More than 2.5m Sea Level Rise by 2040?

A warming period more than 400,000 years ago pushed the Greenland ice sheet past its stability threshold (which may have been no more than several degrees above pre-industrial temperatures). This resulted in a nearly complete deglaciation of southern Greenland, raising global sea levels some 4.5-6 meters, found a recent...

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Methane rising through fractures

by Harold Hensel Methane is colorless and odorless and it is right above us in the atmosphere.In addition to other sources, methane has traveled from the Arctic and has blanketed most of the Northern Hemisphere.The well-known sources are methane hydrates from the Arctic Ocean floor and methane coming from thawing permafrost.There...

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Smoke Blankets North America

A thick layer of smoke blankets large parts of North America, as also illustrated by the animation below based on images from July 15 to 18, 2014, from Wunderground.com.[ note that this animation is a 2.3MB file that may take some time to fully load ]The are also extensive wildfires throughout the boreal forest and tundra zones...

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Focus on Methane

by Malcolm LightMethane formed by organisms in the water becomes trapped in the fabric of water ice crystals when it freezes and is stable below about 300 metres depth in the Arctic Ocean.There are such massive methane reserves below the Arctic Ocean floor that they represent around 100 times the amount that is required to...

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The Threat of Storms Wreaking Havoc in the Arctic Ocean

Arctic sea ice extent is close to a record low for the time of the year, as the image below shows.Furthermore, the current decline in sea ice extent is much steeper than it used to be for this time of the year, raising the specter of sea ice hitting an absolute record low later this year. Moreover, a total collapse of sea ice...

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Climate Plan

This image sums up the lines of action, to be implemented in parallel and as soon as possible, and targets of the Climate Plan, in order to avoid climate catastrophe.The Climate Plan and its various parts have been discussed in many post at Arctic-news blog over the years. Now is the time to support the Climate Plan and to...

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What's wrong with the weather?

Above map shows temperatures in NewFoundland and Labrador close to 30°C (86°F), compared to temperatures in Albuquerque, New Mexico of only 20°C (68°F), while temperatures seem to be even lower in Mexico City. What's happening with the weather?Jet Streams are changingWorld climate zones used to be kept well apart by jet streams....

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