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billmckibben.com

shrinking polar ice caps, rising temperatures, vanishing forests, acidic oceans and superstorms. Welcome to the new planet earth. A renowned environmental writer came up with this new spelling of Earth - Eaarth - because the planet we live on no longer resembles the planet we used to live on. The new planet has a new name.

The Galapagos is a chain of 13 large islands about six hundred miles from the coast of Ecuador. It was there, in 1835, that the British scientist Charles Darwin began thinking about how animals change over time. Since then, scientists have called the Galapagos a living laboratory,  a place to study evolution and natural selection. Now, with 180,000 tourists visiting each year, experts say the living lab is in danger, and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill scientists are stepping up to help.

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http://cseees.unc.edu/news-and-events/Arctic03282012

The question of who owns the Arctic is under consideration at a conference hosted at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill this week. The issue of Arctic sovereignty has arisen largely in response to climate change.