An Arctic and Antarctic perspective on recent climate change.

This article reports on the environmental and climatic changes and their causes in the Antarctic and Arctic. It discusses that there are continuing increases in surface temperatures, losses of sea ice and tundra, as well as warming of permafrost over areas of the Arctic, while most of the major increase in Antarctic temperatures is on the Antarctic Peninsula linked with sea ice loss in the Bellingshausen-Amundsen Seas sector. The synthesis of observational evidence leads to the conclusion that the Arctic changes of the past several decades are attributable to circulation-driven changes.