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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?location=arctic-ocean&#038;type=post" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/arctic-ocean/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Sat, 10 Oct 2026 21:36:00 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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<image>
	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>Arctic Ocean environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/arctic-ocean/</link>
	<width>32</width>
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				<item>
					<title>Marine flyways are the missing map we can use to boost seabird conservation (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/marine-flyways-are-the-missing-map-we-can-use-to-boost-seabird-conservation-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/marine-flyways-are-the-missing-map-we-can-use-to-boost-seabird-conservation-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Mar 2026 17:34:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aline Kühl-StenzelTammy Davies]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/16082340/Antipodean_albatross_1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316541</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Global, Indian Ocean, and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Commentary, Governance, Marine, Marine Conservation, Migration, Oceans, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Last week, governments, conservationists and civil society from around the world gathered in Brazil for the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS-15). In a rare moment of unity, they formally established something scientists have long understood but never before mapped at a global scale: marine flyways. This decision may [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Last week, governments, conservationists and civil society from around the world gathered in Brazil for the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS-15). In a rare moment of unity, they formally established something scientists have long understood but never before mapped at a global scale: marine flyways. This decision may sound technical, but it represents one of the most important shifts in ocean conservation in a generation. For decades, we have celebrated the great migrations of land birds like cranes sweeping across continents and swallows stitching hemispheres together, but far offshore, another story has been unfolding, largely unnoticed. Seabirds have been navigating vast, predictable highways across the open ocean, linking nations, ecosystems and hemispheres in ways we are only now beginning to understand. At BirdLife International, our latest research revealed six major marine flyways used by more than 150 migratory seabird species spanning the waters of 54 countries. These routes are not abstract lines on a map, they are living, breathing pathways traveled by albatrosses – the largest of the seabirds – to storm petrels, the smallest – and many in between. The Arctic tern, the world champion of migration, travels almost 100,000 kilometers (over 62,000 miles) a year along these ocean highways. A puffin ringed on Skomer Island in June may be feeding off the coast of Canada by winter. Despite their resilience and astonishing navigational feats, 42% of these species are globally threatened, more than half are declining, and the ocean is changing&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/marine-flyways-are-the-missing-map-we-can-use-to-boost-seabird-conservation-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/marine-flyways-are-the-missing-map-we-can-use-to-boost-seabird-conservation-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316541</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Petrostates stymie effort to rein in Arctic shipping carbon emissions</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/petrostates-stymie-effort-to-rein-in-arctic-shipping-carbon-emissions/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/petrostates-stymie-effort-to-rein-in-arctic-shipping-carbon-emissions/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Feb 2026 15:41:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/22030600/b.-AdobeStock_254252875-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314611</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic and Arctic Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Black Carbon, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Fossil Fuels, Global Warming, Marine, Oceans, Pollution, Sea Ice, Shipping, Transportation, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[International shipping is on the rise in the Arctic region now that climate change regularly opens up transpolar sea routes in summer. That surge in traffic is leading to higher emissions of black carbon — colloquially known as soot, considered a “super pollutant.” Those emissions are escalating climate change and quickening sea ice and snow [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[International shipping is on the rise in the Arctic region now that climate change regularly opens up transpolar sea routes in summer. That surge in traffic is leading to higher emissions of black carbon — colloquially known as soot, considered a “super pollutant.” Those emissions are escalating climate change and quickening sea ice and snow loss across the Arctic, which is already Earth’s most rapidly warming region. At a recent meeting of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), member states (led by Denmark, and including France, Germany and the Solomon Islands), proposed new regulations to require ships sailing in the Arctic to use fuels that emit low amounts of black carbon. But in February, global petrostates, including Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United States, opposed this effort, meant to slow Arctic warming. This delay follows a 2025 postponement of an IMO plan that had been widely expected to succeed, which would have accelerated the decarbonization of global shipping. That plan was blocked by the U.S. along with other oil-producing nations. The just-nixed Arctic proposal would have required ships sailing in the Far North to stop burning residual fuels — responsible for high black carbon emissions — and instead move to less polluting fuels. As spring approaches in the Arctic, an orange horizon backlights a ship&#8217;s stack emissions. The Research Vessel Polarstern embarked on a yearlong expedition to drift in Arctic sea ice called the Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC). Image by Julienne Stroeve/NSIDC via Flickr (CC&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/petrostates-stymie-effort-to-rein-in-arctic-shipping-carbon-emissions/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/petrostates-stymie-effort-to-rein-in-arctic-shipping-carbon-emissions/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314611</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Methane chasers: Hunting a climate-changing gas seeping from Earth&#8217;s seafloor</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/methane-chasers-hunting-a-climate-changing-gas-seeping-from-earths-seafloor/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/methane-chasers-hunting-a-climate-changing-gas-seeping-from-earths-seafloor/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jan 2026 15:46:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Devitt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/08115645/1.-BANNER-seep-bubbles-NOAA-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312714</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Global, Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean, and Southern Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Acoustic, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Global Warming, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Marine, Methane, Oceans, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[They’ve been called “bubble chasers,” and “seep seekers,” though they sometimes call themselves “flare hunters.” They’re a small group of scientific specialists searching the world’s oceans for tiny streams of methane gas-filled globules rising from seafloor sediments. On expeditions ranging from the Arctic to Antarctica, carried out in shallow waters to thousands of meters below [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[They’ve been called “bubble chasers,” and “seep seekers,” though they sometimes call themselves “flare hunters.” They’re a small group of scientific specialists searching the world’s oceans for tiny streams of methane gas-filled globules rising from seafloor sediments. On expeditions ranging from the Arctic to Antarctica, carried out in shallow waters to thousands of meters below the sea’s surface, their studies reveal how these tiny globules can potentially add to global warming while also creating unique ecosystems. But even when deploying advanced modern technology, finding these cold-ocean methane seeps isn’t easy. And it may be even harder to determine exactly how seafloor methane releases could factor into the future of humanity and the planet. Map showing the known global occurrences of methane-derived carbonates used to compile a study of seafloor methane seepage across the last 150 million years. Image courtesy of Oppo et al. (2020). Bubbles flowing from a methane seep at El Quisco, off the coast of Chile. Researchers found the seeps using sonar-based bubble mapping, bathymetric mapping, tracking in situ methane concentration measurements, and visual surveys with the ROV SuBastian. Image by ROV SuBastian/Schmidt Ocean Institute (CC BY-NC-SA). Hunting telltale bubbles “These seeps are fascinating and extreme environments,” said Claudio Argentino, a sediment biogeochemist at UiT, The Arctic University of Norway, whose fieldwork started at ancient methane seep sites in Italy’s Apennine Mountains in 2015, during his doctoral studies, and now takes him to the Arctic Ocean. “We want to know how much gas is escaping the seafloor sediment&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/methane-chasers-hunting-a-climate-changing-gas-seeping-from-earths-seafloor/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/methane-chasers-hunting-a-climate-changing-gas-seeping-from-earths-seafloor/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312714</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Arctic seals edge closer to extinction as sea ice vanishes</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/arctic-seals-edge-closer-to-extinction-as-sea-ice-vanishes/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/arctic-seals-edge-closer-to-extinction-as-sea-ice-vanishes/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Oct 2025 16:07:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Keith Anthony Fabro]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/22070521/harp-seal-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308080</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic and Arctic Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Extinction, Global Environmental Crisis, Impact Of Climate Change, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Mammals, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Sea Ice, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Three Arctic seal species have moved closer to extinction, as rapid sea ice loss continues to erode their breeding and feeding grounds, according to the latest update of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The update, released Oct. 10 during the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi, &#8220;uplists&#8221; the hooded seal (Cystophora cristata) [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Three Arctic seal species have moved closer to extinction, as rapid sea ice loss continues to erode their breeding and feeding grounds, according to the latest update of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The update, released Oct. 10 during the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi, &#8220;uplists&#8221; the hooded seal (Cystophora cristata) from vulnerable to the higher-threat category of endangered, and the bearded seal (Erignathus barbatus) and harp seal (Pagophilus groenlandicus) from least concern to near threatened. Arctic seals depend on stable sea ice to breed, raise their pups, rest and access feeding areas. As temperatures climb globally, they are rising about four times faster in the Arctic than elsewhere and sea ice is thinning and melting earlier every year. This loss has undermined reproduction across multiple species. “The major driver of the declines that we are seeing is breeding habitat deterioration as a direct result of climate change,” Kit Kovacs, co-chair of IUCN’s Species Survival Commission Pinniped Specialist Group, told Mongabay. Kovacs participated in the uplisting decision. When sea ice melts or breaks apart too soon, pups may drown, freeze or be killed by predators or collapsing ice. “Sea