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RESULTS		Results 1 – 25 of 59
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Headline	Author	Published	Section
Henry Hudson would be delighted North Pole an 'island' for first time in 125,000 years	Joseph Romm	03 Sep 2008	Gristmill
The fabled Northwest and Northeast passages are now open. That makes the North Pole an island for the first time in human history, most likely for the first time 'since the beginning of the last Ice Age 125,000 years ago.' In the last few days, however, Arctic ice melt has slowed, so we might not see a record this year, as the NSIDC daily graph makes clear: But whether a record is set this year has little bearing on the future of the Arctic. The National Snow ...
Topics: Arctic, climate, climate change impacts, climate science, oceans (all these topics)

Like Death, Warmed Over Arctic ice in a 'death spiral' as it hits second-lowest point ever		29 Aug 2008	News
Posted at 5:11 AM on 29 Aug 2008 Summer sea-ice melt in the Arctic is already the second-meltiest since satellite records began, and by the end of the melt season in mid-September, this year could surpass the all-time record low set last year, according to scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center. For the second time ever -- the first being last year -- the Northwest Passage shipping route is o ...
Topics: Arctic, climate, climate change impacts, news, scientific research (all these topics)

The great melting spot NSIDC: Arctic shortcuts open up; decline pace steady	Joseph Romm	26 Aug 2008	Gristmill
Fresh from its Olympic-record in denier debunking, the National Snow and Ice Data Center has released a new update: Sea ice extent is declining at a fairly brisk and steady pace. Surface melt has mostly ended, but the decline will continue for two to three more weeks because of melt from the bottom and sides of the ice. Amundsen's Northwest Passage is now navigable; the wider, deeper Northwest Passage through Parry Channel may also open in a matter of days. The North ...
Topics: climate change impacts, Arctic, climate, climate science (all these topics)

The 100-meter retract A new Olympic record for retraction of a mistaken analysis of NSIDC data	Joseph Romm	26 Aug 2008	Gristmill
The gold medal goes to Steven Goddard of The Register. On Friday, Aug. 15, he published a scathing article, 'Arctic ice refuses to melt as ordered: There's something rotten north of Denmark' attacking the National Snow and Ice Data Center plot of Arctic Sea Ice Extent (below) that I and pretty much everyone else on the planet use. Based on some (mis)analysis too obscure for mortal men and women to follow, he concluded 'The problem is that this graph does not ap ...
Topics: Arctic, climate, climate change impacts, climate science, scientific research (all these topics)

Hedging hog Note to media: Enough with the multiple hedges on climate science!	Joseph Romm	19 Aug 2008	Gristmill
In an otherwise fascinating story on the growing 'icebreaker gap' in the rapidly defrosting Arctic Ocean, NYT reporter Andy Revkin writes: Even with the increasing summer retreats of sea ice, which many polar scientists say probably are being driven in part by global warming caused by humans, there will always be enough ice in certain parts of the Arctic to require icebreakers. I do not view a quadruple-hedged climate impact attribution as acceptable for a major me ...
Topics: Arctic, climate, climate science, mainstream media, oceans (all these topics)

Ice bet Arctic sea ice declines sharply in August	Joseph Romm	12 Aug 2008	Gristmill
The National Snow and Ice Data Center reported Monday that in the first 10 days of August, Arctic sea ice extent declined one million kilometers. Sea ice is now disappearing on a daily basis nearly 50 percent faster than it typically does this time of year. So the race is on again to see whether 2008 can repeat -- or beat -- the record set only last year. The NSIDC explains exactly what is going on in the Arctic this summer:Ice extent has begun to decline sharp ...
Topics: Arctic, climate, climate science, oceans (all these topics)

NOAA's Arctic U.S. scouts out territory in Arctic; ice-cover loss could be worst ever		12 Aug 2008	News
Posted at 1:09 PM on 12 Aug 2008 U.S. scientists will head to the Arctic this week on a quest to map the ocean floor, and will collaborate with Canada on a surveying trip in September. The two nations -- and their Arctic-bordering compatriots Russia, Denmark, and Norway -- are scrambling to measure their respective continental shelves, with an eye to claiming as much as they can of the estimated 90 billion bar ...
Topics: Arctic, Canada, climate, climate change impacts, news, oil and gas drilling, scientific research, United States (all these topics)

Top of the food chain Global warming unleashes 'world's largest land predators' on humans	Joseph Romm	11 Aug 2008	Gristmill
It could be the premise of a new horror movie -- based on an all-too-true story. We have 'a new and unusual threat: a polar bear stuck on land due to climate change': Five scientists studying shorebirds in northern Alaska had to themselves take flight after a polar bear showed up at a time of year it should have been out on ice floes hunting seals.Polar bears would normally be out on sea ice in spring and summer, the group said in a statement, 'but with recent warm ...
Topics: Alaska, Arctic, climate, climate change impacts, wildlife (all these topics)

