As 2019 melt season nears end, 40 years of satellite data reveal a rapidly warming polar region, with no end in sight, plus multiple impacts for a changing planet. This story has been updated.
High heat and conditioning throughout this year’s melt season put a hurting on Arctic sea ice, but it may still take big storms or more heat to break 2012 extent record.
A very hot Arctic spring has caused sea ice volume to fall rapidly to a new record, putting 2019 in position to challenge 2012 for lowest ice volume and extent this September.
Though the trend can still change, Arctic sea ice extent could be on track for a record melt year, impacting the jet stream and bringing more extreme weather to the U.S. and world.
Sea ice melt is nearly two weeks ahead of past records for early April, while a new study finds that the Arctic system is trending away from its 20th century state into an unprecedented state.
Though sea ice extent was up across much of the Arctic at winter maximum, the Bering Sea lost an ice area the size of Montana, and Greenland has been receiving winter rains.
With the Arctic’s melting ice cover leaving the ocean ice-free for longer periods of time, new shipping routes are opening up, paving the way for future commercial activities. But under…
For 19th-century adventurers like Sir John Franklin, navigating a path through the ice-choked Northwest Passage — the Holy Grail of Arctic exploration — was a treacherous and often deadly undertaking.…
An increasingly ice-free Arctic could test the adaptability of marine mammals, a new study has found, as hundreds of ships in recent years have used the newly open polar seas…
A very mild May over the Arctic Ocean could be setting us up for record ice loss at the September minimum; a giant cyclone and high temps in June escalated the melt.
Under the Arctic ice, a mysterious concert plays out each winter. Bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) living east of Greenland break into a wide range of complex, intricate songs, showcasing a…
With the Arctic winter of 2017-18 the warmest on record, researchers are finding a troubling range of climate change impacts on wildlife, including wolverines, reindeer, snowy owls, and more.
1. U.S. drops out of Paris In our 2015 ocean top 10 list, we celebrated the adoption of the Paris Agreement as a monumental achievement for slowing the warming, acidification…
The past couple weeks have brought major news about two important new marine reserves. On November 24, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto signed a decree creating the Revillagigedo Archipelago National…
Summer sea ice didn’t reach its lowest extent on record in 2017, but that’s not the only measurement that matters, experts warn.
To some, watching sea ice melt — each floe dissolving slowly away into the Arctic Ocean — might seem the cold-weather equivalent of watching paint dry. But for the roughly…
As always, Mongabay covered a mix of environmental stories this year. While some species went extinct, several new species were discovered. Some forests were wiped out, but others were restored. Below, we take a look…
Water and air temperatures and shifts in wind patterns conspired to hold down sea ice extent, setting record lows for the month of November in both the Arctic and the…
Greenland sharks, living in the cold, deep waters of the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans, are one of the largest sharks in the world -- they can grow up to…
Following record-breaking high global temperatures, both Arctic Ocean sea ice and Greenland’s massive ice sheet have responded with dramatic early seasonal melting. These conditions are likely to increase overall ice…
Winters in the Arctic are long, cold and dark. Nights can last for many days — sometimes even months — plunging some areas into long periods of unbroken darkness. While…
Arctic sea ice reached its annual minimum on September 11 this year and scientists say it appears the accelerated pace of sea ice decline has continued into 2015. According to…
On July 16, all five countries bordering the Arctic Ocean — the United States, Norway, Canada, Denmark, and Russia — signed an agreement that prohibits commercial fishing in the international…
Scientists collected water samples to measure ocean acidification in the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort seas on two research cruises aboard the US Coast Guard cutter Healy. Photo credit: Jeremy Mathis…
Chukotkan dancers. Subsistence hunting will be increasingly difficult for the Inuit who depend on marine mammals in the Arctic to provide them with food and materials for clothing. Photo by:…
Yeb Saño joins Greenpeace Arctic voyage to underline severity of climate change, has hope cooperative efforts can reduce impact Ahead of the upcoming Climate Change Summit to be held in…
Dutch police arrested 31 Greenpeace activists today, who were attempting to block the Russian oil tanker, Mikhail Ulyanov, from delivering the first shipment of offshore Arctic oil to the European…
Yesterday, the European Parliament passed a resolution supporting the creation of an Arctic Sanctuary covering the vast high Arctic around the North Pole, giving official status to an idea that…
Facing plunging profits, Royal Dutch Shell has announced it will cut exploration and development funding by nearly $10 billion this year, including halting their long-suffering plans to drill in the…
