On the Cover

St. Elias Range, Canada Photo by Benjamin Gross, Climate Change Institute graduate student

In some of the most breathtaking, remote and inhospitable polar and high-elevation regions on Earth, University of Maine scientists search for clues to the future of global climate change by studying the past. It's in these regions that, for centuries, the planet has experienced minimal or no melting. But now that's changing. Those scientists in UMaine's Climate Change Institute whose research is dependent on the frozen record of the past to better understand and predict climate change are seeing the effects of global warming firsthand in areas once thought to be static and undisturbed in our lifetimes. One of these researchers is explorer Paul Mayewski.