You live on a planet with a hot interior. Temperatures a few miles below us are hot enough to peel the soles of your shoes in a blink of an eye.

Earlier this month, scientists announced that satellite images show that polar sea ice continues to diminish and that an ice-free passage opened up this summer from Europe to Asia.

Polar ice has melted down to its lowest levels in 40 years. Before satellites hovered above us, we assumed that the ice covered just about everything at the polar latitudes. All we had to rely on for this lack of knowledge before the 1960s was data from occasional expeditions. Today, we can monitor the ice every day.

The polar meltdown has me thinking about how the ocean's temperature has warmed enough to cause it.

I was never fond of college chemistry and all the stuff about moles. However, I do remember that it takes one calorie of heat to raise one gram of water by one degree Celsius. That one calorie of heat can raise one gram of rock a whopping five degrees Celsius. Interestingly, it takes 80 calories to melt one gram of ice.

One other fact I will toss out is that the temperature of water changes much slower than air. A large volume of water is going to lose its heat or gain heat much slower than an equal volume of air - much, much, much slower.

The atmosphere has warmed just a little bit in the past 100 to 150 years -- about one-half of a degree -- and ocean temperatures have warmed in response. The current assumption is that the warmer atmosphere has caused an increase in ocean temperature.

I cannot help but wonder if global-warming scientists are working the theory backwards and that the ocean is actually helping to warm the air.

Which brings me to the Earth's mantle and inner workings: Is it possible that the inside of the planet is warming, or at least there are changes in how close magma is to the ocean floor and that, in fact, is what is warming the oceans?

The interior of this planet is extremely hot. The mantle is 1,100 to 1,600 degrees Fahrenheit where it meets the Earth's crust -- the portion of the Earth we live on. Apbout 25 miles separates our feet from these very hot temperatures, but the floor of the ocean is only 7 miles away.

Which would heat the ocean faster if its temperature warmed by one percent? A one percent change in air temperature is about a half of a degree. A one percent change in the temperature of the mantle is somewhere between 10 and 16 degrees.

I am not aware of extensive research into temperature changes in the Earth's mantle and crust under the oceans. A small percentage change there would have a greater impact on ocean temperatures than a small change in the temperature of the air.

Correspondingly, a small change in the temperature of the ocean will have a large impact on the temperature of the air.

Maybe -- just maybe -- we are looking in the wrong closet for the global warming monster.

Chris Orr is a Certified Consulting Meteorologist in private practice, morning meteorologist at KNBN-TV NewsCenter1 and can be heard onthe radio show Live With Jim Thompson on Wednesdays. E-mail him at weather@rapidwx.com or goto www.rapidwx.com