ice is disappearing and ice-dependent species of all sorts are threatened by these losses,” said Kovacs, a marine mammal biologist who lives in Tromsø, Norway, and travels regularly to the country’s Svalbard archipelago for fieldwork and to teach at the University Centre in Svalbard. “Recruitment of youngsters into the populations are failing.” Moreover, she said, the retreating&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/arctic-seals-edge-closer-to-extinction-as-sea-ice-vanishes/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/arctic-seals-edge-closer-to-extinction-as-sea-ice-vanishes/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308080</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Alaskan rivers turn orange as permafrost thaws, threatening fish and communities</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/alaskan-rivers-turn-orange-as-permafrost-thaws-threatening-fish-and-communities/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/alaskan-rivers-turn-orange-as-permafrost-thaws-threatening-fish-and-communities/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Sep 2025 13:09:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/25125410/Low-Res_B0038542-700x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306584</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, Arctic, Arctic Ocean, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Fish, Fishing, Green, and Indigenous Peoples]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The writer John McPhee once described Alaska&#8217;s Salmon River as having &#8220;the clearest, purest water&#8221; he&#8217;d ever seen. Today, that same river runs orange with toxic metals unleashed by thawing permafrost. &#8220;During the summer of 2019, the clear waters of the Salmon turned distinctly orange and have remained discolored and turbid since,&#8221; according to a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The writer John McPhee once described Alaska&#8217;s Salmon River as having &#8220;the clearest, purest water&#8221; he&#8217;d ever seen. Today, that same river runs orange with toxic metals unleashed by thawing permafrost. &#8220;During the summer of 2019, the clear waters of the Salmon turned distinctly orange and have remained discolored and turbid since,&#8221; according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The Salmon River&#8217;s transformation represents a much larger crisis. In Alaska&#8217;s Brooks Range,75 streams have “recently turned orange and turbid,&#8221; the study found. &#8220;This is what acid mine drainage looks like,&#8221; said Tim Lyons, a biogeochemist at the University of California, Riverside, and co-author of the study. &#8220;But here, there&#8217;s no mine. The permafrost is thawing and changing the chemistry of the landscape.&#8221; The cause lies underground in permanently frozen soil, known as permafrost. As global temperatures rise, this ancient layer is thawing. When water and oxygen reach the newly exposed soil, they trigger chemical reactions that break down sulfide-rich rocks, creating sulfuric acid that leaches naturally occurring metals like iron, cadmium and aluminum from rocks into the river, the research shows. Researchers tested 10 major tributaries of the Salmon River and found that nine had toxic concentrations of at least one metal on at least one of three sampling dates. The study shows that levels of metals in the river&#8217;s waters exceed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) toxicity thresholds for aquatic life. Metal levels in the Salmon River mainstem were dangerously high&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/alaskan-rivers-turn-orange-as-permafrost-thaws-threatening-fish-and-communities/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/alaskan-rivers-turn-orange-as-permafrost-thaws-threatening-fish-and-communities/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306584</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>No new record low for Arctic sea ice loss in 2025</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/no-new-record-low-for-arctic-sea-ice-loss-in-2025/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/no-new-record-low-for-arctic-sea-ice-loss-in-2025/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Sep 2025 17:11:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gloria Dickie]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/11095256/lone-walrus-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305786</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic and Arctic Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Earth Science, Environment, Extreme Weather, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Ice Shelves, Impact Of Climate Change, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Permafrost, Planetary Boundaries, Research, Science, and Sea Ice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Sea ice floating atop the Arctic Ocean reached its minimum extent for 2025 on Sept. 10, covering 4.602 million square kilometers (1.78 million square miles) concluding this year’s summer melt-out. That’s far from a record low and represents a recovery, in some ways, from where things stood earlier this year. At the winter maximum in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Sea ice floating atop the Arctic Ocean reached its minimum extent for 2025 on Sept. 10, covering 4.602 million square kilometers (1.78 million square miles) concluding this year’s summer melt-out. That’s far from a record low and represents a recovery, in some ways, from where things stood earlier this year. At the winter maximum in March 2025, the Arctic ice was in bad shape. That’s the month in which sea ice, encouraged by freezing temperatures and 24-7 darkness, annually reaches its greatest extent. Ice cover in the region then barely topped 14.3 million square kilometers (5.5 million square miles) — the smallest extent at the winter maximum observed in the 47-year satellite record, and more than 1 million km2 (386,000 mi2) below the 1981 to 2010 average winter maximum. Much of 2025 followed a similar downward sloping path; throughout June and into early August, Arctic sea ice cover was tracking close to, if not at, a record low for the time of year. But things swung around in the latter half of August, as ice melt stagnated. “You get to August and the sun is setting in the Arctic, so things start to slow down,” said Walt Meier, a senior research scientist with the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Colorado. “You need a lot of momentum to keep going, some kind of unusual winds or a big storm like we had in 2012,” the record low sea ice minimum year. “We haven’t really seen that this summer.”&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/no-new-record-low-for-arctic-sea-ice-loss-in-2025/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/no-new-record-low-for-arctic-sea-ice-loss-in-2025/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305786</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Saving polar bears and beluga whales: Interview with Alysa McCall</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/saving-polar-bears-and-beluga-whales-interview-with-alysa-mccall/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/saving-polar-bears-and-beluga-whales-interview-with-alysa-mccall/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jul 2025 11:44:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/24100407/beluga-whale-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303115</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic Ocean, Canada, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Camera Trapping, Conservation, Conservation Technology, data, Endangered Species, Environment, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Mammals, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Mammals, Oceans, Polar Bears, Research, Technology, Whales, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Before pivoting her focus to the Arctic, Alysa McCall worked extensively in the grassland ecosystem. There, the interventions required for ecosystem restoration and wildlife protection were much less complicated. You could introduce more water in case of a scarcity. Or put up a fence to protect animals. The Arctic, however, was a whole other ballgame. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Before pivoting her focus to the Arctic, Alysa McCall worked extensively in the grassland ecosystem. There, the interventions required for ecosystem restoration and wildlife protection were much less complicated. You could introduce more water in case of a scarcity. Or put up a fence to protect animals. The Arctic, however, was a whole other ballgame. “We can&#8217;t grow more ice. We can&#8217;t put a fence up,” McCall, director of conservation outreach and staff scientist at the nonprofit Polar Bears International, told Mongabay in a video interview. “The conservation approaches, management and planning are just so different.” Since then, McCall has worked with her colleagues to study and protect the Arctic and its native species, such as polar bears (Ursus maritimus) and beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas). One of the organization’s long-running projects, called Beluga Cam, uses boats in the Churchill River in Hudson Bay, Canada, to gather footage of the annual migration of about 57,000 beluga whales. The initiative is part of a larger citizen science project that brings people from around the world to help researchers identify belugas from the visuals and make observations about them. This year, the project got an upgrade with the use of a new boat that houses the cameras and other equipment during the course of the migration season. Beluga whales as captured on the Beluga Cam in 2025. Image courtesy of Kieran Mclver. “We have also been able to, over time, actually identify individuals,” McCall said. “To see that whale come year after year&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/saving-polar-bears-and-beluga-whales-interview-with-alysa-mccall/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/saving-polar-bears-and-beluga-whales-interview-with-alysa-mccall/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303115</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>With deep-sea mining plans in limbo, Norwegian companies fold or dig in</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/with-deep-sea-mining-plans-in-limbo-norwegian-companies-fold-or-dig-in/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/with-deep-sea-mining-plans-in-limbo-norwegian-companies-fold-or-dig-in/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Apr 2025 08:34:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/21170043/FK210726-Dive443-BubblegumCoral-20210728-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297813</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic, Arctic Ocean, Europe, European Union, and Norway]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deep Sea, Deep Sea Mining, Environment, Environmental Law, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Industry, Marine, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Mining, Oceans, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Ocean Reporting Network, where Elizabeth Claire Alberts is a fellow. BERGEN, Norway — It’s been nearly five months since the Norwegian government paused its controversial plans to launch deep-sea mining in Arctic waters. This proposed industry aims to generate supplies of critical minerals, but critics say the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Ocean Reporting Network, where Elizabeth Claire Alberts is a fellow. BERGEN, Norway — It’s been nearly five months since the Norwegian government paused its controversial plans to launch deep-sea mining in Arctic waters. This proposed industry aims to generate supplies of critical minerals, but critics say the cost to the marine environment could be devastating. Some Norwegian deep-sea mining companies have faced significant financial struggles due to the delay, with one going bankrupt and another slashing costs. Yet other firms, and the government itself, remain optimistic, insisting the industry&#8217;s future is still secure. Anette Broch Mathisen Tvedt, the young CEO of the Bergen-based deep-sea mining startup Adepth Minerals, is in the latter camp. She told Mongabay the delay isn’t ideal, but that she’s not overly concerned. “I&#8217;m not worried about the future of deep-sea mining,” Tvedt said during an interview at Bergen University’s natural history museum. “This is a lengthy process, but I believe our government will initiate the process.” Tvedt, whose friendly demeanor makes her one of the more approachable figures in the Norwegian deep-sea mining industry, said Adepth will use the time leading up to the licensing round, tentatively planned for 2026, to focus on data analysis and the development of new seabed mining technologies. She said the company is also using this time to raise public awareness about its work, which she says is gaining broader support due to global events such as the Russian war in Ukraine and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/with-deep-sea-mining-plans-in-limbo-norwegian-companies-fold-or-dig-in/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297813</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Polar sea ice continues steep decline; but will a troubled world notice?