This holiday season is approaching quickly, like all years in the past. On a chilly east coast college campus, students are bustling around finishing projects, tests, and papers in time to get home for Thanksgiving and anticipate the longer Christmas break.

The holidays are an exciting time of the year, filled with hot chocolate, gifts, family, decorations, and parties. Every year, I look forward to being with loved ones and sitting by the fire watching Christmas movies. One of my favorite holiday activities is an annual Christmas Eve hike that my family goes on in rural Virginia. The hike is always fun because we bundle up in warm layers and travel together up a mountain to see the view of a cold December landscape.

Many people love to snow and ski with the snow that comes up north. Winter on the east coast is cold, but cozy. The North Pole is "colder and cozier", the epitome of holiday spirit. Nowadays, we've all heard about climate change and the melting ice the polar bears have to deal with. But what we don't always realize is how serious this problem is.

This year, North Pole temperatures are at 36 degrees warmer than usual. Every winter, after ice levels reach annual lows in September, the Arctic is in polar night, which means that the nighttime lasts over 24 hours. Temperatures and ice production should be at all-time-highs for the year. Instead, temperatures have continued to drop and ice production is at record lows this year.

So what is causing this to happen?

According to Jennifer Francis, a climate scientist at Rutgers University, areas with melted sea ice will "put more heat into the atmosphere because the air is much colder than unfrozen sea water. As winter sea ice disappears, areas of unusually warm air temperatures in the Arctic will expand. These are also areas of increased evaporation, and the resulting water vapor will contribute to increased cloudiness, which in winter, further warms the surface.”

While all sorts of wildlife are being affected by this climate change, polar bears are among those most disturbed. Larry Schweiger, the president of the National Wildlife Federation, stated, "There will be no polar ice by 2060. Somewhere along that path, the polar bear drops out..."

This holiday season, as you enjoy the festivities and loved ones, I encourage you to be aware of your global footprint. While one person does not make a large dent in the fate of the Arctic, the actions of millions of individuals do. There are simple steps you can take to become more green: reduce, reuse, and recycle your holiday waste; buy energy-efficient products for gifts; don't buy endangered animal furs; be aware of your hot water and heating usage; and of course, encourage others to conserve.

While right now the arctic ice melting may not seem like a big deal, know that it has effects on temperatures around the globe and will continue to effect us more and more every year. To keep Christmas white and holiday spirit intact, do the little things you can! A little effort will go a long way.