By Craig Welch8 November 2016 (National Geographic) – The tufted puffins started washing ashore on St. Paul Island in mid-October—first a handful, then dozens, then so many that volunteers patrolling to collect dead birds began walking their four-wheelers rather than riding. It was easier than getting off every few feet. The hundreds of dead, emaciated […]
[cf. As the world burns, the rich cruise in luxury through a melting Arctic] By Gwladys Fouche; Editing by Toby Chopra 10 October 2016 SVALBARD, Norway (Reuters) – A surge in Arctic tourism is bringing ever bigger cruise ships to the formerly isolated, ice-bound region, prompting calls for a clamp-down to prevent Titanic-style accidents and […]
By Dan Joling 5 October 2016 ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Associated Press) – A Texas petroleum drilling company announced Tuesday it has made a large-scale oil discovery off Alaska’s North Slope. Dallas-based Caelus Energy Alaska LLC announced a find of 6 billion barrels of light oil on its state leases in the Arctic Ocean waters of Smith […]
By Margaret Kriz Hobson 30 September 2016 (ClimateWire) – In 1966, a team of U.S. Geological Survey scientists journeyed to two small glaciers in Alaska to dig snow pits needed for measuring snow depth and density at the remote mountainous locations. Those early findings, repeated twice a year for the last 50 years, became the […]
[Keep in mind that Eos is a publication of AGU, which has voted to continue receiving sponsorship from the fossil-fuel industry. – Desdemona] By Rebecca Heisman22 September 2016 (Eos) – Climate change has caused a boom in aquatic plant biomass on the Arctic tundra in recent decades. Those plants, in turn, are releasing increasing amounts […]
By Robert Ferris19 Aug 2016 (CNBC) – Arctic sea ice is melting at a rate far faster than anyone thought, and it is already wildly, and perhaps permanently, changing the region, and the planet. Historically, sea ice forms every winter across the top of the planet, and covers much of the Arctic Ocean. Every summer, […]
By Chris D’Angelo 20 August 2016 (Huffington Post) – As global temperatures soar, wildfires rage and sea ice levels dwindle to record lows, a luxury cruise company has found a way to make a pretty penny off our rapidly changing climate. The Crystal Serenity set off from Seward, Alaska, Tuesday, on a 32-day voyage through the […]
By Rebecca Morelle2 August 2016 (BBC News) – One of the last known groups of woolly mammoths died out because of a lack of drinking water, scientists believe. The Ice Age beasts were living on a remote island off the coast of Alaska, and scientists have dated their demise to about 5,600 years ago. They […]
WASHINGTON, DC, 16 June 2016 (AGU) – New research shows permafrost below shallow Arctic lakes is thawing as a result of changing winter climate. Warmer winters combined with an increase in snowfall during the last 30 years have limited the growth of seasonal lake ice. In response, lakebed temperatures of Arctic lakes less than 1 […]
By Suzanna Caldwell9 June 2016 (ADN) – Here’s something Alaskans already know: It’s been really warm this year. But how warm? Record-breaking warm. According to the National Center for Environmental Information, the spring average temperature for the entire state was 32 degrees this year. The normal average for the state is a brisk 24 degrees. […]
