The winter growth period for sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is now over, with levels at a record low. The winter ice extent on 21 March 2025 was lower than…Continue readingLowest levels on record for Arctic winter sea ice
Tag: arctic
Melting Arctic sea ice—mostly in the summer—is making the polar bear population smaller, weaker and hungrier because they rely on the sea ice to hunt from, scientists said. And winter sea…Continue readingArctic sea ice hits record low for its usual peak growth period
Greenland has been behind approximately 14 mm of sea level rise since 1992. This is due to increased melting from the ice surface in response to warmer air temperatures, and increased…Continue readingCracks in Greenland Ice Sheet grow more rapidly in response to climate change
Both the North and South Pole regions have warmed by some three degrees Celsius compared to late 19th-century levels, much faster than the global average. The US National Snow and Ice…Continue readingArctic sea ice levels second lowest on record for January
Temperatures at the north pole soared more than 20˚C above average on Sunday, crossing the threshold for ice to melt. Temperatures north of Svalbard in Norway had already risen to 18˚C…Continue readingTemperatures at north pole 20˚C above average and beyond ice melting point
A third of the Arctic’s tundra, forests and wetlands have become a source of carbon emissions, a new study has found, as global heating ends thousands of years of carbon storage…Continue readingA third of the Arctic’s vast carbon sink now a source of emissions
By David Spratt at Climate Code Red If an unexpected leap in the global average temperature in 2023 was described by one scientist as “gobsmackingly bananas”, are there even words to…Continue readingA(nother) year of scientific shock and awe
The Arctic tundra is undergoing a dramatic transformation, driven by frequent wildfires that are turning it into a net source of carbon dioxide emissions after millennia of acting as a carbon…Continue readingArctic tundra is now emitting more carbon than it absorbs
The first summer on record that melts practically all of the Arctic’s sea ice, an ominous milestone for the planet, could occur as early as 2027. For the first time, an…Continue readingCountdown to an ice-free Arctic: Research warns of accelerated timelines
Lying just off the Canadian mainland, Qikiqtaruk is a mass of sediment and permafrost piled up during the last ice age. Despite its small size, the island is packed with immense…Continue reading‘The land is tearing itself apart’: life on a collapsing Arctic isle
A new study led by researchers from ETH Zurich and Vrije Universiteit Brussel and published in The Cryosphere provides the most comprehensive projections to date, projecting the future of over 200,000…Continue readingGlobal glacier melt: Major mass loss expected by 2100
Global wildlife populations have plunged by an average of 73% in 50 years, a new scientific assessment has found, as humans continue to push ecosystems to the brink of collapse. Latin…Continue readingCollapsing wildlife populations near ‘points of no return’, report warns
A report from the Environment Agency and Cefas shows Atlantic salmon stocks in England and Wales have dropped to their lowest level since records began in 1997. Once common across the…Continue readingSalmon numbers in England and Wales last year were lowest on record
Plant cover across the Antarctic peninsula has soared more than tenfold over the last few decades, as the climate crisis heats up the icy continent. Analysis of satellite data found there…Continue readingAntarctica is ‘greening’ at dramatic rate as climate heats
Wildfires are burning through the carbon budget that humans have allocated themselves to limit global heating, a study shows. The authors said this accelerating trend was approaching – and may have…Continue readingWildfires are burning through humanity’s carbon budget
The time has come to accept that climate policy has failed, and that the 2015 landmark Paris agreement is dead. We let it die by pretending that we could both continue…Continue readingThe overshoot myth: you can’t keep burning fossil fuels and expect scientists of the future to get us back to 1.5°C
Seasonal change in the north is rapid and, for local people, summer marks a brief reprieve from months of bitter cold. But a heatwave that is currently hovering over the community…Continue reading‘It’s devastating’: summer in Canada’s Arctic region brings severe heatwaves
A world where global mean surface temperature has increased 3°C will be characterized by widespread and intense heat stress, extreme weather events, ruptured and unproductive marine and terrestrial ecosystems, broken food…Continue readingEarth at risk: An urgent call to end the age of destruction and forge a just & sustainable future
The annual State of the Climate report by the UN weather and climate agency confirmed preliminary data showing 2023 was by far the hottest year ever recorded. And last year capped…Continue readingPlanet ‘on the brink’, with new heat records likely in 2024: UN
The polar regions of the Arctic and Antarctica are increasingly experiencing the impacts of plastic reaching floating ice and land, not solely as larger macroplastics (>5 cm), but as microplastics (0.1…Continue reading97% of sampled Antarctic seabirds found to have ingested microplastics
Rain used to be rare in most parts of the Arctic: the polar regions were, and still are, usually too cold and dry for clouds to form and absorb moisture. When…Continue readingRain Comes to the Arctic, With a Cascade of Troubling Changes
Greenland is part of the Arctic region. It is the world’s biggest island, around 836,330 sq miles in size (2.1 million sq km). Most of the land is covered by ice…Continue readingGreenland’s ice sheet is melting and being replaced by vegetation
The new chief of the World Meteorological Organization said it looks to her that the rate of human-caused climate change is accelerating and that warming has triggered more Arctic cold outbreaks…Continue readingNew UN weather agency chief says rate of global warming is speeding up
Afro-Siberian red knots migrate from the Arctic to winter in Africa, where they recover from the arduous journey. But warming in Siberia is causing physical changes in the birds that hinder…Continue readingClimate Change Is Pushing These Migratory Birds to the Brink