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/polar-sea-ice-continues-steep-decline-but-will-a-troubled-world-notice/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/polar-sea-ice-continues-steep-decline-but-will-a-troubled-world-notice/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Mar 2025 19:54:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Devitt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/21131850/polar-bears-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296183</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic and Arctic Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Earth Science, Environment, Extreme Weather, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Ice Shelves, Impact Of Climate Change, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Permafrost, Planetary Boundaries, Research, Science, and Sea Ice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Sea ice extent is at record, and near record, lows for this time of year in both polar regions, leaving the planet increasingly vulnerable to the cascading effects of global warming. This March, the Arctic sea ice winter maximum reached its lowest extent in the 47-year satellite record, while the Antarctic sea ice summer minimum [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Sea ice extent is at record, and near record, lows for this time of year in both polar regions, leaving the planet increasingly vulnerable to the cascading effects of global warming. This March, the Arctic sea ice winter maximum reached its lowest extent in the 47-year satellite record, while the Antarctic sea ice summer minimum vied for the second lowest recorded extent in nearly five decades, according to data from the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). With less sea ice to reflect solar radiation, and more open ocean to absorb and store heat, the polar cooling system that helps protect the planet from higher temperatures will increasingly become dysfunctional. Recent climate models predict daunting scenarios of irreversible ecosystem change at Earth’s poles, with those drastic changes in polar regions rippling out to impact the rest of the world. “The Arctic and the Antarctic are really different systems, but anthropogenic global warming is the overall factor that’s leading to less ice in the north and the south,” said Walt Meier, an NSIDC senior research scientist. Arctic sea ice extent showing 2024-25 to date (in blue), as compared to the 1981-2010 median (solid grey line). The dotted line shows Arctic sea ice extent in 2011-2012, a year that saw the lowest summer sea extent on record. Image courtesy of National Snow and Ice Data Center. &nbsp; The graph above shows Antarctic sea ice extent on March 1, 2025, along with daily ice extent data for four previous years and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/polar-sea-ice-continues-steep-decline-but-will-a-troubled-world-notice/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/polar-sea-ice-continues-steep-decline-but-will-a-troubled-world-notice/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296183</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>With climate change, cryosphere melt scales up as a threat to planetary health</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/with-climate-change-cryosphere-melt-scales-up-as-a-threat-to-planetary-health/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/with-climate-change-cryosphere-melt-scales-up-as-a-threat-to-planetary-health/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Mar 2025 03:32:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/20064658/9-ice-graves-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296143</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Antarctica, Arctic, Arctic Ocean, and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Diseases, Earth Science, Environment, Extreme Weather, food security, Freshwater, Glaciers, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Health, Ice Shelves, Impact Of Climate Change, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Permafrost, Planetary Boundaries, Planetary Health, Politics, Public Health, Research, Science, Sea Ice, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Earth’s frozen places — ice sheets, glaciers and permafrost — are melting: A clear sign of climate change and a planet quickly exiting the stable state that gave rise to human civilization. This great thaw is having far-reaching consequences for communities and individuals across the globe — from polar and mountainous regions to coastal areas. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Earth’s frozen places — ice sheets, glaciers and permafrost — are melting: A clear sign of climate change and a planet quickly exiting the stable state that gave rise to human civilization. This great thaw is having far-reaching consequences for communities and individuals across the globe — from polar and mountainous regions to coastal areas. In a recent landmark report, marking the World Day for Glaciers, UNESCO is ringing alarm bells: Cryosphere melt is putting freshwater accessibility at risk for more than one billion people living in mountainous regions and a further two billion living downstream as glaciers and snowpacks melt away and decline; most of those individuals live in developing countries. That same report finds that cryosphere melt is endangering two-thirds of irrigated agriculture across the globe. “The melting and the changes in the cryosphere are a reality and we need to really start taking action,” Abou Amani, director of the Division of Water Sciences and secretary of the Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme, tells Mongabay in an interview. That’s a stark warning, but only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to gauging the cryosphere’s importance to human wellbeing and evaluating potential harms as it shrinks away. Amani lists the ever-increasing risks associated with shrinking mountain snowpacks and glaciers — melting that has downstream impacts on water quality and availability, harms food security, heightens disease risk, triggers catastrophic landslides and glacial lake outburst floods (or GLOFs), and threatens the long-term viability of hydropower. Those risks have already heightened —&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/with-climate-change-cryosphere-melt-scales-up-as-a-threat-to-planetary-health/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/with-climate-change-cryosphere-melt-scales-up-as-a-threat-to-planetary-health/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296143</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Researchers find microplastics for the first time in the Finnish Sámi waters</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/researchers-find-microplastics-for-the-first-time-in-the-finnish-sami-waters/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/researchers-find-microplastics-for-the-first-time-in-the-finnish-sami-waters/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Feb 2025 17:10:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/04164013/Field-visits-to-the-Naatamo-River-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293842</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic, Arctic Ocean, Europe, European Union, and Finland]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Climate Justice, Conservation, Environment, Fish, Fishing, food security, Freshwater Fish, Indigenous Peoples, Microplastics, Oceans, Plastic, Pollution, Research, Saltwater Fish, Social Justice, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In Finland’s freezing Arctic, lakes and rivers have nourished the lifeways of Indigenous Skolt Sámi communities for generations as they fished and herded reindeer. But three years of research undertaken by Sámi traditional knowledge holders and scientists have, for the first time, detected another presence in their waters: microplastics. “The plastic concentrations were really small, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In Finland’s freezing Arctic, lakes and rivers have nourished the lifeways of Indigenous Skolt Sámi communities for generations as they fished and herded reindeer. But three years of research undertaken by Sámi traditional knowledge holders and scientists have, for the first time, detected another presence in their waters: microplastics. “The plastic concentrations were really small, but they were definitely there in higher quantity than it was thought to be,” said Tuomo Soininen one of the study authors and a PhD scholar at the department of technical physics in the University of Eastern Finland. “It’s really pristine when you observe these areas, and you don&#8217;t see big plastic debris anywhere.” The research found that the average size of the microplastics was 100 micrometers (μm) and that concentrations ranged from 45 to 423 microplastic particles per cubic meter (35.3 cubic feet).  They sampled both freshwater and marine water that are part of the Finnish Skolt Sámi traditional use: Lake Inarijärvi (Inari), Näätämö river catchment and the Neiden Fjord in the Barents Sea. The Näätämö River in Lapland, Finland’s northernmost region, flows and drains into the Neiden Fjord, before continuing into the Barents Sea. Neighboring Lake Inari was also sampled as a lake ecosystem but it is not in the same basin. The most common polymer types the researchers found were polyethylene, polypropylene and polyethylene terephthalate. Microplastic concentrations were lower in the fjord compared to the catchment area of Näätämö River or Lake Inari. The source of these microplastics is unknown. However, the authors hypothesize&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/researchers-find-microplastics-for-the-first-time-in-the-finnish-sami-waters/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293842</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>We need a North Pole Marine Reserve to secure a healthy future for Arctic waters (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/we-need-a-north-pole-marine-reserve-to-secure-a-healthy-future-for-arctic-waters-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/we-need-a-north-pole-marine-reserve-to-secure-a-healthy-future-for-arctic-waters-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Jan 2025 20:29:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Dr. Graeme Chesters]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/09/23141533/Narwhal-banner-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292655</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic, Arctic Ocean, and Canada]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Commentary, Deep Sea, Deep Sea Mining, Ecosystems, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Governance, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Oceans, Overfishing, Saltwater Fish, and Shifting Baselines]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the 1990s, a single moratorium announcement wiped out an entire industry, leaving 37,000 people unemployed overnight. The ecological collapse of the Canadian Grand Banks Cod Fisheries is the most famous historical example of a collapse in fish stocks due to overfishing. Not only were cod stocks severely depleted, it was the largest layoff of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the 1990s, a single moratorium announcement wiped out an entire industry, leaving 37,000 people unemployed overnight. The ecological collapse of the Canadian Grand Banks Cod Fisheries is the most famous historical example of a collapse in fish stocks due to overfishing. Not only were cod stocks severely depleted, it was the largest layoff of workers in one day, and the biggest ever industrial layoff in Canada&#8217;s history: fishing fleets, processing plants, associated support businesses were all impacted when the moratorium was declared. It devastated coastal communities in Newfoundland and Labrador and led to significant migration, changing some of those communities forever. Five years ago this month, the Central Arctic Ocean Fisheries Agreement (CAOFA) was signed by Arctic Coastal States, in an example of unprecedented international collaboration based upon the precautionary principle, which put in place a moratorium on fishing in the CAO until 2037, thereby protecting Arctic Ocean species from commercial exploitation as the sea ice retreats. In effect, this moratorium establishes a temporary marine reserve for fish populations that are increasingly moving north as waters warm. This is Arctic exceptionalism in practice, a recognition that the CAO can be, as often heralded, a common heritage of humankind, a unique global inheritance that must be protected and preserved through an