The Norway chapter of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-Norway) is bringing a lawsuit against the Norwegian government for allowing mining of its seabed, claiming the country has not properly investigated the negative impacts. WWF-Norway said the decision to proceed with deep-sea mining breaches Norwegian law and sets a “dangerous precedent,” a press release from […]
Quick Key Facts What Is Arctic Sea Ice? Sea ice forms and covers most of the Arctic Ocean during the shorter, darker winter months. How much of the ocean’s surface is covered in sea ice is an important indicator of climate change. By mid-September, after the summer melt, the area covered by Arctic sea ice […]
Even with dramatic shifts in emissions, summer sea ice in the Arctic is doomed. A new analysis has found that even greatly and swiftly reducing greenhouse gas emissions will not prevent the disappearance of sea ice in September over the coming decades. Researchers predict the first summer without Arctic sea ice will happen in the […]
A new study has noted concentrations of microplastics in Melosira arctica, a type of algae that grows underneath sea ice in the Arctic. As a nutrition source at the bottom of the food web, scientists are concerned about wildlife that eat the contaminated algae. In the study, led by researchers from Alfred Wegener Institute for […]
A federal judge on Monday denied a motion by environmental groups challenging oil giant ConocoPhillips’ $7 billion Willow project in Alaska’s Western Arctic. The ruling allows the construction of roads and a gravel mine planned for the last three weeks of the construction season to move forward. The lawsuit initially filed by the groups asserted […]
The Arctic sea ice extent for the Northern Hemisphere winter of 2023 is the fifth lowest on record. The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) announced Wednesday that the Arctic sea ice likely reached its maximum extent on March 6 at 5.64 million square miles. That’s 398,000 square miles below the average maximum for […]
The Norwegian Arctic is home to many animal species, including caribou, narwhals, arctic foxes, polar bears and seals, as well as the fish and plankton on which many of them feed. Recently, disturbingly high levels of toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” have been found contaminating ice in the region, which may present a serious problem for […]
Sea ice forms in the Arctic and Antarctic in winter and retreats in summer, but it doesn’t disappear completely — at least not yet. The floating frozen seawater has a surprisingly strong influence on weather patterns and ocean circulation in the polar regions and beyond. Rapidly shrinking Arctic sea ice has been one of the […]
By Jonathan Bamber The Earth is approximately 1.1℃ warmer than it was at the start of the industrial revolution. That warming has not been uniform, with some regions warming at a far greater pace. One such region is the Arctic. A new study shows that the Arctic has warmed nearly four times faster than the […]
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