Arctic: Hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of melting ice end up everyday at the see, as they break off huge glaciers and icebergs and travel via the Arctic Ocean towards other sees. The continuing increase of world temperature may potentially cause such a raise of water level, that littoral regions of North Europe run a high risk of flooding. Dr Bob Corell, director of the Global Change Program at the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment in Washington D.C., based on a two-year-survey’s results foresees that sea levels may rise up to one meter during the 21st century. Meanwhile, Greenland and generally the Arctic Pole suffer from various problems - contamination of its ecosystem due to chemicals carried north from industrialised countries through air and water currents; growing exploitation of the region’s energy resources as it holds 25% of the planet’s remaining hydrocarbons, the core agent of global warming; disorders in the reproduction circle, migratory routes, food resources of many mammals and birds, threatened with extinction; disruptions of subsistence livelihood that could lead indigenous communities to increasing poverty and other social difficulties. © PANAGIOTIS MOSCHANDREOU / INVISION IMAGES ***TEXT AVAILABLE***