Arctic Treaty System, providing in practice a North Pole Marine Reserve. Why think about this now? This year, the moratorium on cod fishing on the Grand Banks was lifted. Thirty-two years on – and in the teeth of opposition&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/we-need-a-north-pole-marine-reserve-to-secure-a-healthy-future-for-arctic-waters-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/we-need-a-north-pole-marine-reserve-to-secure-a-healthy-future-for-arctic-waters-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-292655</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Colliding icebergs and chirping seals: Polar ocean sounds are reimagined in art-science collaboration</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/colliding-icebergs-and-chirping-seals-polar-ocean-sounds-are-reimagined-in-art-science-collaboration/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/colliding-icebergs-and-chirping-seals-polar-ocean-sounds-are-reimagined-in-art-science-collaboration/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Dec 2024 02:16:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jasmin Galvan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/30232723/Galvan_3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290893</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Antarctica, Arctic, Arctic Ocean, and Greenland]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bioacoustics, Cetaceans, Environment, Green, Marine Mammals, Oceans, and Whales]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The frigid depths of the polar oceans exist only in the imagination for most people. Images of stark white ice fields and vast expanses of water might lead us to believe that the Arctic and Antarctic oceans are silent, empty settings. However, if you listen below the surface, they come alive with the chirps and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The frigid depths of the polar oceans exist only in the imagination for most people. Images of stark white ice fields and vast expanses of water might lead us to believe that the Arctic and Antarctic oceans are silent, empty settings. However, if you listen below the surface, they come alive with the chirps and trills of Weddell seals and the clicks of toothed whales chattering to each other. To engage the public with these remote realms, artist-researcher Geraint Rhys Whittaker of the University of Oldenburg in Germany and his colleagues created the Polar Sounds project. The team provided more than 100 artists with sound recordings from the Ocean Acoustics Group at the Alfred Wegener Institute&#8217;s Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research. The artists treated these recordings as instruments to build upon or transform completely, creating lyrical songs, sonic narratives, and experimental works. “When you put a hydrophone [into the ocean], it opens a whole new world,” said Whittaker. “When I first heard these various sounds from the archive, I was just amazed at the diversity of different sounds.” The frigid waters of Antarctica are full of ice, but under the surface is a dynamic sonic environment. Image credit: bhart9070 from Pixabay The German team created Polar Sounds in collaboration with Cities and Memory to engage the public with ocean research as part of the United Nation’s Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030). They described the project in a paper published recently in Marine Policy. Growing up in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/colliding-icebergs-and-chirping-seals-polar-ocean-sounds-are-reimagined-in-art-science-collaboration/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/colliding-icebergs-and-chirping-seals-polar-ocean-sounds-are-reimagined-in-art-science-collaboration/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
					<enclosure url="https://mongabay-images.s3.amazonaws.com/audio/Galvan_Sound_1.mp3" length="9656111" type="audio/mpeg" />
<enclosure url="https://mongabay-images.s3.amazonaws.com/audio/Galvan_Sound_2.mp3" length="7305116" type="audio/mpeg" />
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					<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290893</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Killer whales have found new homes in the Arctic Ocean, potentially reshaping marine ecology</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/killer-whales-have-found-new-homes-in-the-arctic-ocean-potentially-reshaping-marine-ecology/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/killer-whales-have-found-new-homes-in-the-arctic-ocean-potentially-reshaping-marine-ecology/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Dec 2024 01:44:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Caroline Hemphill]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/29060638/orca-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290908</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic, Arctic Ocean, and Greenland]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Cetaceans, Climate Change, Ecology, Impact Of Climate Change, Mammals, Marine, Marine Animals, Oceans, Sea Ice, Whales, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Killer whales (Orcinus orca) are finding a new place to roam in the rapidly changing Arctic Ocean. Though Indigenous people in the region have seen the whales, also known as orcas, pop up sporadically for centuries, the predators now have more access to the chilly waters than ever before. Two distinct killer whale populations now [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Killer whales (Orcinus orca) are finding a new place to roam in the rapidly changing Arctic Ocean. Though Indigenous people in the region have seen the whales, also known as orcas, pop up sporadically for centuries, the predators now have more access to the chilly waters than ever before. Two distinct killer whale populations now claim habitats in the Arctic, according to a team led by researchers at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada. But the whales’ presence raises conservation concerns that may be difficult to address, the team reported recently in Global Change Biology. Orcas follow a research vessel in Tremblay Sound, an inlet at Baffin Island, Canada. Photo credit: Fisheries and Oceans Canada Killer whales haven’t often been able to access the Arctic. Thick ice sheets posed a natural barrier, breaking their dorsal fin if they pushed too hard into it. But as the northern polar regions warm up faster than anywhere else on Earth, the ice melts, letting in more of the voracious predators. The researchers, led by evolutionary geneticist Colin Garroway of the University of Manitoba, were curious about the Arctic’s growing population of killer whales and their impacts. They decided to peek into the genomes of a few of the animals to find out where they came from. Initially, they used samples of blubber and skin collected over time by field biologists. “We did an analysis that’s something like 23AndMe,” said Garroway. The results: Two distinct populations of killer whales were sharing the Arctic&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/killer-whales-have-found-new-homes-in-the-arctic-ocean-potentially-reshaping-marine-ecology/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/killer-whales-have-found-new-homes-in-the-arctic-ocean-potentially-reshaping-marine-ecology/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290908</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Norway poised to sail past opposition with deep-sea mining licensing plans</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/norway-poised-to-sail-past-opposition-with-deep-sea-mining-licensing-plans/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/norway-poised-to-sail-past-opposition-with-deep-sea-mining-licensing-plans/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Oct 2024 19:19:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/07163849/orca-in-norway-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=288293</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic, Arctic Ocean, Europe, European Union, and Norway]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deep Sea, Deep Sea Mining, Environment, Environmental Law, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Industry, Marine, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Mining, Oceans, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Norway is poised to move forward with plans to mine for seabed minerals along its continental shelf despite public opposition. On June 26, the Norwegian Ministry of Energy released a proposal for the first licensing round for mining of seabed minerals, setting out areas where companies could eventually apply for licenses. The proposal included a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Norway is poised to move forward with plans to mine for seabed minerals along its continental shelf despite public opposition. On June 26, the Norwegian Ministry of Energy released a proposal for the first licensing round for mining of seabed minerals, setting out areas where companies could eventually apply for licenses. The proposal included a total of 386 blocks, constituting nearly 106,000 square kilometers (40,900 square miles), an area about the size of Iceland, that could potentially be used for mining activities. In January, Norway earmarked a total of 281,000 km2 (108,500 mi2) for mining after a majority of Parliament voted to push forward with the industry. The proposed blocks include areas rich in sulfides and manganese crusts, which contain in-demand minerals such as copper, zinc, cobalt and rare earth elements. Some proposed blocks overlap with active hydrothermal vent systems, although the government has said it will not allow mining to take place at active vent sites. The licensing round proposal included a three-month public consultation period, which closed Sept. 26. Astrid Bergmål, a state secretary in the Norwegian Ministry of Energy, told Mongabay the government will review all public consultation responses before announcing which areas to officially open for mining. She added that the government will base its decisions on “new, updated knowledge obtained by both state and commercial actors.” However, the government has given no indication that the granting of these license areas could be delayed or stopped based on feedback it had received. Terje Aasland, Norway’s minister&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/norway-poised-to-sail-past-opposition-with-deep-sea-mining-licensing-plans/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-288293</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Arctic sea ice hits summer minimum; Antarctic hovers at new winter lows</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/arctic-sea-ice-hits-summer-minimum-antarctic-hovers-at-new-winter-lows/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/arctic-sea-ice-hits-summer-minimum-antarctic-hovers-at-new-winter-lows/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Sep 2024 18:09:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Devitt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/24084644/5.Chinstrap-penguins-Antarctica-Seal-Island-NOAA-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287758</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Antarctica, Arctic, and Arctic Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Dioxide, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Earth Science, Environment, Extreme Weather, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Impact Of Climate Change, Ocean Warming, Permafrost, Research, Science, Sea Ice, and Temperatures]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For sea ice scientists, September is the time for polar highs and lows. Around mid-month, the Antarctic winter sea ice approaches its highest extent, while the Arctic summer thaw melts the region’s sea ice to its lowest extent. This year, Antarctic sea ice is shrinking to new winter lows for the second year in a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For sea ice scientists, September is the time for polar highs and lows. Around mid-month, the Antarctic winter sea ice approaches its highest extent, while the Arctic summer thaw melts the region’s sea ice to its lowest extent. This year, Antarctic sea ice is shrinking to new winter lows for the second year in a row, with only 17.15 million km2 (6.62 million mi2) remaining on September 19, according to satellite records analyzed by the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). This drop is almost one million km2 (roughly 400,000 mi2) less than the typical mid- September mean of about 18.5 million km2 (about 7.1 million mi2). But scientists say it may still be too soon to declare the winter sea ice annual maximum extent. In the Arctic this year, sea ice continues its multidecade downward slide, with just 4.28 million km2 (1.65 million mi2), making it the 7th lowest minimum in the satellite record, based on the NSIDC 5-day average extent. Polar researchers want to know: Is sea ice decline the new normal? “That&#8217;s the big question,” said Walt Meier, a sea ice expert with the NSIDC. “Is the Antarctic sea ice finally responding to global warming? Or is this just an extreme year or two?” Melting sea ice in the Arctic Ocean’s Canada Basin. Image courtesy of Jeremy Potter/NOAA. Southern sea ice setting record winter lows Historically, the sea ice that extends out from the edges of Antarctica has been far slower to respond to climate&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/arctic-sea-ice-hits-summer-minimum-antarctic-hovers-at-new-winter-lows/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287758</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Arctic melt ponds influence sea ice extent each summer — but how much?