What's an Ice Chunk Like You Doing on a Shelf Like This? Huge chunk breaks off Arctic ice shelf; 2008 Arctic melt not likely to break record		30 Jul 2008	News
Posted at 7:33 AM on 30 Jul 2008 A 1.5-mile ice chunk broke off the Arctic's largest remaining ice shelf last week. The Ward Hunt Ice Shelf in northern Canada has been thinning gradually since the 1950s, so the break-off was predictable but still relatively significant. "Once you unleash this process by cracking the ice shelf in multiple spots, of cou ...
Topics: Arctic, climate, news (all these topics)

So uncool Eighth warmest June on record means 'Great Ice Age of 2008' is still over	Joseph Romm	17 Jul 2008	Gristmill
I know we're supposed to be going into a period of cooling, at least according to people who don't believe in the scientific method, but for those who do, NOAA's National Climatic Data Center reports in its 'Climate of 2008 June in Historical Perspective': Based on preliminary data, the globally averaged combined land and sea surface temperature was the eighth warmest on record for June and the ninth warmest for January-June year-to-date period. It is pretty darn h ...
Topics: Arctic, climate, climate change impacts, climate science, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (all these topics)

Go With the Floe Russian researchers abandon shrinking ice floe		15 Jul 2008	News
Posted at 3:33 PM on 15 Jul 2008 Russian scientists are evacuating early from their research base on a shrinking Arctic ice floe. Last April, the floe was sturdy enough to build an air strip on. In September, 21 researchers and two dogs arrived, at which point their ice abode measured 1.2 by 2.5 miles. The researchers meant to leave in late August, but will evacuate this week from a floe that has shrunk to a mere 1,000 by 2,000 fee ...
Topics: Arctic, climate, climate change impacts, news, Russia, scientific research (all these topics)

What drove the dramatic retreat of arctic sea ice during summer 2007?	Joseph Romm	27 Jun 2008	Gristmill
Funny you should ask. That is the title of an analysis published this month in Geophysical Research Letters ($ub. req'd) by four scientists from the Polar Science Center, Applied Physics Laboratory, College of Ocean and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle. What did they conclude? A model study has been conducted of the unprecedented retreat of arctic sea ice in the summer of 2007. It is found that preconditioning, anomalous winds, and ice-albedo ...
Topics: Arctic, climate, climate change impacts (all these topics)

Guess I won't be seaing you Arctic sea ice update: 2008 poised to repeat -- or beat -- 2007	Joseph Romm	13 Jun 2008	Gristmill
For months, the deniers have been extolling the fact that the Arctic sea saw record refreezing last fall. And they have been claiming that this somehow fits into the absurd claim that the planet is now in a major cooling trend. But back in the real world, the planet keeps warming, and the Arctic is taking the worst of it, which could lead to potentially catastrophic methane emissions from the tundra, as noted here. The National Snow and Ice Data Center just reported:A ...
Topics: Arctic, climate, climate change impacts, climate science (all these topics)

I'm melting Breaking news: Permafrost loss linked to Arctic sea ice loss	Joseph Romm	12 Jun 2008	Gristmill
A major new study published Friday in Geophysical Research Letters by leading tundra experts has found 'Accelerated Arctic land warming and permafrost degradation during rapid sea ice loss.' The lead author is David Lawrence of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, who I interviewed for my book and recently interviewed again via email about his recent work. The study's ominous conclusion:We find that simulated western Arctic land warming trends during rapid sea ...
Topics: Arctic, climate, climate change impacts, climate science, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (all these topics)

You Could Hear a Pinniped Drop Walruses should be threatened species, says litigious green group		28 May 2008	News
Posted at 12:31 PM on 28 May 2008 Having seen no action on a petition from last year, the Center for Biological Diversity says it will sue to force the U.S. Interior Department to consider listing the walrus as a threatened species. Walruses do all of their resting between foraging trips, breeding, and chillaxing on Arctic sea ice, which is rapidly disappearing. And "[a]s the sea ice recedes, so ...
Topics: Arctic, climate, climate change impacts, endangered species, litigation, news, wildlife (all these topics)

Slip of the tundra CO2 released from disappearing permafrost must be factored into climate projections	Joseph Romm	23 May 2008	Gristmill
What is the point of no return for the climate -- the level of CO2 concentrations beyond which catastrophic outcomes are virtually unstoppable? No one knows for sure, but my vote goes for the point at which we start to lose a substantial fraction of the tundra's carbon to the atmosphere -- substantial being 0.1 percent per year! As we saw in my last post, frozen away in the permafrost is more carbon than the atmosphere currently contains (and much of that is in the fo ...
Topics: Arctic, climate, climate change impacts, climate science, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics)

The permafrost won't be perma for long More carbon in the Arctic than previously thought	Joseph Romm	23 May 2008	Gristmill
The tundra is probably the single most important amplifying carbon-cycle feedback. None of the IPCC's climate models, however, include carbon emissions from a defrosting tundra as a feedback. Yet, as NOAA reported last month, levels of methane (a far more potent greenhouse gas than CO2) rose last year for the first time since 1998, which may be an early indication of thawing permafrost. So it seems like a good a time for a review and update of what we know. The tund ...
Topics: Arctic, climate, climate change impacts, climate science, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics)

