The arctic winter.

In an alarming headline on April 6, the Anchorage Daily News proclaimed: "This winter's Arctic sea ice narrowly missed record low." According to the paper, the lost ice was missing because of global warming.

Interestingly, at roughly the same time the report of missing sea ice was appearing, the Anchorage paper was publishing a number of stories about the extremely cold and long-lasting winter in Alaska this year. On March 29, for instance, in a story headlined "Ice traps five boats," the paper reported that several vessels, including three from Alaska's crab-fishing fleet, had become stuck in ice just offshore from St. Paul Island in the Bering Sea. The same day, the Anchorage paper reported--under the headline "Winter overstays welcome"--that "Heavy snow, chilly north winds stall spring."

"We're about 12 degrees below normal," John Stepetin, Weather Service specialist, told the Anchorage paper. The long cold winter was playing havoc with local residents who, according to the report, are suffering an onslaught of frozen water pipes and sewers because of the long-lasting cold.

Earlier in the winter, two global-warming activists found out just how cold it gets in the far north. Explorers Ann Bancroft and Liv Arnesen had set off to cross the Arctic, according to the Washington Post, in an "expedition meant to bring attention to global warming." Instead, the duo had to call off the trip when one of the women got severe frostbite from the bitter, dangerous cold. "One night they measured the temperature inside their tent at 58 degrees below zero, and outside temperatures were exceeding 100 below zero at times," the Post reported.