Ed Cassano, director of InMER-a nonprofit organization dedicated to initiating policy changes related to global warming-returned from a reconnaissance mission to the Arctic last week. According to Cassano, the Northwest Passage-in Northern Canada-was once impassable, ice-choked and seldom navigable, but is now open. InMER will return for an expedition aboard an icebreaker in 2009. The group’s goal is to raise public awareness of the issue.