Tiny bits of plastic are contaminating mussels from the European Arctic to China in a sign of the global spread of ocean pollution that can end up on people’s dinner plates. Mussels in apparently pristine Arctic waters had most plastic of any tested along the Norwegian coast, according to a study this month by the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA). Plastics may be getting swept north... 

As demand for the Arctic’s resource riches heats up, Canada is set to spend billions of dollars on new patrol ships, polar satellites, upgrading transport and providing winter gear for troops, among other expenditures. In keeping with Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s pledge to increase Canada’s footprint in the Arctic, which he believes is essential for spurring the country’s economic growth,... 

Analysis of water residue in Martian ice caps indicates that the Red Planet was once, at least partly, blue. Billions of years ago, Mars had a body of water that held more water than Earth’s Arctic Ocean, according to a NASA study published Thursday. “Our study provides a solid estimate of how much water Mars once had, by determining how much later was lost to space,”said Geronimo Villanueva,... 

Russian Tupolev Tu-22M supersonic strategic bombers fly above the Kremlin in Moscow. Russia’s military says it plans to expand regular patrol missions by its long-range bombers to the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. “We have to maintain military presence in the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific, as well as the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico,” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu... 

Canada has launched a scientific mission to map the seabed surrounding the North Pole, aimed at claiming the area. The Canadian government said in a statement issued on Friday that two ice-breakers will be sent to the Arctic waters to gather scientific information to support a plan to extend Canadian territory up to the North Pole. The coast guard vessel Terry Fox reportedly set sail from St. John’s,... 

The traffic of commercial, private and fishing ships has increased enormously since the ice cover has been getting thinner. A recent study has revealed that the amount of plastic debris and litter piled up on the Arctic Ocean’s seabed has doubled in the past ten years. German researchers at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research studied more than 2,000 photographs of the Arctic... 

Arctic sea ice reaches the lowest level ever recorded, NASA says. The sea ice in the Arctic Ocean has melted to the lowest level ever recorded since it was first measured in 1979, the NASA space agency says. According to NASA, the sea ice fell to 4.9 million square kilometers as it was observed on Sunday, which is about 80,000 square kilometers less than the earlier record charted on September 18,...