Despite a cool, cloudy summer, the ice levels in the Arctic have shrunk enough to tie with the second-lowest Arctic sea ice minimum, recorded in 2007. "Historically such weather conditions slow down the summer ice loss, but we still got down to essentially a tie for second lowest on the satellite record," reports US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) director Mark Serreze.
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A fissure that has been steadily growing across the Larson C ice shelf off of the Antarctic Peninsula has been a concern for scientists since it began extending through the ice between 2011 and 2015. The Larsen C ice shelf, described by the British Antarctic Survey as “slightly smaller than Scotland,” is Antarctica’s northernmost shelf, and is the sole remaining of the three Larsen shelves: Larsens A and B broke up in 1995 and 2002, respectively.
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As we wind down from another meeting of the world’s greatest athletes at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, a new report is warning that global warming may dramatically reduce the number of cities that can host the event in the future, with rising temperatures posing a safety concern to the participating athletes.
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The erosion of the shoreline of Alaska’s Sarichef Island from rising sea levels has prompted the residents of the island’s village of Shishmaref to decide to relocate, before their traditional island home is overcome by the sea.
Home to 650 Inupiat Inuit, Sarichef Island lies in the Chukchi Sea, just north of the Bering Strait, and like the rest of Alaska, is warming twice as fast as the contiguous states. Shishmaref is one of 31 Alaskan villages that are in danger from erosion and flooding, according to the US Government Accountability Office.
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