By Ned Rozell 21 June 2018 FAIRBANKS (Daily News-Miner) – Just outside my window here at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, workers are drilling into the asphalt of a parking lot using a truck-mounted rig. They twist a hollow bit 25 feet into the ground and pull up hard, clear evidence of why the blacktop […]
6 August 2018 (Stockholm Resilience Centre) – An international team of scientists has published a study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) showing that even if the carbon emission reductions called for in the Paris Agreement are met, there is a risk of Earth entering what the scientists call “Hothouse Earth” conditions.A […]
WASHINGTON D.C., 5 February 2018 (AGU) – Researchers have discovered permafrost in the northern hemisphere stores massive amounts of natural mercury, a finding with significant implications for human health and ecosystems worldwide.In a new study, scientists measured mercury concentrations in permafrost cores from Alaska and estimated how much mercury has been trapped in permafrost north […]
By Beth Brown 5 September 2017 NUNAVUT (Nunatsiaq News) – The world’s average global temperature is only one degree Celsius away from a potential climate catastrophe to which few regions would be more vulnerable than the Arctic. That’s according to well-known author, historian and journalist Gwynne Dyer, who is a frequent commentator on international affairs, […]
By Henry Fountain 23 August 2017 YUKON DELTA NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, Alaska (The New York Times) – The Arctic is warming about twice as fast as other parts of the planet, and even here in sub-Arctic Alaska the rate of warming is high. Sea ice and wildlife habitat are disappearing; higher sea levels threaten coastal […]
By Mark Floyd 23 August 2017CORVALLIS, Oregon (OSU) – Scientists concerned that global warming may release huge stores of methane from reservoirs beneath Arctic tundra and deposits of marine hydrates – a theory known as the “clathrate gun” hypothesis – have turned to geologic history to search for evidence of significant methane release during past […]
By JoAnna Wendel 11 August 2017 (Eos) – In a real clash of fire and ice, a massive wildfire in southern Greenland has captured the world’s attention.At the end of July, a couple of NASA satellites detected hot spots in Greenland that indicated fire, said Mark Ruminski, a team leader for a hazard mapping system […]
3 August 2017 (CIRES) – On the North Slope of Alaska, snow is melting earlier in the spring and the snow-in date is happening later in the fall, according to a new study by CIRES and NOAA researchers. Atmospheric dynamics and sea ice conditions are behind this lengthening of the snow-free season, the scientists found, […]
10 July 2017 (The Siberian Times) – New analysis by satellite and helicopter shows gas pipelines run right over swelling tundra which is deeply unstable due to the release of underground methane that had been frozen in permafrost – now thawing – for thousands of years, revealed Russia’s leading expert on the new phenomenon, Professor […]
By Scott Waldman 27 June 2017 (Climatewire) – Climate change is driving up the number of forest fires ignited by lightning, and it’s pushing them farther north, to the edges of the Arctic tundra, researchers say. Lightning-caused fires have risen 2 to 5 percent a year for the last four decades, according to a paper […]