As the ice melts, the hunters in the village of Ittoqqortoormiit—home to one of the last Inuit hunting communities—worry where they will get water. On a headland of barren tundra some…Continue readingGreenland’s Inuit falling through thin ice of climate change
Greenhouse gas concentrations, global sea level and ocean heat content reached record highs in 2022, according to the 33rd annual State of the Climate report. “People are causing the largest known…Continue readingInternational report confirms record-high greenhouse gases, global sea levels in 2022
A warming Arctic is limiting polar bears’ access to sea ice, which the bears use as a hunting platform. In ice-free summer months the bears must fast. While in a worst-case…Continue readingStudy connects greenhouse gas emissions to polar bear population declines
Over the past few weeks, a large-scale rescue operation has been under way off the coast and keys of Florida. It began as water temperatures were rising towards a peak of…Continue readingMissing ice and bleached coral: the sudden warming of the oceans
The slow-down of the Southern Ocean circulation, a dramatic drop in the extent of sea ice and unprecedented heatwaves are all raising concerns that Antarctica may be approaching tipping points. The…Continue readingAntarctic tipping points: The irreversible changes to come if we fail to keep warming below 2˚C
The Arctic Ocean could be ice-free in summer by the 2030s, even if we do a good job of reducing emissions between now and then. That’s the worrying conclusion of a…Continue readingArctic Ocean could be ice-free in summer by 2030s, with global, damaging and dangerous consequences
It is now too late to save summer Arctic sea ice. The study also shows that if emissions decline slowly or continue to rise, the first ice-free summer could be in…Continue readingToo late now to save Arctic summer ice, climate scientists find
Parts of Earth’s ice sheets that could lift global oceans by meters will likely crumble with another half degree Celsius of warming, and are fragile in ways not previously understood, according…Continue readingClimate, ice sheets & sea level: the news is not good
The most recent decade surveyed in a study, the years 2001 to 2011, was the warmest in the past 1,000 years, and the region is now 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than…Continue readingGlobal warming reaches central Greenland
Researchers say there has been a dramatic drop in particular in the number of female bears and cubs in Hudson Bay.Continue readingCanada polar bears declining at alarming rate, study finds
The Arctic is getting wetter and rainier Arctic precipitation is on the rise across all seasons, and these seasons are shifting. As sea ice rapidly declines, more open water is exposed,…Continue readingArctic Report Card
It was when the US Bureau of Indian Affairs built schools in Alaska, as part of an effort to assimilate Indigenous peoples into white culture, that the community was forced to…Continue readingAlaska Native community relocates as climate crisis ravages homes
More and more scientists are now admitting publicly that they are scared by the recent climate extremes, such as the floods in Pakistan and west Africa, the droughts and heatwaves in…Continue readingWhy scientists are using the word scary over the climate crisis
The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), a system of ocean currents that carry warm water from the tropics into the North Atlantic, and transport cold water from the northern to the…Continue readingScientists discover mechanism that can cause collapse of great Atlantic circulation system
Smoke from hundreds of wildfires has darkened skies over the Alaskan interior this summer with the state experiencing its fastest start to the fire season on record amid hot and dry…Continue reading‘Nothing left to burn’: Wildfires blaze through the Arctic
Norway’s last remaining coal mine on a geopolitically important Arctic archipelago will stay open. Store Norske, the state-owned mining company, said on Friday it had originally planned to close Mine 7…Continue readingNorway prolongs life of Arctic coal mine
Major sea-level rise from the melting of the Greenland ice cap is now inevitable, scientists have found, even if the fossil fuel burning that is driving the climate crisis were to…Continue readingMajor sea-level rise is ‘now inevitable’
Researchers found that a typical forest fire season now burns 3 million more hectares (7.4 million more acres) than in 2001. Forest fires accounted for a quarter of global tree loss…Continue readingForest fires burn twice as many trees as two decades ago
Forests from the Arctic to the Amazon are transforming at a “shocking” rate due to the climate crisis, with trees advancing into previously barren tundra in the north while dying off…Continue readingGlobal heating has caused ‘shocking’ changes in forests across the Americas
A new analysis of observed temperatures shows the Arctic is heating up more than four times faster than the rate of global warming. The trend has stepped upward steeply twice in…Continue readingArctic temperatures are increasing four times faster than global warming
Large quantities of plastic—transported by rivers, the air and shipping–can now be found in the Arctic Ocean. High concentrations of microplastic can be found in the water, on the seafloor, remote…Continue readingThe global ‘plastic flood’ reaches the Arctic
The Arctic continues to warm more than twice as fast as the rest of the globe. Summer 2021 saw the second-lowest amount of older, multi-year ice since 1985, and the post-winter…Continue readingHumanity continues to degrade the Arctic
Rain has fallen on the summit of Greenland’s huge ice cap for the first time on record. Temperatures are normally well below freezing on the 3,216-metre (10,551ft) peak, and the precipitation…Continue readingRain falls on peak of Greenland ice cap for first time on record
The nightmare scenario: Year 2100, global waming exceeds 4˚C:→ Massive frequent wildfires→ Dead coral reefs→ Frequent prolonged droughts→ Increased air pollution→ Ice-free Arctic summers→ Rapid sea level rise→ Abandoned small island nations→…Continue readingClimate change: how bad could the future be if we do nothing?