Arctic - Inside Climate News

Study Maps Giant Slush Zones as New Threat to Antarctic Ice

By Bob Berwyn — Thu, 27 Jun 2024 20:09:12 +0000

Waterlogged areas could cause more ice shelves to crack or disintegrate, leading to faster sea level rise.

By Bob Berwyn

A detailed new analysis of NASA satellite images shows there is much more meltwater sitting atop Antarctica’s ice shelves than previously estimated, much of it in huge slush zones that haven’t been carefully mapped until now. The new information will help determine how vulnerable the shelves are to cracking and disintegration, according to an international team of scientists who published their findings in Nature Geoscience this week.

Glaciers in Peru’s Central Andes Might Be Gone by 2050s, Study Says

By Alexa Robles-Gil — Tue, 11 Jun 2024 09:00:00 +0000

New insights could help government manage water resources and preserve the mountains.

By Alexa Robles-Gil

In a village in Checacupe, in the southern region of Cusco in the Peruvian Andes, there used to be a ceremony to prepare a glacier lagoon to gather water, said Richart Aybar Quispe Soto, a local hospital worker. It was a ritual that revered the apus, the spirits of the mountains and water, he said.

In Two New Studies, Scientists See Signs of Fundamental Climate Shifts in Antarctica

By Bob Berwyn — Mon, 20 May 2024 19:37:31 +0000

A steep decline of Antarctic sea ice may mark a long-term transformation in the Southern Ocean, and seawater intrusions beneath the Thwaites Glacier could explain its melting outpacing projections.

By Bob Berwyn

Antarctica’s vast ice fields and the floating sea ice surrounding the continent are Earth’s biggest heat shields, bouncing solar radiation away from the planet, but two studies released today show how global warming is encroaching even on the sunlight reflector in the coldest region on the planet.

Reduced Snow Cover and Shifting Vegetation Are Disrupting Alpine Ecosystems, Study Finds

By Moriah McDonald — Sat, 20 Apr 2024 09:10:00 +0000

Climate change is disrupting the nitrogen cycle between some plants and soil microbes, bringing “false springs” during the day that leave plants more vulnerable to frigid nights.

By Moriah McDonald

Reduced snow cover and vegetation shifts in the Alps, driven, to some degree, by climate change, are leading some mountain ecosystems to struggle to hold onto nutrients that feed vegetation, a new study shows.

As Plastic Treaty Delegates Head to Canada, A Plea From the Arctic: Don’t Forget Vulnerable Indigenous Peoples

By James Bruggers — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 12:00:00 +0000

Advocates hope a U.N. meeting can revive plastics pollution talks and meet a year-end goal for a global agreement.

By James Bruggers

Indigenous people from Arctic communities are calling for environmental protection in the runup to this month’s round of negotiations aimed at securing a global treaty to end plastic pollution.

Study Pinpoints Links Between Melting Arctic Ice and Summertime Extreme Weather in Europe

By Bob Berwyn — Fri, 01 Mar 2024 10:10:00 +0000

New research shows how last year’s warming melted ice in Greenland that increased flows of fresh, cold water into the North Atlantic, upsetting ocean currents in ways that lead to atmospheric changes.

By Bob Berwyn

The Arctic Ocean is mostly enclosed by the coldest parts of the Northern Hemisphere’s continents, ringed in by Siberia, Alaska and the Canadian Arctic, with only a small opening to the Pacific through the Bering Strait, and some narrow channels through the labyrinth of Canada’s Arctic archipelago.

New Research from Antarctica Affirms the Threat of the ‘Doomsday Glacier,’ but Funding to Keep Studying It Is Running Out

By Bob Berwyn — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 22:05:00 +0000

In a worst case scenario, rising global temperatures and marine heatwaves could melt enough of the Thwaites Glacier and other Antarctic ice to raise sea levels 10 feet by the early 2100s.

By Bob Berwyn

When he saw the 75-mile wide ice front of the remote Thwaites Glacier looming out of the Amundsen Sea for the first time in 2019, ice researcher James Kirkham felt a sense of foreboding.

A New Study Revealed Big Underestimates of Greenland Ice Loss—and the Power of New Technologies to Track the Changes

By Moriah McDonald — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 10:05:00 +0000

Better tracking of declines at the edges of the ice sheets suggests previous estimates missed 20 percent of the meltoff. The research highlights the role AI can play in accurately capturing the glaciers’ decline.

By Moriah McDonald

Although a new study of the mass of the Greenland Ice Sheet shows that previous research underestimated its ice loss by about 20 percent, which could lead to unexpected increases in sea level rise, it also held good news about the technological advancements used to make such measurements.

The World Is Losing Migratory Species at Alarming Rates

By Katie Surma — Mon, 12 Feb 2024 08:45:00 +0000

A first of its kind U.N. study by conservation scientists finds nearly half of internationally protected migratory species are on their way to extinction.

By Katie Surma

Humans are driving migratory animals—sea turtles, chimpanzees, lions and penguins, among dozens of other species—towards extinction, according to the most comprehensive assessment of migratory species ever carried out.

Extreme Climate Impacts From Collapse of a Key Atlantic Ocean Current Could be Worse Than Expected, a New Study Warns

By Bob Berwyn — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 19:00:00 +0000

Disruption of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current could freeze Europe, scorch the tropics and increase sea level rise in the North Atlantic. The tipping point may be closer than predicted in the IPCC’s latest assessment.

By Bob Berwyn

A new study affirms that a critical system of Atlantic Ocean currents that shunt warm and cold water between the poles is “on course” to a tipping point. If the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation fails because of increasing freshwater inflows from melting ice sheets and rivers swelled by global warming, the authors said it would disrupt the climate globally, shifting Asian monsoon rainfall patterns and even reversing the rainy and dry seasons in the Amazon.