This melting, which could release vast amounts of greenhouse gases, is already changing the Arctic landscape by causing landslides, draining lakes, and altering vegetation.
As the Arctic warms three times as fast as anywhere else in the world, permafrost - which forms the foundation under much of the North's communities and roads - is thawing and causing major changes in the very landscape underfoot.
For decades, opposition to drilling has left the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge off limits. Now the Trump administration is hurriedly clearing the way for oil exploration.
Turning America's coastal waters over to the oil and gas industry is not healthy for states' economies or the environment, 37 senators say in a blunt letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.
