A polar bear walks in the snow near the Hudson Bay outside Churchill, Mantioba, Canada. Global warming is heating the Arctic at a record pace, driving broad environmental changes across the planet, including extreme storms in the mid-latitudes, a major U.S. scientific report said December 11. Persistent heat records have rattled the fragile Arctic for each of the past five years, a record-long warming streak, said the 2018 Arctic Report Card, released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.