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/arctic-melt-ponds-influence-sea-ice-extent-each-summer-but-how-much/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/arctic-melt-ponds-influence-sea-ice-extent-each-summer-but-how-much/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Aug 2024 13:53:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Michael C. Bradbury]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/20111515/5-Marcel-Konig-and-Natascha-Oppelt-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=286266</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic and Arctic Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, data, Earth Science, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Impact Of Climate Change, Ocean Warming, Permafrost, Remote Sensing, Research, Satellite Imagery, Science, Sea Ice, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[July is the peak of melt season in the Arctic. The sun is high and shines for almost 24 hours a day. Air and water temperatures rise above freezing. Rapid midsummer melt is therefore both unremarkable and unsurprising. But it is also an unreliable indicator of just how much ice will cover the Arctic Ocean [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[July is the peak of melt season in the Arctic. The sun is high and shines for almost 24 hours a day. Air and water temperatures rise above freezing. Rapid midsummer melt is therefore both unremarkable and unsurprising. But it is also an unreliable indicator of just how much ice will cover the Arctic Ocean when the September annual sea ice minimum arrives. Now a combination of satellite and on-the-ice observations are helping scientists better understand summer sea ice behavior and track the evolution of melt ponds atop the ice, so as to more accurately forecast what extent will remain frozen at the September minimum. In separate research, scientists have recently demonstrated how to see details on sea ice, combining high- and low-resolution satellite images to get a clearer picture of melt ponds and thereby test how well climate models are capturing melt pond evolution. Scientists study Arctic melt pond evolution. Image courtesy of Melinda Webster, University of Washington. Uncovering melt ponds with satellites Ice and snow reflect sunlight, keeping the Arctic cool, while large dark areas of open ocean absorb abundant solar energy, which triggers more ice melt and delays the autumn refreeze. Melt ponds sitting atop the sea ice absorb more energy than fresh snow, but less than open water. So, understanding their evolution could help scientists better forecast future seasonal sea ice extent. But melt ponds have always been hard to see — especially on satellite images. Passive microwave data can’t distinguish between melt ponds and open&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/arctic-melt-ponds-influence-sea-ice-extent-each-summer-but-how-much/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-286266</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous Alaskans drive research in a melting arctic</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/alaskas-indigenous-join-hands-with-whale-researchers-as-arctic-melts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/alaskas-indigenous-join-hands-with-whale-researchers-as-arctic-melts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Jun 2024 12:11:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gabe Allen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/04120726/Screen-Shot-2024-06-04-at-2.07.07-PM-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282896</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation and Indigenous-led conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, Arctic, Arctic Ocean, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Culture, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Impact Of Climate Change, Indigenous Peoples, Ocean Warming, Permafrost, Research, Sea Ice, Traditional Knowledge, Traditional People, Whales, and Whaling]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For a few days each June, the saltwater wind that blows over the fairgrounds in Utqiagvik, Alaska mixes with the smell of coffee, salmonberry pie and fresh whale meat. The festivities start early and end under the midnight sun during Nalukataq, the annual whaling festival. By noon, the tables at the center of the fairgrounds [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For a few days each June, the saltwater wind that blows over the fairgrounds in Utqiagvik, Alaska mixes with the smell of coffee, salmonberry pie and fresh whale meat. The festivities start early and end under the midnight sun during Nalukataq, the annual whaling festival. By noon, the tables at the center of the fairgrounds are filled with slabs of whale blubber, cauldrons of stew and baked goods — enough to feed the town for a month. After a prayer, crew members circle the fairgrounds and fill coolers with food. Meanwhile, captains trade turns making speeches, pumping up the crowd and singing songs into a megaphone. On the first day of last summer’s festival, one cut of whale meat was conspicuously absent from the spread. The kidneys of a bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus), which are usually slow cooked through the morning, were sitting in wildlife veterinarian Raphaela Stimmelmayr’s laboratory eight kilometers (five miles) away at the North Slope Borough Department of Wildlife Management. A family accepts muktuk, whale blubber, at Nalukataq in Utqiagvik, Alaska. Image by Gabe Allen for Mongabay. Stimmelmayr received the organs back in March, just hours after the Little Kupaaq whaling crew successfully harpooned a 25-ton animal. Little Kupaaq member Martin Edwardsen was in the boat that day. With the community’s help, the Little Kupaaq crew hauled the animal onto the ice and butchered the meat. But, as Edwardsen cut out the kidneys, he noticed something off. Tiny translucent worms wriggled along the surface of the organs.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/alaskas-indigenous-join-hands-with-whale-researchers-as-arctic-melts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/alaskas-indigenous-join-hands-with-whale-researchers-as-arctic-melts/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282896</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Polar warning: Warming temperatures mean more than melted ice</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/polar-warning-warming-temperatures-mean-more-than-melted-ice/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/polar-warning-warming-temperatures-mean-more-than-melted-ice/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 May 2024 15:22:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Devitt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/27142652/Image-7.-BANNER-IMAGE-b.-Mount-discovery-NASA-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282543</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering Climate Now and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Antarctica, Arctic, Arctic Ocean, and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Earth Science, Environment, Extreme Weather, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Impact Of Climate Change, Ocean Warming, Permafrost, Research, Science, and Sea Ice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new study finds the terrestrial part of the Arctic has shifted from being a greenhouse gas sink to being a source. Another finds that El Niño undermines Antarctic ice shelves by intensifying melt from below, putting onshore glaciers at risk.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Most of us will never travel to Earth’s poles, but every creature on this planet will likely experience the consequences of escalating global warming in the polar north and south. Rapidly rising temperatures are radically altering the freezing, melting and precipitation patterns in the polar regions. And there’s strong evidence those changes don’t stay in the Arctic or Antarctic, but resonate across the world. Scientists now know that events in the far north and south affect global weather, sea level rise, biodiversity, ocean currents and more. Three recent studies add new insights about the effects of warming in the coldest places on Earth — and, by extension, on all of us. Aerial view of a permafrost thaw slump on Herschel Island (Nunataryuk project), Unorganized Yukon, Canada. Arctic permafrost can store greenhouse gases for many centuries, but when that permafrost melts it releases those gases and they add to global climate change. Image by GRID-Arendal via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0). Arctic shifting from greenhouse gas sink to source For centuries, the Arctic landscape has been a reliable long-term repository for greenhouse gases that, if released in large amounts into the atmosphere in coming years, could significantly accelerate global warming. But since the late 1970s, the Arctic has warmed at least twice — and perhaps almost four times — as fast as the rest of the world, leading to more thawed permafrost, raging record wildfires, and drastic terrain alterations. In March 2024, scientists released a new study of this changing landscape that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/polar-warning-warming-temperatures-mean-more-than-melted-ice/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282543</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Report ranks 60+ ideas, including geoengineering, to save the Arctic</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/report-ranks-60-ideas-including-geoengineering-to-save-the-arctic/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/report-ranks-60-ideas-including-geoengineering-to-save-the-arctic/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 May 2024 16:30:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/21142929/polar-bears-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282334</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic and Arctic Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, carbon, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Earth Science, Environment, Extreme Weather, Geoengineering, Global Environmental Crisis, Impact Of Climate Change, Ocean Warming, Research, Science, Sea Ice, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Scientists called for project ideas and scored them from reasonable to wild. While all agree cutting emissions needs action now, some of these methods of last resort could be tested, and one day be applied to save the polar region.