Some possibly hopeful news

My goodness. This is intriguing. I want to show you an article called "Pipes hung in the sea could help planet to 'heal itself'". (I read this AFTER I posted the information below about the arctic heat wave.) Here's part of what it says:

Pipes hanging in the ocean might bring global warming under control, two of Britain's most distinguished scientists suggest today.

By mixing deeper water with surface water, they could help the sea absorb vastly more carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas, say James Lovelock – creator of the Gaia hypothesis which sees the earth as a single organism – and Chris Rapley, the director of the Science Museum in London.

In a letter published in the journal Nature, Professor Lovelock and Dr Rapley suggest that the ocean could be helped to take up much more carbon by "fertilising" the plankton in its top layer with nutrient-rich waters from deeper down, that could be pumped upwards through pipes by the action of the waves.

The idea is to provide a planetary-scale techno-fix for climate change of gigantic proportions, yet remarkable simplicity. Far-fetched as it may seem to some, the Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson, who in February launched a $25m (£13m) prize for the best way of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, is considering funding a trial of the project.
...
"Such an approach may fail, perhaps on engineering or economic grounds," [Lovelock and Rapley] say. "And the impact on ocean acidification will need to be taken into account. But the stakes are so high that we put forward the general concept of using the earth system's own energy for amelioration."

I have great respect for James Lovelock. Let's hope he's listened to by more than Branson. (Although kudos to Branson indeed for all he is doing.)