New warning about climate change linked to Siberia peat bogs – Methane emission is ‘ecological landslide that is probably irreversible’

By Vera Salnitskaya5 May 2015 (Siberian Times) – A leading Siberian scientist has delivered another stark warning about climate change and said melting peat bogs could speed up the process. Professor Sergey Kirpotin, director of the BioClimLand Centre of Excellence for Climate Change Research in Tomsk, said he has concerns over the ‘awful’ consequences in […]

Arctic sea ice goes far beyond record low extent for May

By Bob Henson 20 May 2016 (wunderground.com) – The sea ice that coats the Arctic Ocean each winter and erodes each summer is going through its most depleted spring since modern observing began. The Danish Meteorological Institute reported the lowest sea ice extent of any April in the Arctic’s 38-year-long satellite record. As luck would […]

A song of fire and no ice: We just had our fourth record-breaking hottest month in a row this year

By Joe Romm 15 May 2016 (Climate Progress) – A record fire-storm in Canada fueled by record warmth. Record ice-melt in Greenland and the Arctic sea, driven by off-the-charts warmth in the far north. And, NASA reported Friday, we’ve just been through the hottest April and the hottest January-April on record — by far. Last […]

Climate change is shrinking Earth’s migratory birds

By Ed Yong 12 May 2016 (The Atlantic) – Every year, flocks of red knots criss-cross the globe. In the summer, these shorebirds breed in the Arctic circle, making the most of the exposed vegetation and constant daylight. Then, anticipating the returning ice and continuous night, they fly to the opposite end of the world. […]

Severe Arctic Ocean acidification via permafrost thawing and river runoff

18 April 2016 (Stockholm University) – When organic material released from thawing permafrost is transported to the sea it gets broken down in the seawater contributing to a more rapid acidification of the Arctic Ocean, finds new research by scientists from Stockholm University and colleagues. Ocean acidification is an important consequence of humankind’s release of […]

China ships will use faster Arctic route opened by global warming

[cf. World discovers a $1 trillion ocean as Arctic sea ice vanishes – ‘These changes are like nothing we have seen. We don’t have anything to compare with in history.’] BEIJING, 20 April 2016 (Reuters) – China will encourage ships flying its flag to take the Northwest Passage via the Arctic Ocean, a route opened […]

Image of the Day: Early ice breakup of Beaufort Sea due to early warm temperatures

By Sarah Loff15 April 2016 (NASA) – This image of early ice breakup of the Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska, was taken by the Suomi NPP satellite’s Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument infrared channel, at around 1148 UTC on 13 April 2016. Every year, the cap of frozen seawater floating on top of […]

Image of the Day: Sculpture of impaled polar bear on display in Denmark

By Nikolaj Skydsgaard16 April 2016 COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – A sculpture of an impaled polar bear went on display on Friday in front of the Danish parliament to highlight the impact of global warming. The seven-meter high metal sculpture named Unbearable depicts a graph of carbon dioxide accumulation in the atmosphere sky-rocketing into the belly of […]

March ends a most interesting winter in the Arctic

6 April 2016 (NSIDC) – Low Arctic sea ice extent for March caps a highly unusual winter in the Arctic, characterized by persistent warmth in the atmosphere that helped to limit ice growth. Above-average influx of ocean heat from the Atlantic and southerly winds helped to keep ice extent especially low in the Barents and […]

Another record low for Arctic sea ice maximum winter extent – ‘The Arctic is in crisis. Year by year, it’s slipping into a new state, and it’s hard to see how this won’t have an effect on weather throughout the Northern Hemisphere.’

  BOULDER, Colorado, 28 March 2016 (NSIDC) – Arctic sea ice was at a record low maximum extent for the second straight year, according to scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and NASA. “I’ve never seen such a warm, crazy winter in the Arctic,” said NSIDC director Mark Serreze. “The heat […]

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