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From 1950 to 2006 the United Nation Food and Agriculture Agency (FAO) estimated that 12,700 metric tons of fish were caught in the Arctic, giving the impression that the Arctic was a still-pristine ecosystem, remaining underexploited by the world's fisheries. However, a recent study by the University of British Colombia Fisheries Center and Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences throws cold water on this widespread belief. According to the study, published in Polar Biology, the total Arctic catch from 1950 to 2006 is likely to have been nearly a million metric tons, almost 75 times the FAO's official record.

"The sleepiest ocean on the planet is mixing more and supporting more summer life with the rapid loss of ice cover."

One thing you can say about the winter of 2010-'11, for what it's worth: the Arctic doesn't seem so remote anymore. You don't have to be a meteorologist to get the feeling that the polar atmosphere has sprung a leak -- that the freezing down here has something to do with the warming up there.