Santa Needs a Bathing Suit, The North Pole Has a Lake [Photos]

Santa's going to need a bathing suit. The North Pole just isn't the wintery retreat it once used to be, and thanks to higher temperatures there's a giant lake in the middle of it now.

Rising carbon dioxide levels have captured recent headlines thanks to melting ice caps and stranded polar bears. Now, thanks to photographs from the North Pole Environmental Observatory, we can see that the north Arctic cap is melting in such a way that there's now a lake where we would normally expect snow. Santa won't be able to go diving in it since it's only about a foot deep, but it does provide a stark visual reminder of how our planet can go through phases.

"It's a shallow lake. It's a cold lake. But it is, actually, a lake," said William Wolfe-Wylie on o.canada.com.

Here's how the North Pole looked May 8:

Here's how it melted by July 13:

The melting of the Arctic ice caps into shallow lakes isn't a new thing, however, and has happened in the past during the summer months when the sun can beat down for far longer than most people are used to. 

There isn't much else to say except that this is another stark reminder that the world's climate is going through a change. Whether it's natural or not, the point remains that human-induced emissions aren't helping.