NEWS ABOUT: Arctic sea ice

14 Stories

More About: climate change • global warming • Arctic • environment • Arctic Ocean • polar bear • ice melt • Northwest Passage • walruses • Arctic Sea • Barack Obama • endangered species • Canadian Arctic • shipping • polar ice caps • hunting • University of Washington • wildlife • Endangered Species Act • temperature • Department of the Interior • North Pole • business • plankton • Canada

Arctic Ice Nears Historic Low

Ice area last year tied 2007 for lowest since measuring begin in 1979

(Newser) - A set of dubious honors for the volume of ice covering the Arctic: It hit a record low in 2010, according to researchers, breaking the 2007 record—and those same scientists say this year may be a record-breaking one, too, reports the Alaska Dispatch . Since researchers began measuring Arctic ice... More »

Walruses Short-Changed on Fed Protection

Endangered tuskers 'low on the totem pole'

(Newser) - The Interior Department has decided that walruses are endangered enough to warrant protection—but it's not going to give it to them. The threat to the Pacific walrus from global warming reducing Arctic sea ice is very real, officials say, but limited government resources mean protection will have to wait... More »

Arctic Melting May Bring New Beast: Polar-Grizzly

Mama grizzly, papa polar means threatened baby

(Newser) - Melting arctic sea ice isn’t just threatening polar bears’ lives—it’s threatening their gene pool. The loss of ice means more contact between polar bears and genetically-similar grizzlies, which means cross-breeding, scientists say. Hunters have shot at least two polar-grizzly crosses since 2006, the Independent reports. Other species... More »

Melting Ice Forces Mobs of Walruses Ashore

Melting Ice Forces Thousands of Walruses Ashore

Calves at risk of being trampled as animals squeeze onto Alaska coast

(Newser) - Tens of thousands of walruses have squeezed onto small patches of Alaska's shore because of melting ice floes. Scientists say the loss of sea ice has forced the lumbering creatures into a mass migration to land. The huge number of walruses foraging in a small area makes cubs extremely vulnerable... More »

Climate Change Reverses 8 Millennia of Arctic Cooling

Temps, up 2.2 F Since 1900, Would Be 2.5 Degrees Cooler Without Greenhouse Gases

(Newser) - Summer temperatures in the Arctic have climbed 2.2°F since 1900 despite an 8,000-year cooling trend, the Guardian reports. For the past few thousand years, the orbit of the Earth and the changing tilt of its axis has put the Arctic 630,000 miles further from the sun... More »

White House Mulls Drastic Action on Climate Change

Geo-engineering could be last resort, Holdren says

(Newser) - Global warming may get to the point where drastic "geo-engineering" measures to cool the earth will be necessary, President Obama’s top science adviser tells the AP. John Holdren said shooting reflective particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect some sunlight is a last resort, but one he's raised... More »

Climate Alarmists Are Off Base: George Will

Only one fact debated; 'that challenge was mistaken': Will

(Newser) - George Will set off a flurry of criticism this month with a column that questioned global warming. In his Post column today, he's not backing down, taking particular aim at the New York Times—long “a megaphone for the alarmed.” A Times article by Andrew Revkin asserted that... More »

Arctic Melt Speeds Up

Some temps 10 degrees hotter than normal

(Newser) - The Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the world, scientists have found, in a phenomenon not expected for at least another decade. This fall, temperatures in some areas of the Arctic were as much as 10 degrees warmer than normal thanks to Arctic amplification, which could mean the... More »

Early Plankton Blooming May Starve Ocean Creatures

Blossoming disrupted by warming water

(Newser) - A vast and colorful explosion of life in the Arctic Sea—the sudden, unprecedented blossoming of phytoplankton prompted by warming waters—could spell death for untold numbers of creatures, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Phytoplankton, a microscopic but vital part of the food chain, is blooming—and swiftly dying—at... More »

Arctic Ice at 2nd-Smallest Level

Melting amid cool conditions raises red flags

(Newser) - Arctic sea ice shrunk to its second-lowest size this summer, up 10% from last year's record, reports Reuters. The melting may not appear as noteworthy as that of 2007, said one research scientist, but the season's conditions prove otherwise. Last year's mix of warm air and favorable winds shifted the... More »

Both Arctic Passages Navigable for First Time

Using Northeast, Northwest shortcuts will be boon to shipping firms

(Newser) - In what scientists say is an historic moment, both Northeast and Northwest Passages are navigable as of this week, and shipping firms are salivating over the possibilities, Der Spiegel reports. With an increasing number of largely ice-free days every summer, the radical shortcuts offered by the once-treacherous routes will eventually... More »

Polar Meltdown Threatened This Summer

North Pole may be ice free for the first time in human history

(Newser) - The North Pole may become free of ice this summer for the first time in human history. Thick Arctic sea ice that normally covers the polar region has been replaced by ice that formed only in the last year and is susceptible to seasonal melting, reports the Independent. It's a... More »

Huge New Cracks Seen in Arctic Ice Shelf

Giant ice shelf is falling apart and could float away

(Newser) - A Canadian expedition has found a major new network of cracks, more than 10 miles long, in the Arctic's ice shelves, the BBC reports. Scientists say the huge shelves are disintegrating; pieces become "ice islands" that can float hundreds of miles away as climate changes takes hold. Arctic sea... More »

Alaska Suing to Bounce Bears Off Threatened List

They're just fine, governor insists

(Newser) - The state of Alaska will sue to challenge the federal government's decision to place polar bears on the endangered species list, reports CBC News. The Department of the Interior cited the bears' diminishing sea ice habitat as a reason for listing them as threatened, but Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin fears... More »