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Last year was the hottest on record and possibly the hottest in 125,000 years — long before humans invented agriculture, the internet, the wheel, or beer pong. The planet is toasting. And flooding: On April 15, Dubai got more rain in 24 hours than it averages all year; a recent study linked this to climate change. Three days later, record flooding hit Kenya, killing more than 180 people and displacing 165,000. Then Brazil in May, with 150 dead and more than 600,000 people displaced. And burning: Last year’s record fire season seems headed to a second sizzling year, with Canada announcing the fire season start in February, with a dozen major out-of-control blazes covering at least 200,000 hectares (500,000 acres) by mid-May. The Amazon, including Venezuela, has been aflame, and the U.S. West is bracing for another above-normal wildfire year. And the ocean is seething: Marine heat waves have triggered massive die-offs, as Earth’s oceans have set heat records for 13 months straight. In April, scientists announced the world’s fourth catastrophic coral bleaching event. And amid all this, world leaders and fossil fuel companies continue resisting decisive climate action. Coral bleaching on Heron Island, Great Barrier Reef. Marine heat waves have triggered massive die-offs, as Earth’s oceans have set heat records for 13 months straight. Image by The Ocean Agency / Ocean Image Bank. All said, Earth is in peril, leaving some scientists and policymakers turning attention to a subject that was largely taboo just a few years ago, but&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/report-ranks-60-ideas-including-geoengineering-to-save-the-arctic/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282334</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Plastic pollution talks end &#038; Arctic peoples return home to a ‘sink’ of plastic</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/plastic-pollution-talks-end-arctic-people-return-home-to-a-sink-of-plastic/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/plastic-pollution-talks-end-arctic-people-return-home-to-a-sink-of-plastic/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 May 2024 10:00:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/06164158/indigenous-greenland-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=281739</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, Arctic, and Arctic Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Climate Justice, Conservation, Culture, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, food security, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Microplastics, Novel Entities, Oceans, Plastic, Politics, Pollution, Sea Ice, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Global plastic pollution talks in Ottawa came to a close April 30, and with them a group of Indigenous leaders from the Arctic are on their way home. But the mood remains bittersweet for the delegation that must return to a region that has become a “sink” collecting plastic pollution that arrives from around the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Global plastic pollution talks in Ottawa came to a close April 30, and with them a group of Indigenous leaders from the Arctic are on their way home. But the mood remains bittersweet for the delegation that must return to a region that has become a “sink” collecting plastic pollution that arrives from around the world. “Oil-producing countries and industries have wielded undue influence,” says Pamela Miller, executive director and senior scientist at Alaska Community Action on Toxics (ACAT) and co-chair of the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN). “We must ensure that the [next round of talks in November] is free of conflict of interest.” Though Indigenous delegates say there was significant progress in negotiations on a global treaty to curb plastics pollution by developing language to address harmful plastics chemicals, they were disappointed to see no commitments for cutting plastic production. They see high production and consumption of plastic as the root of the pollution problem. With the Arctic warming nearly four times faster than the rest of the world, communities in the Arctic are among the world’s most impacted by climate change and plastic pollution, according to a report published by ACAT and IPEN. Plastic pollution and the oil exploitation process to produce these petrochemicals are threatening Indigenous people&#8217;s health, food, livelihood, lands and human rights, say the authors. Climate change, they tell Mongabay, is exacerbating all these impacts. “This is a crisis,” Miller says. “And without curbing fossil fuel extraction and plastics production, the Arctic will continue&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/plastic-pollution-talks-end-arctic-people-return-home-to-a-sink-of-plastic/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/plastic-pollution-talks-end-arctic-people-return-home-to-a-sink-of-plastic/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-281739</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>It will take 880 years to achieve UN ocean conservation goals, at this rate (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/it-will-take-880-years-to-achieve-un-ocean-conservation-goals-at-this-rate-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/it-will-take-880-years-to-achieve-un-ocean-conservation-goals-at-this-rate-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Apr 2024 16:33:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Angelo Villagomez]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/03/06192357/OceanImageBank_GregoryPiper_32-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280957</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean, and Southern Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Commentary, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Marine, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The ninth Our Ocean conference takes place this week in Athens, Greece. It is the largest and highest profile conference of its kind, and attracts presidents and celebrities, who all try to outdo one another with bigger and stronger conservation commitments. This year I was invited to attend and will be speaking about my 20 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The ninth Our Ocean conference takes place this week in Athens, Greece. It is the largest and highest profile conference of its kind, and attracts presidents and celebrities, who all try to outdo one another with bigger and stronger conservation commitments. This year I was invited to attend and will be speaking about my 20 years of experience working as an Indigenous Chamorro scientist to protect the ocean. I plan to call attention to the fact that ocean conservation has lost momentum toward protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030 — and that a lot more needs to be done to address the human dimensions of conservation, including guaranteeing access rights, equity, and justice. According to the World Database of Protected Areas, at the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic in February 2020, 7.91% of the ocean was protected. That number stands at 8.01% today — an increase of only 0.1% over the last four years. False killer whales in the Mediterranean. Image by Vincent Kneefel / Ocean Image Bank. At this rate, raising the area of global ocean protection from 8% to 30% will take an additional 880 years. Put another way, achieving these goals by 2030 would require that marine-protected areas be designated at a rate nearly 150 times faster than what’s happening now. To put this in perspective, the Biden Administration is working feverishly to designate the proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary. Through the America the Beautiful for All Coalition and the National Ocean Protection Coalition,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/it-will-take-880-years-to-achieve-un-ocean-conservation-goals-at-this-rate-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/it-will-take-880-years-to-achieve-un-ocean-conservation-goals-at-this-rate-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280957</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Freeze on Russian collaboration disrupts urgently needed permafrost data flow</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/freeze-on-russian-collaboration-disrupts-urgently-needed-permafrost-data-flow/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/freeze-on-russian-collaboration-disrupts-urgently-needed-permafrost-data-flow/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Feb 2024 16:37:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Devitt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/02/20141748/polar-bear-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=279019</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic, Arctic Ocean, and Russia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Emission Reduction, Environment, Extinction, Extreme Weather, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Impact Of Climate Change, Permafrost, Planetary Boundaries, Research, Soil Carbon, and Tipping points]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It’s been two years since Russia invaded Ukraine and since the Arctic scientific community was cut off from its Russian colleagues. But permafrost melt is quickening and renewed data flow is needed to track Russian carbon emissions.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Warming temperatures in the Arctic are accelerating the thaw of carbon-rich permafrost and threatening to add massive amounts of carbon dioxide and methane to an atmosphere already overheating from the buildup of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. More than half that permafrost lies beneath remote Russian soil, where scientists have long worked in an international research community that freely shared its field stations, climate sensors and data sets to better understand the rapidly changing polar region’s planetary impacts. Researchers are especially eager to know when a dangerous tipping point may be reached that would trigger the release of vast amounts of greenhouse gases stored in frozen soils. But then came the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, and all that cooperation came to a halt, part of the fallout of Western sanctions on Russia. Since then, international researchers outside Russia have applied creative workarounds in order to continue their research, but problems remain. “If you haven&#8217;t seen or touched or smelled permafrost, it’s challenging to talk with people about it,” says Guido Grosse, a geologist at Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute. In fact, people living on permafrost don’t always know it, as it can be hidden below the soil surface. To make permafrost more “real,” Grosse often brings permafrost samples to presentations for people to touch. Image courtesy of bradosav via Flickr (CC by 2.0). A frigid world grudgingly gives up its secrets Sometimes called the “global freezer,” permafrost is a surface and subterranean mix of soils, rock, sediment, organic&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/freeze-on-russian-collaboration-disrupts-urgently-needed-permafrost-data-flow/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/freeze-on-russian-collaboration-disrupts-urgently-needed-permafrost-data-flow/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-279019</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The new Arctic: Amid record heat, ecosystems morph and wildlife struggle</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/the-new-arctic-amid-record-heat-ecosystems-morph-and-wildlife-struggle/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/the-new-arctic-amid-record-heat-ecosystems-morph-and-wildlife-struggle/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Feb 2024 15:02:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/02/14134109/POSSIBLE-BANNER-IMAGE_35A1906-Image-by-Sharon-Guynup-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=278847</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, Arctic, Arctic Ocean, and Greenland]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Climate Change, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Extinction, Extreme Weather, Global Warming, Impact Of Climate Change, Mammals, Marine, Marine Animals, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Planetary Boundaries, Sea Ice, Sea Levels, Tipping points, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Over millennia, animals including walruses, seals, lemmings, muskox and migratory birds evolved to survive the polar north’s extreme cold. But on land and at sea, wildlife are struggling to adapt to a rapidly warming climate and altered ecosystems.