You're going to start hearing a lot about the north poll and the arctic ice pack melting.

You are also going to hear people imply (or even flat out state) that it is because of global warming.

When they do, just remember that an awful lot of experts (and we are not talking about a minority of global warming dissenters, we are talking about NASA scientists and the Polar Science Centre Applied Physics Laboratory) say it's NOT global warming causing this.

See: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/15/ocean_currents_melt_planet/

"According to a team of NASA scientists, decade-long variations in ocean circulation, known as the Arctic Oscillation, have an effect on the oceans' salinity. A very salty sea is heavier and circulates differently than a less salty one, the team says. This can affect the temperature of the water in the region and thus the local climate...In the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the researchers attribute the change to a weakened Arctic Oscillation. This, they explain, reduced the saltiness of the upper ocean near the pole, making it lighter and changing its circulation...Our study confirms many changes seen in upper Arctic Ocean circulation in the 1990s were mostly decadal in nature, rather than trends caused by global warming," said James Morison, lead researcher based at the University of Washington's Polar Science Centre Applied Physics Laboratory."