Earlier this month the NOAA and NASA announced that 2014 was the hottest year ever recorded, shattering the previous records in 2005 and 2010. Now comes the news that global warming is heating the world's oceans at an unprecedented pace.

Cambridge - A collaborative effort involving scientific teams from the UK, U.S. and Australia has produced the first detailed, high-resolution 3-D maps of Antarctic sea ice with the help of an underwater robot.

Emperor penguins are known for being shy, and this can be a challenge for biologists who are studying them. When these penguins are approached by researchers, their heart rates rise and they back away.

Samples taken from an Antarctic lake 800 meters below the ice reveal an abundance of microbial life. The lake was the vast and mysterious Lake Whillans.

Puerto Natales - A ferry carrying 17 passengers and a crew of 28 ran aground at Pass Kirke in the Chilean Fjords. All passengers and crew are unharmed but 40 tons of salmon were lost and more than 200 cattle drowned.

The world's 7,000 species of amphibians can be found on six continents, but there has been few attempts at understanding how salamanders, frogs, toads, and caecilians had moved across time to these distant continents.

Pope Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI may play for the same team as Catholics, but they certainly don't cheer for the same team as football fans.

Emperor penguin populations could lose nearly one-fifth of their members by the end of the century as a result of climate change.

According to reports from scientists studying Antarctica the large increase in tourism there is a threat to the natural environment. The area hosts a wealth of scientific information that may be damaged by tourism.

Two independent studies suggest that the glaciers are on an irreversible path to liquefying and stand to raise global sea levels by around four meters in coming centuries.

Irvine - The rapidly melting West Antarctic Ice Sheet is in an irreversible state of decline according to the latest NASA study. As a result, the "ice-dam" preventing glaciers in the area melting into the sea will ultimately disappear.

- As the sun sets, the cloudy sky melds with the glaring white of the frozen terrain as tourists trudging in single file line marvel over blue glaciers in Antarctica, a hip new vacation destination.

The Hague - The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Netherlands, Monday, ordered Japan to put a stop to whaling in the Southern Ocean.

Cambridge - Pine Island Glacier, part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and the biggest single contributor to rises in global sea levels, continues to melt at record rates. The melt could continue for decades, according to new research.

Ilulissat - One of Greenland’s largest glaciers is moving at speeds never before recorded. In the process it’s moving ice from the Greenland ice sheet into the ocean at record rates.

Last week, the Canadian Libertarian gave us his thoughts on Karl Marx. This week he turns to Martin Luther King, and shatters a few images in the process.

The Russian vessel, Akademik Shokalskiy has been stuck in thick ice since Christmas Day and although the stricken ship has now been spotted, it remains stuck with 74 passengers, crew and scientists on board.

Using thermal-sensing satellites, scientists have pinpointed a region in East Antarctica with the coldest recorded temperatures on Earth.

Metallica, one of the most recognizable metal bands in the world, offered an unusual concert in Antarctica. About a hundred fans heard the group through headphones to avoid environmental impact disrupting the peaceful life of Antarctic fauna.

Seattle - Canadian anti-whaling fugitive activist Paul Watson addressed the U.S. appeals court on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013, in Seattle, WA. The court will decide whether Watson should be held in contempt for confronting and attacking Japanese whaling vessels.