Category Archives: Arctic

Scientists shocked by Arctic permafrost thawing 70 years sooner than predicted

Posted on by
  • Ice blocks frozen solid for thousands of years destabilized
  • ‘The climate is now warmer than at any time in last 5,000 years’

Permafrost at outposts in the Canadian Arctic is thawing 70 years earlier than predicted, an expedition has discovered, in the latest sign that the global climate crisis is accelerating even faster than scientists had feared.

A team from the University of Alaska Fairbanks said they were astounded by how quickly a succession of unusually hot summers had destabilised the upper layers of giant subterranean ice blocks that had been frozen solid for millennia.

Continue reading...

Photograph lays bare reality of melting Greenland sea ice

Posted on by

Research teams traversing partially melted fjord to retrieve weather equipment release startling picture

Rapidly melting sea ice in Greenland has presented an unusual hazard for research teams retrieving their oceanographic moorings and weather station equipment.

A photo, taken by Steffen Olsen from the Centre for Ocean and Ice at the Danish Meteorological Institute on 13 June, showed sled dogs wading through water ankle-deep on top of a melting ice sheet in the country’s north-west. In the startling image, it seems as though the dogs are walking on water.

Continue reading...

The end of the Arctic as we know it

Posted on by

Less oxygen and ice, more acid and heat. Jonathan Watts joins an expedition studying what this means for the planet

The demise of an entire ocean is almost too enormous to grasp, but as the expedition sails deeper into the Arctic, the colossal processes of breakdown are increasingly evident.

The first fragment of ice appears off the starboard bow a few miles before the 79th parallel in the Fram strait, which lies between Greenland and the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. The solitary floe is soon followed by another, then another, then clusters, then swarms, then entire fields of white crazy paving that stretch to the horizon.

Continue reading...

Canadian Arctic fossils are oldest known fungus on Earth

Posted on by

Fungus is half a billion years older than previous record holder found in Wisconsin

Tiny fossils found in mudrock in the barren wilderness of the Canadian Arctic are the remains of the oldest known fungus on Earth, scientists say.

The minuscule organisms were discovered in shallow water shale, a kind of fine-grained sedimentary rock, in a region south of Victoria island on the edge of the Arctic Ocean.

Continue reading...

US warns Beijing’s Arctic activity risks creating ‘new South China Sea’

Posted on by
  • Secretary of state chides China’s ‘aggressive behaviour’
  • Pompeo also accuses Russia of ‘provocative actions’

The US plans to beef up its Arctic presence to keep Russia’s and China’s “aggressive behaviour” in check in the resource-rich region, the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has warned

“The region has become an arena of global power and competition” owing to vast reserves of oil, gas, minerals and fish stocks, Pompeo said in a speech in northern Finland.

Continue reading...

Trump halts plans to expand offshore drilling after legal setback

Posted on by

Court decision blocking fossil fuel activity in swaths of the Arctic complicated administration plans to ramp up fossil fuel extraction

The Trump administration has shelved plans to vastly expand offshore oil and gas drilling in the wake of a recent court decision that blocked fossil fuel activity in swaths of the Arctic.

The administration had opened up almost all US waters to companies seeking to drill oil or gas deposits but this expansion has been halted due to a legal setback, according to David Bernhardt, the interior secretary.

Continue reading...

Polar bear found 700km from home in Russian village – video

Posted on by

Residents of a village in Russia have been stunned by the sight of a polar bear 700km from its usual habitat. The people of the far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula looked on as the bear searched for food. Russian media reported on Wednesday that the exhausted-looking animal apparently travelled from Chukotka to the village of Tilichiki, about 700km (434 miles) south. Environmentalists say the bear may have lost its sense of direction while drifting on an ice floe

Continue reading...

‘Exhausted’ polar bear found 700km from home in Russian village

Posted on by

Environmental activists have blamed climate change for appearance of polar bear in the Kamchatka Peninsula

Residents of a village in Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula have been stunned by the sight of a polar bear prowling for food hundreds of miles from its usual habitat.

Russian media reported on Wednesday that the exhausted-looking animal apparently traveled from Chukotka to the village of Tilichiki on Kamchatka, some 700km (434 miles) south.

Continue reading...

Russian islands declare emergency after mass invasion of polar bears

Posted on by

Experts deployed to remove dozens of hungry bears besieging Novaya Zemlya

Analysis: what the polar bears reveal about the climate crisis

Russian environmental authorities have deployed a team of specialists to a remote Arctic region to sedate and remove dozens of hungry polar bears that have besieged the people living there.

The move came after officials in the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, with a population of about 3,000 people, appealed for help.

“There’s never been such a mass invasion of polar bears,” said Zhigansha Musin, the head of the local administration. “They have literally been chasing people.”

Continue reading...

Polar express: magnetic north pole moving ‘pretty fast’ towards Russia

Posted on by

Updates on its location – essential for everything from consumer electronics to runway names – are coming thick and fast

Earth’s north magnetic pole has been drifting so fast in recent decades that scientists say that past estimates are no longer accurate enough for precise navigation. On Monday, they released an update of where magnetic north really was, nearly a year ahead of schedule.

The magnetic north pole is moving about 34 miles (55 kilometres) a year. It crossed the international date line in 2017, and is leaving the Canadian Arctic on its way to Siberia.

Continue reading...

Feel the chill: icy examples of polar vortex in US – video

Posted on by

Frozen winds have brought record-low temperatures to the US midwest as a blast of Arctic air, known as the polar vortex, unnerves residents accustomed to brutal winters... Wet clothes freeze after 10 minutes, ice arrives after a hot shower and ships break their way through the Chicago River

Continue reading...

Genes linked to antibiotic-resistant superbugs found in Arctic

Posted on by

Discovery of genes, possibly carried by birds or humans, shows rapid spread of crisis

Genes associated with antibiotic-resistant superbugs have been discovered in the high Arctic, one of the most remote places on earth, showing the rapid spread and global nature of the resistance problem.

The genes were first identified in a hospital patient in India in 2007-8, then in surface waters in Delhi in 2010, probably carried there by sewage, and are now confirmed in soil samples from Svalbard in the Arctic circle, in a paper in the journal Environment International. They may have been carried by migrating birds or human visitors, but human impact on the area is minimal.

Continue reading...

Military buildup in Arctic as melting ice reopens northern borders

Posted on by

As ice melts and shipping lanes open up, geopolitical tensions are growing and old cold war bases are being reopened

The climate crisis is intensifying a new military buildup in the Arctic, diplomats and analysts said this week, as regional powers attempt to secure northern borders that were until recently reinforced by a continental-sized division of ice.

That so-called unpaid sentry is now literally melting away, opening up shipping lanes and geo-security challenges, said delegates at the Arctic Frontiers conference, the polar circle’s biggest talking shop, who debated a series of recent escalations.

Continue reading...