Residents of Washington DC were given a first hand experience last week of what climate change is doing to the polar bears. Scattered across the city, puzzled onlookers stopped in their tracks to see, touch and sometimes kiss polar bears in homeless garb. By portraying polar bears as homeless and destitute, Greenpeace USA has managed to humanise their plight and raise concerns about climate change which is melting the arctic sea ice polar bears depend on.

I am no doomsayer but the American National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) has recorded a fall in the Arctic ice to its second lowest level since satellite monitoring began 30 years ago. The consequences of fast melting ice are not just dire for the polar bears but also for coastal regions that will be submerged if sea levels rise. Add to that the displacement of people dependant upon the Arctic for survival and other Arctic fauna like seals who may see their natural habitat gone by as early as 2013.

I just found this great story via Treehugger: a small Inuit community is suing 24 big, bad energy companies, claiming damages due to climate change. The melting ice pack has pushed up sea levels and exposed the residents of Kivalina to an increasing number of storms; the cost of relocating the entire village (which is sinking into the sea) is placed at US$400 million. Arctic communities are of course extremely vulnerable to the effects of changing weather patterns and are feeling the effects of climate change right now.

All the available evidence indicates that global warming is melting the Arctic at an unprecedented rate. This summer's ice cover was the lowest since records began, and researchers estimate that the region could be totally ice-free by 2040. So, obviously, a cue for the world's nations to act in unison to minimise the potential damage likely to be caused by the resulting sea-level rises? Dream on, I'm afraid - cue instead a new international 'goldrush' to claim the oil, gas and other minerals buried under the Arctic - so that the world can burn more fossil fuels and accelerate the global warming cycle even further.

After twenty years out of fashion, the term 'cold war' has become the hot favourite in Fleet Street once more. Not just because diplomatic relations between Russia and the UK distinctly frosty at the moment, but Russia's current Arctic adventures are lowering the temperature even further.

A glacial melt lake in Greenland.

It's becoming pretty obvious that the aviation industry is creeping closer and closer to the tactics of big tobacco and big oil in their attempts to "teach the controversy" over science that doesn't suit their profit margins.

Last week, it was an outrageous display of bullying aimed at groups concerned about climate change. A couple of weeks ago, there was another, smaller episode that got a lot less press; the aviation industry's briefing against an Inuit leader who came to the UK to tell his "southern neighbours" that the people of the Arctic are already feeling the impacts of climate change.

Follow the crew of the Arctic Sunrise on their campaign for Marine Reserves in our North Sea Tour blog

Martin getting the message across to the skipper of a Danish trawler

After a productive stay in the small fishing town of Hanstholm we set sail and headed out to sea again only to find – fog! Yes today the North Sea is full of it and the fog horn has had to work on overtime, giving everyone working on deck a slight case of tinnitus. Although it did make our job a bit trickier the fog couldn't stop us from finding or engaging the fishing vessels out here.