fossil fuels that are burned. Since it takes energy to heat water, take shorter showers too.

Unless kids become better caretakers of the environment, Ruth says, natural areas like rain forests, glaciers, and parklands will increasingly be replaced by parking lots and malls. "It is important to save the environment," she says. "Otherwise the people in 30 years won't have it, and it will be a big empty place."

Locator Map

A Warming World

In response to a warming world, animals and plants are relocating to cooler areas. Below are some species in North America that are trekking northward or to higher elevations in search of relief from the heat.

1 Invertebrate species, such as snails and sea stars, are moving northward, likely because of a rise in water and air temperatures.

2 Trees from subalpine forests are invading alpine meadows, partly in response to warming temperatures.

3 The natural habitat of the Edith's checkerspot butterfly, which extends from the west coast of southern Canada through northern Mexico, is shrinking.

4 Robins are migrating from low to high elevations, where temperatures are cooler. The birds now breed two weeks earlier than they did in the late 1970s.

5 The natural habitat of the American alligator, which ranges from the Carolinas south to Florida and west to Texas, seems to be shifting northward in some areas.

* Objectives

Students should be able to:

* make cause-and-effect connections between greenhouse gases and Earth's shrinking ice cover.

* describe possible changes for people and animals if polar ice caps continue to melt.

* Background

The scientists in our story observed a growing number of nursing walruses separated from their mothers during summer. They concluded that mothers left their calves on sea ice in order to get food. "But in recent years," the report noted, "sea ice has retreated in this part of the Arctic until it is only present in the summer over deep water north of Alaska, where walruses are unable to feed." When the source of the food gets more elusive, mother and calf are separated.

* Critical Thinking

USING CONTEXT CLUES: How might information gathered during the Healy expedition help us understand global warming? Explain. (Answers will vary.)

DECISION MAKING: Would you like to take a trip like Patricia Janes's to the Arctic? If so, what would you like to learn? Explain. (Answers will vary.)

* Activities

JOIN THE JOURNEY: See more photos of Patricia Janes's Arctic adventure: Click on the Special Reports/Global Warming link at scholastic.com/juniorscholastic.

SEEK A SOLUTION: What do students think is the biggest environmental concern where they live? Have them create a plan to help find a solution to that problem, then present it to their classmates.

STANDARD

SOCIAL STUDIES, GRADES 5-8

* Science, technology, and society: Scientists are studying how the melting of polar ice caps is affecting Arctic animals.

RESOURCES

PRINT

* Alexander, Bryan and Cherry, Journey Into the Arctic [Oxford University Press, 2003]. Grades 5-8.

* Friedman, Katherine, What If the Polar Ice Caps Melted? (Scholastic, 2002). Grades 6-10.

WEB SITES

* Arctic Images Gallery/ NOAA 

www.arctic.noaa.gov /gallery.html

* PolarTrec [for teachers] www.arcus.org/trec