The melting Arctic is a crime scene. The microbes I study have long warned us of this catastrophe – but they are also driving it: The Arctic’s climate is warming at least four times faster than the global average, causing irrevocable changes to this vast landscape and precarious ecosystem – from the anticipated extinction of …
Arctic Ocean could be ice-free in summer by 2030s, say scientists – this would have global, damaging and dangerous consequences: Ice in the Chukchi Sea, north of Alaska and Siberia. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center The Arctic Ocean could be ice-free in summer by the 2030s, even if we do a good job of reducing …
Microplastics: we’ve found startling quantities in the ice algae that are essential for all Arctic marine life: Last summer, we travelled to the remote Arctic Hausgarten observatory area in the eastern Fram Strait (west of Svalbard, Norway) on a research ship. The samples we collected there included ice cores, sea water and ice algae from …
Primates colonised the Arctic during a period of ancient global warming — their fate offers a lesson as climate change speeds up: Researchers have found evidence that primates colonised northern Canada 52 million years ago. Kaca Skokanova/Shutterstock Two new species of prehistoric primate were recently identified by scientists studying fossils from Canada’s Ellesmere Island in …
Pandoravirus: the melting Arctic is releasing ancient germs – how worried should we be?: Scientists have recently revived several large viruses that had been buried in the frozen Siberian ground (permafrost) for tens of thousands of years. The youngest virus to be revived was a sprightly 27,000 years old. And the oldest – a Pandoravirus …
What could we do to cool the Arctic, specifically?: titoOnz / shutterstock / NASA The Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the world, and in some areas as much as seven times. That’s according to new research by a group of Norwegian scientists. This effect, dubbed “Arctic amplification”, is well documented, …
Arctic is warming nearly four times faster than the rest of the world – new research: New research estimates that the Arctic may be warming four times faster than the rest of the world. Netta Arobas/Shutterstock The Earth is approximately 1.1? warmer than it was at the start of the industrial revolution. That warming has …
Why increased rainfall in the Arctic is bad news for the whole world: A rainy day in Baffin Island, northern Canada. Petr Kahanek / shutterstock Before the end of this century, most of the Arctic will for the first time receive more rain than snow across a whole year. That’s one of the key findings …
South Africa in the news: Rory Moore Appointed President & CEO of Arctic Canadian Diamond Company: Arctic Canadian Diamond Company (“Arctic”) announced today that Rory Moore has been appointed to the position of President and Chief Executive Officer effective immediately, following his serving as …: “South Africa” – BingNews England vs South Africa: Guinness-supping Rassie …
The Arctic Council has weathered 25 years of bumpy Russia-western relations – but can it adapt to climate change?: Arseniy Rossikhin/Shutterstock For generations, the Arctic has captured our imaginations as a region of contradictions. It is simultaneously a frozen wilderness, home to indigenous peoples, a place of historic military tensions and an area of emerging …
Record-breaking winter winds have blown old Arctic sea ice into the melt zone: Avatar_023/Shutterstock An unusual pattern of winds drove old Arctic sea ice into a precarious position in the winter of 2020. Now in warming waters, large swathes of the Arctic’s diminishing store of old ice lie at risk of melting. But how did …
Climate change is flooding the Arctic Ocean with light – what it means for the species that live there: This is a transcript of episode 5 of The Conversation Weekly podcast, How climate change if flooding the Arctic Ocean with light. In this episode, two experts explain how melting ice in the far north is …
Diving in the icy depths: the scientists studying what climate change is doing to the Arctic Ocean – The Conversation Weekly podcast: The Arctic is warming two to three times faster than any other place on Earth. Kevin Xu Photography via Shutterstock In this week’s episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, two experts explain how …
Arctic Ocean: why winter sea ice has stalled, and what it means for the rest of the world: Ice floes in the Laptev Sea, Russia. Olenyok/Shutterstock Arctic sea ice plays a crucial role in the Earth’s energy balance. It is covered for most of the year by snow, which is the brightest natural surface on …
Norway’s Supreme Court set to rule on whether the country can keep searching for new Arctic oil: V. Belov / shutterstock Almost all of Norway’s electricity comes from hydropower and its domestic emissions are relatively low, meaning the country is often perceived as clean and sustainable. Yet this contrasts with the trillions it has accumulated …
Arctic sea ice is being increasingly melted from below by warming Atlantic water: Denis Burdin / shutterstock Each September, scientists like me look out for the point when the Arctic’s meagre summer fizzles out and sea ice begins to grow once more. This point is known as the annual sea ice minimum extent. It has …
Arctic warming: are record temperatures and fires arriving earlier than scientists predicted?: LuYago/Shutterstock It was a grim record. On June 20 2020, the mercury reached 38°C in Verkhoyansk, Siberia – the hottest it’s ever been in the Arctic in recorded history. With the heatwaves came fire, and by the start of August around 600 individual …
GitHub stores open source code in an Arctic Code Vault, Linux Foundation launches public health initiative, and more open source news: In this week’s edition of our open source news roundup, Power BI releases a new React component, GitHub completes its Arctic Code Vault project, and more open source news. read more: Opensource.com lmaffeo Supporting Open …