Graph of the Day: Arctic Sea Ice extent, 30 January 2018

30 January 2018 (Zachary Labe) – Arctic sea ice extent had not reached 13 million km2 by 30 January 2018, which is a week past the previous record. In the 1980s, this was normally surpassed in mid December. Zack Labe on Twitter

Record low sea-ice extent in the Chukchi Sea

6 December 2017 (NSIDC) – November 2017 will be remembered not for total Arctic ice extent, which was the third lowest recorded over the period of satellite observations, but for the record low extent in the Chukchi Sea. This is a key area for Arctic Ocean access, and is an indicator of oceanographic influences on […]

Heart-wrenching video shows starving polar bear on iceless land – “We stood there crying, filming with tears rolling down our cheeks”

By Sarah Gibbens 7 December 2017 (National Geographic) – When photographer Paul Nicklen and filmmakers from conservation group Sea Legacy arrived in the Baffin Islands in late summer, they came across a heartbreaking sight: a starving polar bear on its deathbed.Nicklen is no stranger to bears. From the time he was a child growing up […]

Arctic sea ice loss could dry out California – “The recent California drought appears to be a good illustration of what the sea-ice driven precipitation decline could look like”

5 Dcember 2017 (LLNL) – Arctic sea ice loss of the magnitude expected in the next few decades could impact California’s rainfall and exacerbate future droughts, according to new research led by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists.The dramatic loss of Arctic sea ice cover observed over the satellite era is expected to continue throughout […]

World Meteorological Organization: 2017 likely to be in top 3 hottest years on record

6 November 2017 (WMO) – It is very likely that 2017 will be one of the three hottest years on record, with many high-impact events including catastrophic hurricanes and floods, debilitating heatwaves and drought. Long-term indicators of climate change such as increasing carbon dioxide concentrations, sea level rise and ocean acidification continue unabated. Arctic sea […]

Republican-controlled Congress ordered destruction of U.S. satellite research into global warming – “This is like throwing away the medical records of a sick patient”

By Robin McKie 5 November 2017 (The Observer) – The Republican majority in the US Congress has been accused of deliberately obstructing research on global warming after it emerged that a critically important technique for investigating sea-ice cover at the poles faces being blocked. The row has erupted after a key polar satellite broke down […]

New polar bear star of Moscow Zoo is symbol of a dire problem for species caused by global warming

By Olga Gertcyk 16 October 2017 (The Siberian Times) – This animal and its lost mother wandered some 700 km too far south “because they couldn’t go north” and got confused.This bear hit the headlines a few weeks ago after being spotted so far from the Arctic coastline – but its extraordinary achievement in finding […]

Siberia village besieged by polar bears as hundreds of terrified walruses fall 38 meters to their deaths

19 October 2017 (The Siberian Times) – Around 20 beasts have surrounded  Ryrkaypiy, with one bear cub trying to get into a house through the window.The polar bears were attracted by 5,000 walruses that appeared this year at a special protection zone in Chukotka.Many of the frightened flippered marine mammals fell off cliffs at Kozhevnikova […]

Penguin catastrophe leaves thousands of chicks dead with only two survivors – “It’s like ‘Tarantino does Happy Feet’, with dead penguin chicks strewn across a beach in Adélie Land”

By Manisha Ganguly 13 October 2017 (CNN) – A penguin colony in Antarctica has suffered a massive breeding failure, with only two chicks surviving the disaster. Terre Adélie (Adélie Land) is home to more than 18,000 pairs of Adélie penguins, but this year almost all the seabirds’ babies starved to death, a situation one expert […]

One of the most bizarre ideas about climate change just found more evidence in its favor

By Chris Mooney 22 September 2017 (The Washington Post) – More and more, we are learning that climate change can lead to some pretty strange and counterintuitive effects, especially when it comes to the wintertime.For instance, scientists have pointed out for a number of years that warmer seas, and a wetter atmosphere, can actually fuel […]

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