The polar bear has long been a symbol of the damage wrought by global warming, but now biologist Andrew Derocher and his colleagues have calculated how long one southerly population can hold out. Their answer? No more than a few decades, as the bears’ decline closely tracks that of the Arctic’s disappearing sea ice. No […]
NASA-funded researchers monitoring Greenland’s Jakobshavn Isbrae glacier report that a 7 square kilometer (2.7 square mile) section of the glacier broke up on July 6 and 7, as shown in the image above. The calving front – where the ice sheet meets the ocean – retreated nearly 1.5 kilometers (a mile) in one day and […]
By Derrick Z. JacksonBoston Globe Columnist / July 7, 2010 WHEN THE chief of naval operations of the United States starts rattling off global fishing statistics without notes and frets about climate change like an MIT scientist, we should all stand at attention. If Admiral Gary Roughead had his way, it would be full speed […]
This year will almost certainly set the record for lowest Arctic ice volume ever recorded (see “When things were rotten“). But whether it will set the less important — but more visible — record for sea ice extent is less certain. You can see how close 2010 is to 2007 now. On the one hand, […]
Sea Ice Volume is calculated using the Pan-Arctic Ice Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System (PIOMAS) developed at APL/PSC by Dr. J. Zhang and collaborators. Anomalies for each day are calculated relative to the average over the 1979 -2009 period for that day to remove the annual cycle. The model mean seasonal cycle of sea ice […]
The big Arctic news remains the staggering decline in multiyear ice — and hence ice volume. If we get near the Arctic’s sea ice area (or extent) seen in recent years this summer, then this may well mean record low ice volume — the fourth straight year of low volume. And the latest extent data […]
By John PlattMay 24, 2010 02:03 PM An extremely rare “grolar bear”–a polar bear/grizzly bear hybrid–was shot and killed by an Inuit hunter in Canada’s Northwest Territories last month. Global warming has reportedly been driving grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis) further north in search of food, bringing them into polar bear (U. maritimus) territory. […]
Tue May 11, 12:08 pm ET OTTAWA (AFP) – The government extended its Atlantic coast seal hunt on Tuesday to the end of May as hunters shy away from the sea over a lack of sea ice and a European boycott of seal products. Canada’s Fisheries Minister Gail Shea announced the seal harvest in Newfoundland […]
STRANDED: With nowhere to go they stay on land, creating hazard. By KYLE HOPKINSkhopkins@adn.com Published: May 3rd, 2010 02:23 PMLast Modified: May 3rd, 2010 03:14 PM For $16 an hour, Morgan VanHatten patrolled the streets of Kaktovik in a Ford pickup last fall armed with a 12-gauge shotgun and an iPhone full of Lil Wayne. […]
LONDONWed Apr 28, 2010 1:38pm EDT (Reuters) – The world’s floating ice is in “constant retreat,” showing an instability which will increase global sea levels, according to a report published in Geophysical Research Letters on Wednesday. Floating ice had disappeared at a steady rate over the past 10 years, according to the first measurement of […]
