Outdoor Explorer

There’s a lot less sea ice in the Arctic, and only 1% of it is old ice, which is thicker and more resilient. (Image: NOAA Climate.gov)In this Sunday, Sept. 19, 2021, file photo, flames burn up a giant tree as part of the Windy Fire in the Trail of 100 Giants grove in Sequoia National Forest, Calif. California firefighters battled fast-growing forest fires threatening giant sequoias and small communities in the Sierra Nevada on Monday, Sept. 27, and worked to fully surround a suspected arson wildfire that destroyed homes the week before. More than 2,000 firefighters were on the lines of the Windy Fire burning on the Tule River Indian Reservation and in Sequoia National Forest, including Giant Sequoia National Monument. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)On July 12, 2011, crew from the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy retrieved a canister dropped by parachute from a C-130 during the ICESCAPE mission, or “Impacts of Climate on Ecosystems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment.” (Photo by Kathryn Hansen/NASA)On th