ed struzik – Food Insecurity: Arctic Heat Is Threatening Indigenous Life

The decades-long trend of extreme Arctic warming hit new heights this winter, as a mass of exceptionally warm air invaded the region, raising temperatures by almost 50 degrees Fahrenheit above average in some areas and driving temperatures above the freezing mark at the North Pole in late December. Arctic Ocean ice cover reached a new record winter low last month, putting even …

Dahr Jamail – The Melting Arctic’s Dramatic Impact on Global Weather Patterns

Arctic sea ice is melting at a record pace – and every summer looks grimmer. This past summer saw the ice pack at its fourth-lowest level on record, and the overall trend in recent decades suggests this will only continue. “Using satellites, scientists have found that the area of sea ice coverage each September has declined by more than 40 …

Alex Kirby – Rapid warming brings Arctic changes

Scientists in the US who have been checking on the health of the Arctic over the last year are worried by what they’ve learned: it’s warmer, has less ice, and some of its animals and fish are facing new stresses. And in a surprise finding , which they cannot yet explain, the scientists discovered that green vegetation over much of …

Climate Change Driving ‘Profound’ Shift in Arctic Ecosystem

NOAA warns Arctic is warming ‘twice as fast as other parts of the planet’ The 2015 report card compiled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and released Tuesday comes to a disturbing conclusion: record highs in air temperatures, and lows in peak ice, reveal that—for the marine ecosystem—climate change is already “profound.” “Changes in sea ice alone are …

You ain’t seen nothing yet! Northeast’s Next Winter Is Going to Be Freakishly Cold

“When it comes to the global climate, what happens in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic. The latest proof comes in new research connecting the unusually brutal winter of 2014–15 along the East Coast of North America to rapidly vanishing summer sea ice on the western side of the Arctic Ocean.” Emily J. Gertz Take Part’s Assoiciate editor …

Retreating sea ice linked to changes in ocean circulation, could affect European climate

Retreating sea ice in the Iceland and Greenland Seas may be changing the circulation of warm and cold water in the Atlantic Ocean, and could ultimately impact the climate in Europe, says a new study by an atmospheric physicist from the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) and his colleagues in Great Britain, Norway and the United States. “A warm western …

Panel of international climate scientists says the world has only until 2050 to become a zero-carbon society − but the rewards for doing so would be immense. – Alex Kirby

If you want to know what we have to do to avoid catastrophic climate change, 17 of the world’s leading climate scientists have worked out a simple but challenging solution: the world, they say, must turn by mid-century into a zero-carbon society. The signatories to today’s “Earth Statement” say: “This trajectory is not one of economic pain, but of economic …

Phytoplankton, reducing greenhouse gases or amplifying Arctic warming?

Phytoplankton, commonly known as plant plankton that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis, are potentially a key driver of Arctic warming under greenhouse warming, a study reveals. Scientists with Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M), and Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST), presented on Monday, April 20, in Proceedings of …

Mysterious affliction in Alaska polar bears suffering baldness and lesions; Rate spiked nearly 1,000% after Fukushima began — Gov’t: Ongoing reports of unusual number of ‘hairless seals’ with sores — “Seals continue to be reported with hair loss… it makes us nervous”

Alaska Dispatch News, Dec 11, 2014 (emphasis added): Polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea area are suffering hair loss due to a condition called alopecia syndrome… but the precise cause of that stress is yet to be determined, according to a new study… in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases… Over the study period, 3.45 percent of the bears examined had alopecia syndrome — [loss …

Apocalyptic Meltdown: The Nightmare is Underway

It’s happening! Humanity’s greatest nightmare is already well underway. Wherever ice is found, appreciable melt is deep-seated, out of control, cascading into the seas shore-to-shore all across the planet. It’s all about too much heat! The trend is in place, and it is accelerating. Global warming is very real. Thus, the most pertinent questions going forward are: How fast it …