sea ice

Growing Underwater Heat Blob Is Speeding Demise of Arctic Sea Ice

Growing Underwater Heat Blob Is Speeding Demise of Arctic Sea Ice

A recent Science Magazine feature blamed an underwater heat blob for exacerbating sea ice loss as it proclaimed what many Arctic scientists already know: Arctic sea ice is racing toward its demise. Even without the blob, ice levels were already catastrophically low. “There can be little doubt that the vast majority of Earth’s ice loss […]

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    Two Canadian Ice Caps Disappear Completely

    Two Canadian Ice Caps Disappear Completely

    Three years ago, scientists predicted it would happen. Now, new NASA satellite imagery confirms it’s true: two ice caps in Canada’s Nunavut province have disappeared completely, providing more visual evidence of the rapid warming happening near the poles, as CTV News in Canada reported. According to Gizmodo, scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data […]

    Satellite Imagery Shows New Penguin Colonies in Antarctica

    Satellite Imagery Shows New Penguin Colonies in Antarctica

    New satellite images have revealed 11 new throngs of emperor penguin colonies, lifting the number of known emperor penguin colonies by 20 percent and their total population by 5 to 10 percent, according to The Guardian. “The [new colonies] are an exciting discovery,” said Peter Fretwell, at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), who led the […]

    Climate Change, Oil Development Threaten Alaska’s Polar Bears

    Climate Change, Oil Development Threaten Alaska’s Polar Bears

    By Jennie Gosché In late 2019, before the world was completely upended by the COVID-19 pandemic, I was presented a last-minute chance to photograph polar bears outside one of the northernmost villages in the United States — Kaktovik, Alaska. It was an opportunity I couldn’t refuse, and as the COVID-19 pandemic now stretches into summer […]

    Polar Bears Could Be Nearly Gone by 2100, Study Finds

    Polar Bears Could Be Nearly Gone by 2100, Study Finds

    If world governments don’t act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, most polar bear populations will not survive the century, a new study has found. Polar bears, who rely on Arctic sea ice to hunt for seals, have long been a symbol of the impacts of the climate crisis. As the ice melts, they lose the […]

    Polar Ice Caps Melting Six Times Faster Than in the 1990s

    Polar Ice Caps Melting Six Times Faster Than in the 1990s

    The polar ice caps are melting six times faster than they were in the 1990s, the most comprehensive look at the data to date has found. That data, compiled and analyzed by the Ice Sheet Mass Balance Intercomparison Exercise (IMBIE), puts the melting of Greenland and Antarctica‘s ice sheets on track with the worst-case-scenario prediction […]

    Polar Bears Are Increasingly Resorting to Cannibalism, Scientists Say

    Polar Bears Are Increasingly Resorting to Cannibalism, Scientists Say

    The fossil fuel industry is driving polar bears to cannibalism. Scientists at the Russian Academy of Sciences said Wednesday that there were increasing reports of bears attacking other bears for food, The Moscow Times reported. “Cases of cannibalism among polar bears are a long-established fact, but we’re worried that such cases used to be found […]