The White House released a report this morning from the Council of Economic Advisers that shows the consequences of not doing something about climate change NOW. Our sister publication, CleanTechnica, has the full story, along with a word from noted Penn State climatologist Michael E. Mann. One important section of the report discusses a number of
(All figures are from the 2014 National Climate Assessment draft.) Later today (Tuesday, May 6), at 8 a.m. EDT, the National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee of experts meets by conference call to approve the final version of the Third National Climate Assessment. The gist of their message, as Suzanne Goldenberg of The Guardian
Sea ice has been in a decline recently, and that is very bad news for polar bears. They conduct much of their lives on sea ice, including locating mates and reproducing. ‘Sea ice extent averaged for the month of April 2013 was 14.37 million square kilometers (5.54 million square miles). This is 630,000 square kilometers
The UN’s World Meteorological Organisation has released it’s provisional annual statement on the state of the global climate and it shows that, if things keep going as they have for the first 10 months of the year, 2012 will join the ranks of warmest years on record that have been filled by the years 2001
Scientists discover just why it is Antarctic sea-ice cover has been increasing while the Arctic sea-ice cover has been so dramatically decreasing.
Never let it be said that planet Earth made life easy for its scientists. A new NASA study has shown that, while the Arctic has been losing ice each summer, Antarctica has been gaining ice. “There’s been an overall increase in the sea ice cover in the Antarctic, which is the opposite of what
Scientists from the University of Cambridge Department of Earth Sciences have announced a major breakthrough in a decades old debate, the understanding of our planet’s climate machine, by reconstructing a highly accurate record of changes in ice volume and deep-ocean temperatures over the last 1.5 million years. The results of this study offer insights into a
Due to climate change causing Arctic sea ice to rapidly melt, polar bears are becoming stuck on land and having to resort to cannibalism for food and survival.
Scientists working with NASA’s Operation IceBridge airborne research campaign started their third year of survey flights and captured this image of the sea ice covering the Weddell Sea.
On September 9 scientists from NASA and the NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado in Boulder showed satellite data that capped summertime sea ice coverage at the second lowest ever recorded since records were first kept. Seen below marked out in yellow is the 30 year average, while the red line represents the opening of the Northwest Passage shipping lane.
In one of those research studies that exposes an area of change that you would have never expected, researchers from the British Antarctic Survey have found that colonies of tiny marine creatures living on Antarctica’s seabed are suffering from climate change as a result of the increase in frequency of icebergs pounding the seafloor.
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.
As reported yesterday the University of Colorado at Boulder’s National Snow and Ice Data Center announced that the Arctic sea ice minimum extent would come in as second lowest since recording began back in 1979. Now, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has provided their own series of images and videos to back up that report, showing the extent of Arctic sea ice for September 9, 2011.
The American National Snow and Ice Data Center has announced – in a differing view than that put forward by the University of Bremen scientists earlier in the week – that the Arctic sea ice extent has slowed and is nearing its minimum extent.
Researchers from the University of Bremen have announced that 2011’s Arctic Sea Ice Minimum is the smallest in recorded history, coming in under the previous lowest Minimum in September of 2007.
A growing body of scientific evidence has led researchers to believe that in a warmer climate there will be no “tipping point” beyond which the Arctic sea ice cannot recover if temperatures start to decrease. Added to this is new research out of the University of Washington which suggests that even if the planet warmed enough to melt all polar sea ice, it could still recover if the temperatures cooled again.
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.
According to new research presented at the XXV International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics General Assembly in Melbourne, Australia, rising temperatures in the Arctic have led to an increase in the amount of rainfall, and thus, a decrease in the amount of snowfall.
The Advanced Land Imager on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 satellite captured this image of a barrier island facing the Beaufort Sea, on the northern edge of Canada’s Northwest Territories on June 23, 2004, before the ice had melted or retreated during the summer thaw.
NASA satellite imagery shows us just how much sea ice is being lost compared to the average in the Arctic.
A Duke University led team of researchers has observed a “super-aggregation” of humpback whales feasting on the largest swarm of Antarctic krill seen in more than 20 years, in Wilhelmina Bay, along the Western Antarctic Peninsula.
“Lots of people think of the Arctic as just a flat expanse of white. This couldn’t be further from the truth. There are all sorts of cracks (leads) and mountains (ridges), similar to tectonic plates. The ice below is constantly moving via the winds and currents, and those forces acting on each piece of ice makes for a very dramatic seascape”
The seven lowest maximum Arctic sea ice extent measurements have all taken place in the last seven years, and 2011 is no different, according to the most recent satellite measurements taken by scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder’s National Snow and Ice Data Center. “I’m not surprised by the new data because we’ve seen
Scientists believe that the more severe winters suffered by the UK over the past few years are a result of disappearing ice in the Arctic sea. A reduction in sea ice, they explain, could be the reason for the colder winters, which up until recently have been insulating temperature changes in the sea from the atmosphere.