Handle With Caribou Caribou numbers declining in Alaska and Canada		20 May 2008	News
Posted at 3:36 PM on 20 May 2008 Hello, and welcome back to The Plight of Arctic Wildlife. Previously we've covered polar bears, narwhals, seals, and walruses -- today we're going to tackle caribou. (Well, not literally.) After years of steady growth, Alaska's largest caribou herd lost 20 percent of its population between 2003 and 2007, according to the latest count. The Western Arctic Caribou Herd now numbers 377,000. Other her ...
Topics: Arctic, climate, climate change impacts, news, wildlife (all these topics)

Northern Exposure Melting Arctic ice poses security threat, says Pentagon		14 May 2008	News
Posted at 10:09 AM on 14 May 2008 Waterways made navigable by melting Arctic ice pose a security threat to the northern U.S. border, says the Pentagon. The shrinking ice cap has led to increased interest in tourism and energy development in the Arctic, and the extra traffic makes the Pentagon wary. "The Arctic is a new area that is important to us because of the changes in ice flows," says Air Force General Gene ...
Topics: Arctic, climate, climate change impacts, Department of Defense, national security, news (all these topics)

Loaded for bear? Polar bear decision expected today from Bush administration	Miles Grant	14 May 2008	Gristmill
This just in from Associated Press: The Interior Department has scheduled a news conference for Wednesday to announce a decision on whether to list the polar bear as threatened and in need of protection under the Endangered Species Act.Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne proposed such protection 15 months ago because of the disappearance of Arctic sea ice, which is a primary habitat for the bear. Last September, scientists said up to two-thirds of the polar bears could d ...
Topics: Arctic, climate, endangered species, habitat loss, legislation, polar bears, politics (all these topics)

The Horn of a Dilemma Narwhals more at risk than polar bears, says study		25 Apr 2008	News
Posted at 3:10 PM on 25 Apr 2008 Polar bears get all the press, but climate change may be even harder on the narwhal, says new research. Narwhals, the whales whose long spiral tusks kick-started the myth of unicorns, top a list of 11 at-risk Arctic marine mammals published in the journal Ecological Applications. Hooded seals, bowhead whales, and walrus rounded out the top five, while ringed seals and bearded seals, which a ...
Topics: Arctic, climate, climate change impacts, endangered species, news, scientific research, wildlife (all these topics)

On thin ice Arctic ice alarmingly scarce, say NOAA, NASA, NSIDC	Joseph Romm	20 Mar 2008	Gristmill
Yes, I know you've all heard that we've had 'record' refreezing of Arctic ice. Big shock there. We had record melting followed by a temporary cooling La Ni�a event. What those denier/delayer-1000 talking points don't tell you is that the refrozen ice is very thin and still at record low levels following the staggering ice loss this summer. To set the record straight, on Wednesday, the National Snow and Ice Data Center and NASA had a teleconference to show the surpri ...
Topics: Arctic, climate, climate change impacts, climate change skepticism (all these topics)

Movers and Fist-Shakers Alaskan village sues Big Fossil Fuel over link to climate change		27 Feb 2008	News
Posted at 10:35 AM on 27 Feb 2008 The tiny village of Kivalina, built on a barrier reef in Alaska's Chukchi Sea, filed a lawsuit Tuesday against 24 oil, coal, and power companies, alleging that Big Fossil Fuel's greenhouse-gas emissions are contributing to the climate-change-caused coastal erosion that threatens the village's very existence. Kivalina says that the companies should pay for its relocation. The ...
Topics: Alaska, Arctic, Big Oil, climate, climate change impacts, coal, fossil fuels, litigation, news (all these topics)

It's All About the Ice Sights and sounds from an Arctic research vessel	Elizabeth Grossman	13 Dec 2007	Grist Feature
In late November, I began a three-week stay on the CCGS Amundsen, a Canadian Coast Guard ice-breaker and scientific research vessel that is spending 15 months in the Arctic. This expedition will be the first ever to spend the winter moving through sea ice north of the Arctic Circle -- and at present, I am the only reporter on board. The logistics of such an expedition are extremely difficul ...
Topics: Arctic, climate, oceans, scientific research (all these topics)

Arctic ice shrinks by an Alaska plus a Texas Ice loss hits record low this month in the Arctic	Joseph Romm	25 Sep 2007	Gristmill
Hitting a record low on September 16, 2007, the Arctic lost half a million square miles of ice compared to its last record low just two years ago. For all the details, check out the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) website, which notes 'the Northwest Passage is still open, but is starting to refreeze.' We are still on track for an ice free Arctic by 2030, decades ahead of the climate models. This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project ...
Topics: Arctic, climate, climate change impacts, climate science (all these topics)

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