"This is possibly also related to global climate change," said UW Arctic scientist James Morison. But then again, Morison noted, the increased rate of spin observed in this atmospheric whirlpool may also just be due to its natural cycle of variation.

That's what's so frustrating about scientists, said Caleb Pungowiyi, 61, a native inhabitant of the Arctic from Kotzebue, Alaska. "They're afraid to take a stand that might make them appear like they recommend some environmental policy."

Pungowiyi, one of the few non-scientists at an international gathering of Arctic researchers held through tomorrow at the Bell Harbour conference centre in Seattle, described how the extraordinarily warm weather in the Arctic over the past decade is disrupting fishing, animal behaviour, the ice-based system of winter travel and their entire way of life.

"Our whole system is based on the cycle of nature," he said. "I keep thinking it will soon get back to normal, but it doesn't."...