SCIENTISTS WARN OF ICE-FREE SUMMER IN THE ARCTIC

Scientists returning from the world's biggest mission to the North Pole have warned that the Arctic is “dying” and will be ice-free in the summer. The expedition, which set off last September and docked in Germany Monday, found ice that was “badly eroded, melted, thin and brittle,” Markus Rex, the mission leader, said. The Polarstern expedition was organized to better understand the Arctic and help scientists predict the impacts of climate change. A rotating team of more than 300 scientists from 20 countries spent months camping on a large ice floe, taking ice and water samples. So far, recorded temperature changes have been more extreme at the poles than elsewhere on Earth, with the Arctic warming the most quickly.