newsweek

This is a few weeks old, but Newsweek recently gave some ink to the melting of the arctic ice cap, the International Polar Year, and some of the research going on, but failed to mention climate change or global warming.
Here's from the federal commission charged with overseeing and trying to steer arctic research.

Some researchers worry that their ability to gather real-time data is in jeopardy. Despite the publicity around the IPY, scientists still have limited access to the technology they need. The U.S. Arctic Research Commission recently published a wish list of monitoring equipment, topped by icebreakers (America rents some ships from Russia and Sweden), a better sensor network of buoys and river gauges, and satellites. Alas, by the next polar satellite launch, in 2015, much of the current U.S. equipment will be verging on breakdown. A new Canadian satellite called radarsat-2 will also be key. The United States paid to launch radarsat-1 and has had a "free ticket" for its data over the last 12 years, says Mead Treadwell, the ARC's chairman. But it didn't help with the launch of radarsat-2, and Treadwell says he's "not aware that any federal agency has a budget to buy" its data after 2009, says Treadwell.

Here's the full story.