A recent New York Times story related that "leads" of open water in ice fields near the North Pole filled cruise passengers on a Russian icebreaker with a "sense of alarm." Proponents of the theory of man-made global warming grasped at the story to vindicate their warnings.

But climate experts report that open water at the North Pole is nothing new.

• They say that after a long summer of 24-hour days it is not unusual to find open leads just about everywhere -- especially after strong winds break up the winter ice.

• Indeed, a 1969 Dutch atlas contains the following passage: "The North Pole Ice Sea is never completely frozen; 3- to 30-meter-thick ice floes continue moving slowly around the pole. At the North Pole the winter temperature is never lower than -35 degrees Celsius."

• The atlas goes on to report that summer temperatures can rise to 10 to 12 degrees Celsius -- which is well above freezing.

• Actual observations and data from meteorological instruments such as weather satellites and weather balloons confirm that polar regions have not warmed appreciably in recent decades.

Scientists report that the Earth did warm between 1900 and 1940, with the climate recovering from a previous cold period known as the Little Ice Age. As a result of these changes -- which have nothing to do with human influences -- it is warmer now than it was 100 years ago.

Source: S. Fred Singer (University of Virginia), "Sure, the North Pole Is Melting. So What?" Wall Street Journal, August 28, 2000.

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