SAY, have you noticed how hot it’s been lately? Everybody’s been complaining that it’s much hotter than normal for the month of May here on Guam. You don’t suppose that it could be because of (shhhhh) global warming, do you?

There are lots of people (mostly politicians, I think) who say global warming is a big scam. But there are a couple of new stories from the scientists that I think you should be aware of.

Our first tale started some 800,000 years ago, about the same time early humans learned to make fire. At that time, a tiny species of plankton called Neodenticula seminae went extinct in the north Atlantic although it never disappeared from the north Pacific.

Neodenticula is a microscopic plant and according to scientists from Great Britain, it’s become an Atlantic resident again, because the melting Arctic ice has opened a northwest passage across the pole for the tiny algae. And while it's a food source, it isn't being welcomed back by the experts, who say any changes at the base of the marine food web could have dire consequences for all the marine life in the Atlantic.

The discovery represents the first evidence of a plankton species making a trans-Arctic migration in modern times. And it’s not the only living thing to make the trip. Near the extreme opposite end of the ecological weight scale, a Pacific gray whale was spotted off the coasts of Spain and Israel last year. This species vanished from the Atlantic three centuries ago, probably because of over-hunting. Scientists believe that the summer ice melt in the Arctic allowed the whale to cross into the North Atlantic, and then into the Mediterranean Sea.

There is no question that the Arctic sea ice is melting in the northern hemisphere summer thus creating the fabled Northwest Passage. But in the winter, it gets cold and the ice returns ... so far.

Unfortunately, recent research says Arctic sea ice has suffered a dramatic decline that exceeds the previous predictions, and researchers at MIT think they know why. They argue that climate models have underestimated the rate of ice thinning, which is actually about four times faster than calculations. They also don’t take into account the sea ice that drifts out of the Arctic basin through the Fram Strait, the passage between Greenland and Norway which is the major outlet of the Arctic Ocean. When this mechanism is taken into account to correct the discrepancy between the simulations and what is actually happening, the new climate models suggest that by the end of this century, there will be no ice in the Arctic Ocean during the summer at all.

The Arctic has been losing about 10 percent of its permanent ice layer every 10 years since 1980 and has thinned on average four times faster over the period 1979 to 2008 than climate simulations predicted. Sea ice has become thinner and more fragile. Because it breaks up more easily, its mobility is increased, and it flows through the Fram Strait and into the warmer waters of the Atlantic, where it melts.

This new insight into the dynamics of the polar seas suggests that well before the end of this century, the Arctic Ocean will certainly be completely ice-free in late summer and that the summer disappearance of Arctic sea ice will probably actually occur in the next few decades, with far-reaching consequences for ecosystems, sea routes and offshore exploitation of resources.

So ... is it hot enough for you? And if you think you can stand a little heat, what does all that melting ice say about rising sea levels?