A traditional Eskimo whaling party races for shore while their comrades drift out to sea: ice that should be solidly anchored at this time of year is giving way. A team of scientists traverses the breadth of Alaska, measuring the thinning snow in an effort to understand albedo, the snow's reflective ability to cool the earth beneath it. Climate change isn't an abstraction in the Far North--it is a reality that has already altered daily life for Native...