2011 is the first year since NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor, which launched on NASA’s Terra satellite in late 1999, has seen the tip of Hut Point Peninsula in McMurdo Sound, free of sea ice. The images below show the same location in 2003, 2006, 2008 and 2011.
NASA’s Image of the Day recently showcased an image of Ostrov Shikotan (or Shikotan-to), a volcanic island at the southern end of the Kuril chain, lying along the extreme southern edge of winter sea ice in the Northern Hemisphere. The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1)satellite captured this natural-color image of Shikotan on February
Researchers from the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, England, have concluded that man-made global warming would probably not greatly change the influence had on the environment by inter-annual climate instances such as El Niño – Southern Oscillation (ENSO) or the Arctic Oscillation/ North Atlantic Oscillation (AO/ NAO). “Even in the warm Cretaceous period, the patterns
Researchers from the University of Alberta have shown a linkage between declining polar bear litter sizes and the declining sea ice. Using data collected since the 1990s, University of Alberta researchers Péter Molnár, from the Department of Biological Sciences and colleagues Andrew Derocher and Mark Lewis analysed how long the Hudson Bay is frozen over
The disinformers like to focus on where it’s cold, which happens to be where most of the people of, but where it’s hot looks to be more consequential, given the impacts of melting ice in both the Arctic and Greenland. That’s part of a piece on Climate Progress regarding the latest news concerning sea ice
The seasonal loss of ice in the Arctic which scientists believe will eventually lead to ice-free summers could have both beneficial and negative effects for the mammals that have over millennia adapted to life in the cold and harsh environment, according to a new research paper published in the December 15 issue of the journal
Much has been made about the possibility of tipping points in Earth’s environment; points of change which will not allow for any turning back no matter the effort put in. One of the most hyped of these was the Arctic and the possibility of a total loss of ice during summer. A new study led
Unfortunately, rather than delve into the science, any time a climate change denier sees a statement that seems to go against the massive amount of scientific data and information showing that global weirding is happening, they cling to it with all their might and say, “Look! Look! The climate scientists are wrong!” If only we
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.
The 2010 Arctic sea ice minimum extent appears to be the third lowest in recorded history, reaching out only 4.76 million square kilometres (1.84 million square miles). While the minimum extent is still greater than the first and second lowest minimum extent’s – 2007 and 2008 – this year’s minimum is still well below the
Forecasts indicate that this year’s sea ice minimum, set to peak in September, will not be as low in 2007 which itself was the year that saw the Arctic sea ice at its smallest on record. But scientists are still concerned, and as a result are measuring the ice thickness north and east of Greenland.
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.
Arctic waters long frozen will be chartered for the first time in over 50 years in an attempt to update nautical charts. As Arctic ice recedes farther each year countries are looking to send their ships over the top of the world through safer and more efficient sea routes. NOAA has responded to requests to
Almost every month this year is setting a new record as the hottest, according to the NOAA. [social_buttons] Yes, it wasn’t long ago I was writing about April being the hottest April and Jan-April being the hottest Jan-April on record. Now, the NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center has published its next monthly “State of the Climate
The diminishing Arctic sea ice cover has largely been blamed on climate change and human global warming. New research from Norway suggests this may not be the case. [social_buttons]The past 30 years have seen the ice cover surrounding the North Pole diminish significantly, specifically within the last decade. Many experts, including the UN Intergovernmental Panel
A research team confirms “extensive out-gassing of methane to the atmosphere” over the Eastern Siberian Arctic Shelf, and confirm its source to be venting from sea-bed sediments. Though acknowledging their findings do not seriously alter climate change predictions, the team also asserts that the sub-sea permafrost layer is failing and advise more urgent investigation.
According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), Arctic sea ice cover appears to have reached its minimum extent for the year, the second-lowest extent recorded since the dawn of the satellite era. While above the record minimum Arctic sea ice extent set on September 16, 2007, this year further reinforces the strong
By now, we’ve been well taught to view the steady decrease of Arctic ice as a bad thing; and for good reason, it is. But by now, I also hope that I have been able to teach you that, when dealing with the climate, nothing is simple. If that lesson has managed to make it
According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), Following a record rate of ice loss through the month of August, Arctic sea ice extent already stands as the second-lowest on record, further reinforcing conclusions that the Arctic sea ice cover is in a long-term state of decline. With approximately two weeks left in
For the first time in recorded human history, the Arctic has become an island to itself, completely separate from the landmasses that the Arctic ice normally stretches out onto. This distressingly historic event has been captured by NASA satellites, depicting both the Northwest and Northeast passages as ice free. For the past few years we
Fears about the Arctic melting away during northern summers are proving to be far from unfounded, with the latest reports rolling in from Alaska and Greenland showing disturbing trends. New shipping lanes are opening up through what were once icy seas near Alaska, and glaciers that have so far withstood much of what the environment
Over the past 12 months there has been one big fear lingering over the environmental community. It was a year ago that we were watching the Arctic ice disappearing at a tremendous rate, and saw it slip to its lowest levels in recorded history. Subsequently, we also saw the complete opening of the Northwest Passage
