Climate change has upset the water cycle and natural freshwater reservoirs are at risk of disappearing so researchers are looking to new technologies to save drinking water. The seabed off Malta, Europe's most arid country, contains groundwater from the last ice age. A team of researchers is using new methods to analyse the seabed. This technique could be used to help dry coastal regions elsewhere in the world face the challenges of the future

Svalbard is global warming ground zero as no part of the planet is warming faster than Svalbard. The Norwegian archipelago also clashes with the geopolitical interests of the West, Russia and China. The melting ice will open up new sea routes and give access to new natural resources. It is the closest inhabited place to the North Pole, and home to the Global Seed Vault, created to save humanity's biodiversity in the event of a global catastrophe.