The Arctic is on top of Earth. You might think that the Arctic is too cold for people to live in. But surprisingly, there are about 4 million people living there. That's the same population as the city of Taiyuan in Shanxi.
The polar bear (北极熊) is the most famous Arctic animal. But in fact, the Arctic is home to more than 21,000 species (物种). There are whales, Arctic foxes, walruses (海象), tundra swans (苔原天鹅) and many more.
A group of scientists recently came back from a one-year-long study in the Arctic. They have bad news: the Arctic is dying. The amount of Arctic sea ice is falling by around 3 percent every year. There will be no more ice during the summer in just a few decades (十年). Many animals, such as polar bears, hunt for their food on the ice. If they can't do this anymore, they will die of hunger.