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Walruses have traversed the Arctic for millennia, gregarious pinnipeds that rest en masse on drifting pack ice, diving to feed on crabs, clams and other seafloor delicacies. Icy platforms also serve as safe birthing and nursery grounds. But as the far north rapidly warms and sea ice disappears, some herds now huddle on overcrowded shorelines, with deadly consequences for young calves: Because more disturbances occur on shore than at sea, calves are regularly trampled during panicked stampedes by the 1-ton-plus adults. Climate-driven changes are affecting other wildlife across this land of snow and ice. On the Arctic tundra, lemmings now struggle to eat, nest and move during the eight winter months they live beneath the snow, as they endure “weather whiplash,” with ever more severe fluctuations in temperature, snow and rain, says ecologist Dorothee Ehrich, at the Climate Ecological Observatory for Arctic Tundra with Norway’s Arctic University. As warming escalates, animals are on the move, bringing new diseases north. In December, officials reported that H5N1 avian flu infected and killed a polar bear — a global first. This highly infectious strain has circulated internationally since 2021, jumping between species, and has reached the polar region. It’s just one example of new pathogens there, raising serious concern because isolated Arctic species have little immunity to disease. Walruses have a diverse diet, feeding on dozens of genera of marine organisms, but the species prefers bivalve mollusks for which it forages by diving and grazing along the shallow sea bottom. Image © Steve&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/the-new-arctic-amid-record-heat-ecosystems-morph-and-wildlife-struggle/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/the-new-arctic-amid-record-heat-ecosystems-morph-and-wildlife-struggle/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-278847</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>EU parliament expresses disapproval of Norway’s deep-sea mining plans</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/eu-parliament-expresses-disapproval-of-norways-deep-sea-mining-plans/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/eu-parliament-expresses-disapproval-of-norways-deep-sea-mining-plans/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Feb 2024 19:21:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/02/08142228/bearded-seal-norway-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=278683</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic, Arctic Ocean, Europe, European Union, and Norway]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deep Sea, Deep Sea Mining, Environment, Environmental Law, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Industry, Marine, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Mining, Oceans, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The European Parliament has voted in favor of a resolution that raises concerns about Norway’s deep-sea mining intentions in Arctic waters. While the resolution itself doesn’t carry any legal power to stop Norway, experts say it sends a “strong signal” that the European Union — which Norway is not a part of, but is a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The European Parliament has voted in favor of a resolution that raises concerns about Norway’s deep-sea mining intentions in Arctic waters. While the resolution itself doesn’t carry any legal power to stop Norway, experts say it sends a “strong signal” that the European Union — which Norway is not a part of, but is a close partner to — doesn’t support its plans. The resolution presented a litany of issues related to Norway’s deep-sea mining plans, including the possibility that extracting minerals from the Arctic seabed could disrupt fisheries, release methane stored in sub-glacial ecosystems and Arctic permafrost soils, and lead to a general loss in biodiversity and the functioning of marine ecosystems. It also noted that seven EU states, several international companies and organizations like the IUCN have called for a moratorium, a precautionary pause, or ban on deep-seabed mining. The resolution also stated that Norway’s own Environment Agency raised concerns with the Norwegian government’s environmental impact assessment containing “significant knowledge gaps on nature, technology and the potential environmental effects” for proposed its mineral extraction activities. The motion for this resolution received overwhelming support, with 523 members of the European Parliament voting in favor of it during a parliamentary session that took place in Strasbourg, France, on Feb. 7. Only 34 members voted against the resolution, and 59 abstained from voting. Catherine Chabaud, a French member of the European Parliament, whose political group, Renew Europe Group, supported this resolution, said the vote indicates a “strong position of the parliament.”&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/eu-parliament-expresses-disapproval-of-norways-deep-sea-mining-plans/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/eu-parliament-expresses-disapproval-of-norways-deep-sea-mining-plans/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-278683</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>North Atlantic orcas reveal the troubling persistence of toxic ocean pollutants</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/north-atlantic-orcas-reveal-the-troubling-persistence-of-toxic-ocean-pollutants/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/north-atlantic-orcas-reveal-the-troubling-persistence-of-toxic-ocean-pollutants/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Nov 2023 14:25:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kristel Tjandra]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/11/24234954/nitesh-jain-orca_unsplash-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=275880</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic, Arctic Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Greenland, and Iceland]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Cetaceans, Mammals, Marine Mammals, Oceans, Pollution, Predators, Top Predators, Toxicology, Water Pollution, and Whales]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[With their shiny black tops and pure white undersides, the killer whales, or orcas, are the sleekest hunters in the ocean. But being apex predators comes with a great cost. Their bodies absorb the chemical pollutants that build up in the long chain of prey leading to their meals. Now, a recent study in Environmental [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[With their shiny black tops and pure white undersides, the killer whales, or orcas, are the sleekest hunters in the ocean. But being apex predators comes with a great cost. Their bodies absorb the chemical pollutants that build up in the long chain of prey leading to their meals. Now, a recent study in Environmental Science &amp; Technology has shown that what orcas choose to eat could affect their survival more than scientists thought. Every year over the past decade, a team of international marine biologists went to the North Atlantic Ocean to collect samples of killer whales’ blubber—the fat layer beneath their skin. The study, which covered an area spanning the Canadian Arctic, Eastern Canada, Greenland, Iceland, and Norway, was the most comprehensive of its kind. The team&#8217;s analysis of 162 North Atlantic killer whale (Orcinus orca) samples showed a startling level of various chemical pollutants, despite their remote ranges. “These killer whales are pretty much isolated,” said Anaïs Remili, a marine biologist at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and lead author of the study. “They&#8217;re super elusive, and we don&#8217;t really know where they are. They&#8217;re far away from any human settlement.” Anaïs Remili, on an expedition in Iceland, uses an air gun to shoot darts that collect small samples of blubber from orcas. Credit: Anaïs Remili To collect the blubber samples, Remili and her colleagues shot darts fired from an air gun into the orcas’ skin layer. “You have to approach the whales slowly to make sure&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/north-atlantic-orcas-reveal-the-troubling-persistence-of-toxic-ocean-pollutants/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-275880</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Record North Atlantic heat sees phytoplankton decline, fish shift to Arctic</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/record-north-atlantic-heat-sees-phytoplankton-decline-fish-shift-to-arctic/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/record-north-atlantic-heat-sees-phytoplankton-decline-fish-shift-to-arctic/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Oct 2023 18:29:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Juliette Portala]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/12161218/trawler-atlantic-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274249</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic, Arctic Ocean, and Atlantic Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Emissions, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, data, Environment, Extreme Weather, Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Impact Of Climate Change, Microorganisms, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Remote Sensing, Research, Saltwater Fish, Temperatures, and Weather]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Scientists were shocked by the high degree of warming in the North Atlantic Ocean this summer, and are concerned about effects on phytoplankton and fish. Intensifying and lengthening marine heatwaves around the globe are also worrying.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The verdict is in: Global sea temperatures shattered new heat records in 2023, with anomalous warmth erupting in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean in a year that also saw numerous record-setting extreme terrestrial heat waves, droughts, floods and wildfires on five continents. According to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), North Atlantic waters reached a high of 24.9° Celsius (76.82° Fahrenheit) in July — where an annual peak isn’t usually reached until early September, worrying the scientific community about repercussions for aquatic life. July’s record high was more than 1°C (1.8°F) warmer than the 30-year climatological normal for the North Atlantic from 1982 to 2011. Researchers say rapid warming in the region is endangering phytoplankton — the base of the marine food chain, thus reducing food availability for species that depend on these microscopic algae to survive. A hotter North Atlantic could also be accelerating the “Atlantification” of the Arctic Ocean, as more temperate fish species move into Arctic waters to beat the heat. All this comes as a new El Niño takes hold globally in 2023. El Niños — caused by the development of a band of warmer surface water in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean — recur naturally every few years. They have major impacts on the world’s weather, including elevated atmospheric temperatures, which could in turn increase ocean warming, lengthening and intensifying marine heat waves. NOAA says this El Niño has a greater than 95% likelihood of lasting through January-March 2024, with a more than&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/record-north-atlantic-heat-sees-phytoplankton-decline-fish-shift-to-arctic/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/record-north-atlantic-heat-sees-phytoplankton-decline-fish-shift-to-arctic/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-274249</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sensing tech used in oil pipelines can also track Arctic sea ice, study shows</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/sensing-tech-used-in-oil-pipelines-can-also-track-arctic-sea-ice-study-shows/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/sensing-tech-used-in-oil-pipelines-can-also-track-arctic-sea-ice-study-shows/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Sep 2023 14:50:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/09/11144706/anders-jilden-PXdBkNF8rlk-unsplash-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=273141</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic and Arctic Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, data, Earth Science, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Ice Shelves, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Remote Sensing, Research, Science, Sea Ice, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Andres Peña Castro and his team didn’t set out to track sea ice. Their original plan was to quantify the interactions between ocean, earth and atmosphere to be able to understand phenomena such as the state of the sea or storm surges. Instead, they ended up piloting a way to use existing undersea fiber-optic cables [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Andres Peña Castro and his team didn’t set out to track sea ice. Their original plan was to quantify the interactions between ocean, earth and atmosphere to be able to understand phenomena such as the state of the sea or storm surges. Instead, they ended up piloting a way to use existing undersea fiber-optic cables in the Arctic to track the extent of sea ice and monitor how it’s changing. “We were not at all expecting to be able to see sea ice changes clearly in the data,” Peña Castro, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of New Mexico, told Mongabay in a video interview. In a study published in August in the journal The Seismic Record, Peña Castro and his colleagues described how they monitored changes in sea ice in the Beaufort Sea with the help of “ambient noise recorded by fiber-optic sensing technology deployed in an Arctic shallow marine seafloor environment.” While the findings were based on research at one location, they say the method could potentially be scaled up at other sites with existing fiber-optic cables. Studying how frozen seawater is changing is essential to measuring the impacts of global warming. Sea ice is usually monitored with the help of satellite imagery. However, the lack of high-resolution images often makes it difficult to gauge the reality in detail. Additionally, the data received from satellites often have time gaps. “They can probably make measurements maybe only once every day because the satellite has to orbit the entire Earth,”&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/sensing-tech-used-in-oil-pipelines-can-also-track-arctic-sea-ice-study-shows/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/sensing-tech-used-in-oil-pipelines-can-also-track-arctic-sea-ice-study-shows/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-273141</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>To protect the oceans, we must map them (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/to-protect-the-oceans-we-must-map-them-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/to-protect-the-oceans-we-must-map-them-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Aug 2023 15:52:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Dawn Wright]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/08/10151946/Ocean-relief-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=272008</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean, and Southern Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Deep Sea, Drones, Ecosystems, Exploration, Green, Marine, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Research, Science, Technology, Wildtech, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[How had we missed this until now? An undersea mountain as tall as three Eiffel Towers. DDT contamination spread across an area of the seabed as large as San Francisco. Tens of thousands of undersea volcanoes. All hidden beneath the surface. For decades, my impassioned ocean science colleagues and I have spoken out about the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[How had we missed this until now? An undersea mountain as tall as three Eiffel Towers. DDT contamination spread across an area of the seabed as large as San Francisco. Tens of thousands of undersea volcanoes. All hidden beneath the surface. For decades, my impassioned ocean science colleagues and I have spoken out about the need to “save our ocean.” But to save it, we first have to understand it. About 80% of our ocean remains “unmapped, unobserved, and unexplored,” according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And that’s despite scientists, including myself, who have spent their lives studying and even diving to its unexplored depths. One of Esri&#8217;s marine mapping efforts visualizes ecological marine units (EMU), a comprehensive, standardized analysis layer of the physical, chemical, and biological properties of the oceans. Image courtesy of Esri. Now, we have the right technology to understand — and save — our ocean. Un-crewed, solar-powered marine drones explore with a wide range of sensors. High-resolution satellites and aircraft collect imagery. Remote operating vehicles can go deeper and further while recording data from the environment below. When paired with modern digital mapping, this new information reveals critical insights. There are even plans to build the Proteus research facility, akin to the space station, underwater off a Caribbean coast where researchers will live and work. The timing couldn’t be better as there is growing global urgency to do more to protect our ocean. All the excess heat our human activity is creating? The&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/to-protect-the-oceans-we-must-map-them-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/to-protect-the-oceans-we-must-map-them-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-272008</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Melting Arctic sea ice is changing bowhead whale migrations, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/melting-arctic-sea-ice-is-changing-bowhead-whale-migrations-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/melting-arctic-sea-ice-is-changing-bowhead-whale-migrations-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 May 2023 19:05:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Nandithachandraprakash]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/05/23140502/bowhead-mother-and-calf-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=268909</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering Climate Now]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic and Arctic Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Impact Of Climate Change, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Mammals, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Whales, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A population of bowhead whales living in the western Arctic has long followed the same migration patterns. But new research suggests that climate change and the subsequent melting of sea ice are altering their movements, raising concerns about the future impacts on these whales and the Indigenous populations reliant on them for nutrition and ​​cultural [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A population of bowhead whales living in the western Arctic has long followed the same migration patterns. But new research suggests that climate change and the subsequent melting of sea ice are altering their movements, raising concerns about the future impacts on these whales and the Indigenous populations reliant on them for nutrition and ​​cultural subsistence. Researchers used acoustic data, as well as traditional knowledge, aerial surveys and satellite tagging, to examine the shifting distribution and movement of the Bering–Chukchi–Beaufort (BCB) population of the bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus). These whales typically spend the winter in the northwestern Bering Sea, the northern span of the Pacific Ocean, between Alaska and Russia. They then move northward through the Bering Strait from April and May to reach the Chukchi and western Beaufort seas in the Arctic. From there, they shift toward the east to spend the summer in the Canadian Beaufort Sea. From August to October, they usually move westward toward the Chukotka Peninsula in Russia before eventually returning to the northwestern Bering Sea for the following winter. But now, these patterns may be shifting. New research suggests that climate change and the subsequent melting of sea ice are altering bowhead whales&#8217; movements. Image by Bering Land Bridge National Preserve via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0). Drawing on acoustic data from whale songs and non-song calls, the study found that some bowhead whales from the BCB populations were no longer returning to the northwestern Bering Sea as usual. Instead, they remained in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/melting-arctic-sea-ice-is-changing-bowhead-whale-migrations-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/melting-arctic-sea-ice-is-changing-bowhead-whale-migrations-study-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-268909</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Norway proposes opening Germany-sized area of its continental shelf to deep-sea mining</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/norway-proposes-opening-germany-sized-area-of-its-continental-shelf-to-deep-sea-mining/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/norway-proposes-opening-germany-sized-area-of-its-continental-shelf-to-deep-sea-mining/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Apr 2023 16:04:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/04/20131619/walrus-norway-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=267686</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic, Arctic Ocean, Europe, European Union, and Norway]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deep Sea, Deep Sea Mining, Environment, Environmental Law, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Industry, Marine, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Mongabay Data Studio, Oceans, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Norway is moving forward with plans to mine its continental shelf to procure minerals critical for renewable energy technologies. However, some scientists, members of civil society and even industry leaders have raised concerns about Norway’s proposal, arguing that deep-sea mining in this part of the ocean could cause widespread environmental harm. The nation’s Ministry of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Norway is moving forward with plans to mine its continental shelf to procure minerals critical for renewable energy technologies. However, some scientists, members of civil society and even industry leaders have raised concerns about Norway’s proposal, arguing that deep-sea mining in this part of the ocean could cause widespread environmental harm. The nation’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has proposed opening up a 329,000-square-kilometer (127,000-square-mile) portion of the Norwegian Sea to deep-sea mining, an area nearly the size of Germany. The region overlaps with many marine areas previously flagged by Norwegian research institutes and government agencies as vulnerable or valuable. A study by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD), a government agency responsible for regulating petroleum resources, found that this area holds significant quantities of minerals such as magnesium, cobalt, copper, nickel and rare-earth metals. Investigators found these minerals on manganese crusts on seamounts and sulfide deposits on active, inactive or extinct hydrothermal vents at depths of 700-4,000 meters (2,296-13,123 feet). A sliver of this proposed mining area is within Norway’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The rest falls across the adjoining continental shelf — the gently sloping seabed stretching out from Norway’s mainland into the ocean — in international waters beyond Norway’s jurisdiction. However, Norway gained access to the continental shelf that borders its EEZ in 2009 after filing an application with the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, a U.N. body that manages extended access to the nations’ continental shelves. Norway’s access applies only to the seabed, not&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/norway-proposes-opening-germany-sized-area-of-its-continental-shelf-to-deep-sea-mining/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/norway-proposes-opening-germany-sized-area-of-its-continental-shelf-to-deep-sea-mining/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-267686</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Southern atmospheric rivers drive irreversible melting of Arctic sea ice: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/southern-atmospheric-rivers-are-melting-the-arctic-sea-ice-it-may-never-recover-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/southern-atmospheric-rivers-are-melting-the-arctic-sea-ice-it-may-never-recover-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Mar 2023 18:27:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alec Luhn]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/03/23155324/5-A-polar-bear-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=266794</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering Climate Now, Covering the Commons, and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic and Arctic Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Emissions, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, data, Environment, Extreme Weather, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Ice Shelves, Impact Of Climate Change, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Remote Sensing, Research, Sea Ice, Temperatures, and Weather]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[New research finds that a record Arctic sea ice melt season in 2007 initiated a “regime shift” to thinner, more transient ice that may be “irreversible”; another study shows that atmospheric rivers from the south are warming the Arctic in winter.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As Arctic sea ice reached a total winter maximum coverage that is again far below average, research has revealed how this ice is vulnerable to extreme weather arriving from more southerly parts of the globe — and how it might never recover. Arctic sea ice, which expands through the fall and winter, reached an annual maximum extent of 14.62 million square kilometers (5.64 million square miles) on March 6, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). That means Arctic sea ice is starting the summer melt season more than a million square kilometers below average. The maximum, which came almost a week earlier than normal, is the fifth-lowest in the 45-year satellite record. Antarctic sea ice extent has been in an even sorrier state, setting a record melt season low in February for the second year in a row, in what may be a sign that global warming will soon impact that polar system just as it&#8217;s been impacting Arctic sea ice. The combined sea ice extent around both poles hit a record low in January. While ice reflects most solar radiation, open water absorbs it, accelerating global warming in what is known as the ice-albedo feedback. With warmer El Niño conditions expected to return later this year, significantly raising global temperature, the north polar ice cap could break its own record for lowest extent this fall. But it&#8217;s impossible to make any predictions, since highly variable summer weather patterns tend to have the biggest impact on&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/southern-atmospheric-rivers-are-melting-the-arctic-sea-ice-it-may-never-recover-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-266794</doi>				</item>
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