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“It shows there is hope.” Off Svalbard, an encounter with the largest animal that has ever lived

IT'S EARLY August and the research vessel Barba sails at 80 degrees north along the coastline of Svalbard. The endless Arctic sun lies low on the horizon, the ocean is calm, and the temperate a mild 5 degrees.

You Don’t Live In The Arctic But Climate Change There Affects You Too - Here Are 3 Reasons

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Arctic Report Card came out this week, and its messages are dire. However, one of my concerns about scientific reports like this is that they often fail to “connect the dots” for an average person living in Canton, Georgia or Laurel, Mar ...

World Biological Diversity Day: Young climate leaders are speaking out

This year has already seen its fair share of unsettling climate news. For the first time, the Amazon rainforest was recognised as a net emitter of greenhouse gases. The increased melting of glaciers in the Arctic and Antarctic is causing the earth’s poles to drift.

Why science needs the humanities to solve climate change

Large wildfires in the Arctic and intense heat waves in Europe are just the latest evidence that climate change is becoming the defining event of our time.

Why is an ocean current critical to world weather losing steam? Scientists search the Arctic for answers.

Summer sea ice has been shrinking so dramatically here in the Fram Strait, high in the Arctic between Norway and Greenland, that researchers who make this trip annually point out missing patches like memories of departed friends.

Why increased rainfall in the Arctic is bad news for the whole world

While a reduction in frozen ocean surface is one of the most widely recognised impacts of Arctic warming, it has also long been anticipated that a warmer Arctic will be a wetter one too, with more intense cycling of water between land, atmosphere and ocean.

Why don't insects freeze solid in the Arctic?

Life in the Arctic is harsh. Arctic temperatures are punishing, making life difficult for many animals to survive. Yet lots of insects, including mosquitoes, manage to thrive in the frozen region. So why don't they freeze themselves?

Why did the woolly rhino go extinct?

In the arctic tundra of northeastern Siberia lies a graveyard of a now-extinct species of megafauna, the woolly rhinoceros, dating back 50,000 years. Now, a new genomic analysis of the remains of 14 of these fantastical furry yellow creatures shows that climate change was the likely culprit for ...

When the extreme becomes the norm for Arctic animals

Think of reindeer on Norway's Svalbard archipelago as the arctic equivalent of sloths. It's not a perfect analogy, except that like tropical sloths, Svalbard reindeer move as little as possible to conserve energy.

When parks are not enough: Ecosystem resilience and change in the Arctic

Event provides for discussion of new application of the ecosystem approach to move from current preservation of species/habitats/systems as they are now and “always” to focus on building resilience for terrestrial and marine ecosystems to address challenge of management through change and under ...

What happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic

The Arctic is once again at the centre of geopolitical and strategic discussions, mainly for one reason – climate change – and it is imperative to act now, write Virginijus Sinkevičius and Boris Herrmann.

What climate change in the Arctic means for the rest of us

The Arctic, a summer of heat, melting and fire was rounded off by news that 2019 saw the second-lowest ever minimum extent of sea ice. That’s the point in early autumn each year when scientists say that the Arctic Ocean will begin to freeze again. By that measure, only 2012 had less sea ice than ...

We saved the puffins. Now a warming planet is unraveling that work.

I stepped onto the battlefield of climate change, sidestepping carcass after carcass. In the grass were the remains of Arctic terns, common terns, and roseate terns. Along the boulders, researchers pointed out dead puffin chicks.

Ways to help kids cope with — and help combat — climate change

News of the coming environmental collapse has broken with unnerving regularity and with each new tidbit — the Arctic Ocean has lost 95 percent of its oldest ice, global warming is making already-dramatic natural disasters more fierce, Europe’s climate disaster is growing, and October’s news that ...

Warming Arctic linked to polar vortex outbreaks farther south.

Warmer air weakens the vortex, which normally keeps cold air trapped in Arctic, letting it go south. Warming of the Arctic caused by climate change has increased the number of polar vortex outbreaks, when frigid air from the far north bathes other parts of the Northern Hemisphere in killer cold, ...

Warmer winters causing more ice-free lakes in Northern Hemisphere, study finds

Climate change is having a widespread effect on lakes across the Northern Hemisphere, a new study has found. The study, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, examined 122 lakes from 1939 to 2016 in North America, Europe and Asia, and found that ice-free years have become more th ...

Walrus leaves Arctic comfort zone for snooze on Dutch submarine

The disruption from the climate emergency being experienced by marine wildlife reached a new high in the first week of Cop26, when a female walrus was discovered sleeping on a submarine in a naval base in North Holland.

Underwater Arctic forests are expanding with rapid warming

Lush underwater forests of large brown seaweeds (kelps) are particularly striking in the Arctic, especially in contrast to the land where ice scour (scraping of sea ice against the sea floor) and harsh climates leave the ground barren with little vegetation.

UNEP/WCMC/Post-2010/0709/8a

The Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA)

UNEP/CBD/WS-TOURIDG/1/2

Report of the Arctic Workshop in the Indigenous Communities, Tourism and Biodiversity Workshop Series: New Information and Web-Based Technologies

UNEP/CBD/WG8J/AG/2/2/ADD2

Revision of the Second Phase of the Composite Report- Arctic

UNEP/CBD/WG8J/6/INF/6

Report of the Arctic Workshop in the Indigenous Communities, Tourism and Biodiversity Workshop Series: New Information and Web-Based Technologies

UNEP/CBD/WG8J/5/INF/4

Revision of the Second Phase of the Composite Report - Arctic

UNEP/CBD/WG8J/4/INF/3

Composite Report on the Status and Trends Regarding the Knowledge, Innovations and Practices of Indigenous and Local Communities: Regional report: Arctic

UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/18/INF/EBSAWS/2014/1/5

Report of the Arctic Regional Workshop to Facilitate the Description of Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas

UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/15/14

Arctic Biodiversity

UNEP/CBD/EM.CC-ILC/1/3

Compilation of Case-Studies on Climate Change and Biodiversity Considerations in the Arctic

UNEP/CBD/EBSA/WS/2014/1/5

Report of the Arctic Regional Workshop to Facilitate the Description of Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas

UNEP/CBD/EBSA/WS/2014/1/4

Compilation of Submissions of Scientific Information to Describe Areas Meeting the Scientific Criteria for Ebsas in the Arctic Region

UNEP/CBD/EBSA/WS/2014/1/3

Data to Inform the Arctic Regional Workshop to Facilitate the Description of Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas

UNEP/CBD/COP/9/INF/43

Report of the International Expert Meeting on Responses to Climate Change for Indigenous and Local Communities and the Impact on Their Traditional Knowledge Related to Biological Diversity -The Arctic Region

UNEP/CBD/COP/9/INF/43

Report of the International Expert Meeting on Responses to Climate Change for Indigenous and Local Communities and the Impact on Their Traditional Knowledge Related to Biological Diversity -The Arctic Region

UNEP/CBD/ WSTOURIDG/1/2

Report of the Arctic Workshop in the Indigenous Communities, Tourism and Biodiversity Workshop Series: New Information and Web-Based Technologies

U.S. blocking reference to climate change in Arctic conference statement amounts to a ‘moral failure’ says ICC president

The head of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) has condemned the United States for blocking any reference to climate change at the end of a conference on the Arctic Tuesday.

Tracking of nearctic seabirds surprises scientists with diverse migratory paths from shared breeding site

As the Arctic and the oceans warm due to climate change, understanding how a rapidly changing environment may affect birds making annual journeys between the Arctic and the high seas is vital to international conservation efforts.

Traces of antidepressants and painkillers found in crustaceans

Researchers from SINTEF, the Norwegian Polar Institute and the University Centre in Svalbard have collected samples from Arctic crustaceans close to the settlement of Ny-Ålesund on the west coast of Spitsbergen. During the spring and summer, they discovered a number of drugs in a variety of diff ...

To better inform policymakers on what needs to be done to secure the ecosystems and species in the Arctic that people rely on for life and livelihood, the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF), the biodiversity working group of the Arctic Council, has released the Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA).

Through war, wildfire and pandemic, the world’s seed vaults hold strong

By the time the war broke out in Syria, researchers from the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) had already duplicated and safely transported most of their genetic treasure trove to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault on the remote Arctic island of Spitsbergen, N ...

The ‘doomsday’ vault that protects the world’s biodiversity is expanding

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a haunting symbol in a warming world. It’s a concrete bank planted deep in the permafrost of Svalbard—a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean—where it protects 986,243 seed species at a permanent zero degrees Fahrenheit. So even if we destroy ourselves and ...

The ‘doomsday’ vault that protects the world’s biodiversity is expanding

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a haunting symbol in a warming world. It’s a concrete bank planted deep in the permafrost of Svalbard—a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean—where it protects 986,243 seed species at a permanent zero degrees Fahrenheit. So even if we destroy ourselves and ...

The view from up here: Arctic biodiversity in a warming world

The Arctic environment is experiencing unprecedented and rapid change from a variety of stressors that often interact in unpredictable ways. Understanding and responding to current and emerging concerns facing Arctic biodiversity requires coordinated circumpolar scientific information. Panelists ...

The tiny algae at ground zero of Greenland's melting glaciers

Greenland’s ice melt has been adopted by the world as a bellwether for climate crisis, but the impact on biodiversity has been overlooked. At an ice station on a remote Arctic glacier, scientists are looking to the smallest of life forms to predict the pace of species extinction

The race to lay claim on the Bering Strait as Arctic ice retreats

I could not keep my eyes off the graves, could not stop staring at them even as I walked away, turning repeatedly to look over my shoulder at them as I slogged my way across the gravel-strewn shore of Beechey Island until they disappeared from view.

The pace at which the world's permafrost soils are warming

Global warming is causing increasing damage in the world's permafrost regions. As the new global comparative study conducted by the international permafrost network GTN-P shows, in all regions with permafrost soils the temperature of the frozen ground at a depth of more than 10 metres rose by an ...

The heat is on: from the Arctic to Africa, wildlife is being hit hard by climate chaos

Sweating, headaches, fatigue, dehydration – the ways heat exhaustion affects the human body are well documented. As temperatures inch up year by year we need to change the way we live, creating cooler places that provide refuge from heat.

The fight to preserve the last quiet places on a noisy planet

Natural silence -- the kind when you hear nothing but the sound of nature around you -- is becoming increasingly scarce. The rumblings of man-made noise can be heard even in the remote corners of national parks and deep in the Arctic Ocean.

The Role of Businesses in Environmental Efforts

With decennial arctic ice drops of 13.1 percent and rising temperatures, per NASA figures, more countries and businesses have deemed it imperative to stop or slow down climate change. While adopting ecologically mindful practices would require spending from the private sector,

The Looming Plastic Pollution Crisis

Recent studies in the Arctic revealed that each litre of sea ice contains around 12,000 particles of microplastic, which scientists believe are being ingested by native animals and marine life.

The Ice Nurseries of the Arctic Are Melting

Ice formed in coastal nurseries along Russia’s Arctic coast is melting before it can float far offshore. Scientists are worried about what that means for wildlife.

The Forest Forecast

These are strange times for the Indigenous Nenets reindeer herders of northern Siberia. In their lands on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, bare tundra is thawing, bushes are sprouting, and willows that a generation ago struggled to reach knee height now grow 3 meters tall, hiding the reindeer. Su ...