The lawsuit that was filed by environmental groups in response to Norway’s announcement of plans to continue oil exploration in the Arctic has been dismissed by a court in Oslo. What that means is that the court ruled that the argument that such oil exploration was in violation of “people’s right to a healthy environment”
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has issued new rules prohibiting offshore drilling in the Arctic Ocean and along the east coast of the United States. They rules will remain in effect until 2022.
Shell Oil has had its eyes on the Arctic for over five years now. Hundreds of meetings and billions of dollars later, this summer was supposed to be Shell’s year to finally drill in the Arctic Ocean. Thankfully, a series of embarrassing safety setbacks have held Shell back. The announcement that the company would
Scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have concluded a study to measure levels of carbon at various levels in the Arctic Ocean, providing a baseline for further understanding. The study was recently published in the journal Biogeosciences. It provides data that will help researchers in the future as they try to better
A new report has shown that the Arctic Ocean could be a significant contributor of methane to the atmosphere. The study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, looked at airborne observations of methane to determine how much of the greenhouse gas was being expelled from the Arctic Ocean, up to latitudes of 82° north. “We
In this stunning black and white image taken by the European Space Agency’s Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) on board Envisat, we get to see Spitsbergen, Norway’s largest island.
Taken by a member of the ICESCAPE mission on board the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy as it steamed its way south in the Arctic Ocean towards the edge of the sea ice on July 20.
Much concern has been made about the dramatic drop in Arctic sea ice levels over the past decade, but new research out of Denmark suggests that the extent of the Arctic sea ice is extremely variable.
Researchers on the NASA-funded ICESCAPE mission—Impacts of Climate on Ecosystems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment—have been examining melt ponds and the ice around them as seen in the image below.
The Wilderness Society has a good petition to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar right now on drilling in the Arctic. As it notes, Shell Oil Co. currently has plans to drill up to 10 exploratory wells in the Arctic Ocean over the next 2 years. Not cool.
A two-part study investigating the impact of methane – one of the most potent of greenhouse gases – has found that millions of tonnes of methane currently frozen in sediment beneath the Arctic Ocean will wreak havoc if released into the oceans.
New research from the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire shows that many Americans disagree on why climate change is occurring. Additionally, much of what people believe is unduly influenced by the political party that they attach themselves to.
A new study which has analysed 16 global climate models from 1950 to 2099 and compared them with a hundred years of observation data has found that a reorganisation of Arctic climates is anticipated to occur by the end of this century. The study, which was published in the journal Climate Dynamics, is the first
If many of these plankton blooms are trending earlier each year, then the seasonal return/growth of the fish population in these areas is gradually becoming “out of sync” with the primary producers in this region. This may mean insufficient food supply to maintain robust fish populations.
Here’s our roundup of interesting (good & bad) environmental and wildlife news of the week, other than what we’ve covered already. White House: Polar Bears Not ‘Endangered’ The Obama administration is sticking with a George W. Bush-era decision to deny polar bears endangered species status. In a court filing Wednesday, the Fish and Wildlife Service
Methane (CH4) is the main constituent of natural gas, and is the result of natural decomposition processes. Although its lifetime in the atmosphere as a free gas is much shorter than CO2, it is 23 times more potent in terms of its heat trapping ability. This past month, there has been a flurry of news,
Killing off some of the most amazing creatures in the history of the planet, whales, is one of those things we are doing right now that make you really question the intelligence of humans. How can we do such a thing? Calling on humans to be more sensitive creatures but also to realize and protect
An international team of climate and ocean scientists, led by Wei-Jun Cai (U of Georgia, Athens), predicts that the “Arctic Ocean basin will not become a large atmospheric CO2 sink under ice-free conditions.” Using data from a 2008 high-resolution survey of the entire Canada Basin, the team explains the complex “air-sea flux” and other reasons why sea-surface CO2 continues to increase.
In his alarm-ringing NY Times op-ed on Climate Change, professor Homer-Dixon* draws a comparison with the 2008 financial “meltdown” which finally led to new financial regulations, even though warnings of a housing bubble (and an emerging recession) were being made prior to the crisis. He advocates societies designing a contingency plan (‘Plan Z’ ) to deal with the immediate after-effects of one or more climate change disasters.
