antarctic

We Just Had the Hottest January in 141 Years of Record Keeping

We Just Had the Hottest January in 141 Years of Record Keeping

In the Northern Hemisphere, temperatures were, on average, 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than normal last month, making it the warmest January on Earth since comprehensive records have been kept starting 141 years ago, according to new data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), as The Guardian reported. In some places, the abnormal temperatures […]

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    Good News From Antarctica: Rising Bedrock Could Save Vulnerable Ice Sheet

    Good News From Antarctica: Rising Bedrock Could Save Vulnerable Ice Sheet

    After last week’s disturbing news that ice melt in Antarctica has tripled in the last five years, another study published Thursday offers some surprising good news for the South Pole and its vulnerable West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). The study, published in Science by an international research team, found that the bedrock below the WAIS […]

    Antarctic Ice Melt Has Tripled in Five Years

    Antarctic Ice Melt Has Tripled in Five Years

    Ice melt in Antarctica has tripled in the last five years, according to the most comprehensive assessment of the state of South Pole ice to date, published in Nature Wednesday. The Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-comparison Exercise (IMBIE), as the assessment is called, involved 84 scientists, 44 international organizations and 24 satellite surveys and found […]

    Japan Kills More Than 120 Pregnant Whales

    Japan Kills More Than 120 Pregnant Whales

    More than 120 pregnant female minke whales were killed this year in the Antarctic Ocean as part of Japan’s controversial “scientific whaling” program. The numbers were revealed in a newly released report presented earlier this month at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) Scientific Committee meeting in Bled, Slovenia. According to the report, Japanese whaling vessels […]

    One of World’s Last Great Wildernesses Declared Free of Bird-Killing Rats

    One of World’s Last Great Wildernesses Declared Free of Bird-Killing Rats

    Following a £10 million ($13.5 million) eradication scheme and nearly a decade of work, South Georgia was officially declared rodent-free on Tuesday, the first time since humans arrived on the island more than 200 years ago. The British territory is one of the world’s last great wildlife areas. There you’ll find 98 percent of the […]

    Plastic Pollution in Antarctica 5 Times Worse Than Expected

    Plastic Pollution in Antarctica 5 Times Worse Than Expected

    Not only have microplastic particles infiltrated the pristine Antarctic, the problem is much worse than anyone thought. Scientists from the University of Hull and the British Antarctic Survey have determined that the levels of microplastics are five times higher than previous estimates. The results were published in the journal Science of the Total Environment. These […]

    333 Minke Whales Killed by Japanese Fleet

    333 Minke Whales Killed by Japanese Fleet

    Japan’s whaling vessels returned to port with 333 minke whales on Friday after its months-long Antarctic hunt. The Fisheries Ministry said the whales were killed in the name of science. “The purpose of this research is to carry out a detailed calculation of the catch limit of minke whales and study the structure and dynamics […]

    Sea Ice Falls to Record Lows in Both the Arctic and Antarctic

    Sea Ice Falls to Record Lows in Both the Arctic and Antarctic

    By Roz Pidcock The Arctic and Antarctic have experienced record lows in sea ice extent so far in 2017, according to the latest data from the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). At about this time each year, the Antarctic reaches its lowest extent for the year while the Arctic reaches its highest. […]