Temperatures on the Svalbard archipelago, home to the world's northernmost population centers, are averaging five degrees higher in just 30 years. The “ice fjord” must now change its name, rain and rainbows are replacing snowfall, reindeer are not surviving, and the administrative capital Longyearbyen has become a study base for scientists from around the world.

Kim Holmen, director of the Norwegian Polar Institute, sums up, “If we even magically eliminated all carbon dioxide emissions today, it would take 20-30 for the situation to return to normal.” Nowhere in the world have temperatures, for decades now, risen as much as in the Arctic Circle.