Sea ice is a unique, fundamental, and fragile habitat in the Arctic and Antarctic. Rising temperatures decrease its thickness and extent, pushing delicate marine environments out of balance with global consequences. Science and policy experts discussed ongoing and future changes in Arctic and Antarctic sea ice, their effects on polar ocean ecosystems, and current preparedness […]

Nature Geoscience, 03 February 2025 New satellite mapping models have revealed increases in both the size and depth of large cracks on the Greenland ice sheet from 2016 to 2021. These cracks progressively weaken and reduce the stability of the ice sheet. This study documented how rising ocean temperatures have sped up the flow of […]

Nature Climate Change, 21 January 2025 Arctic tundra, forests, wetlands and permafrost store large quantities of carbon emissions, but new data indicates that at least 30% of this “boreal” zone is now releasing more carbon than it takes up during the growing season. Rising temperatures have transformed this frozen landscape into a net source of […]

Lead author Dr. Eric Wolff from Cambridge University summarized a recent Nature paper on the stability of West Antarctica during the Last Inter-Glacial 125,000 years ago. Temperatures were about 3°C warmer in the region than pre-industrial during this time, and global sea levels at least 5 and up to 10 meters higher; yet the key […]

Nature, 29 January 2025 The largest source of uncertainty in the rate and extent of sea-level rise with high emissions is the fate and stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Understanding how this region reacts to higher temperatures is critical for predicting future sea-level rise. In this study, researchers used ice core records to […]

Communications Earth & Environment, 22 January 2025 Late summer Arctic sea ice extent has decreased by more than 40% since 1979. In light of this trend, a new study investigated how Arctic cyclones impact sea ice loss over short, two-week time scales. Researchers found that increasingly warm summer temperatures and thinning sea ice have increased […]

Nature Climate Change, 6 January 2025 Rising temperatures have increased the frequency of extreme ocean warming events around the world, and the rapid decline of Arctic sea ice in recent decades makes these waters particularly vulnerable to sudden and extreme temperature fluctuations. Sea ice historically protected the Arctic Ocean from such warming events by serving […]

Dr. Robert Kopp, Rutgers University, summarizes his recent Nature Climate Change paper, which takes issue with the utility of the term “tipping points” as a way to communicate urgency for climate ambition. The paper asserts that this term can confuse policy makers and the public, and even distract from or discourage urgently needed climate action. […]

WMO Headquarters in Geneva, 21 January 2025 A high-level launch event at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Geneva on Tuesday marked the official start of the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation (IYGP), to highlight the need for immediate and deep emissions reductions to “preserve” the critical role of glaciers; and address the equally-urgent challenges […]

Nature Communications, 15 January 2025 Norway’s northernmost archipelago, Svalbard, is the most rapidly warming region of the Arctic and experiences frequent climate extremes. Using AI to map changes in glacier fronts, researchers examined how glaciers in Svalbard have changed since 1985. They found that ocean temperatures had a large impact on peak seasonal retreat rates, […]

Communications Earth & Environment, 16 January 2025 Today’s rapidly rising temperatures in the Arctic are changing the composition of its ecosystems, causing the Arctic to become greener. In turn, this affects the uptake of carbon through photosynthesis, which may potentially offset some of the CO2 released from thawing permafrost. Using sediment cores retrieved from a […]

Copernicus Climate Change Service, 10 January 2025 The EU’s Copernicus Programme has confirmed 2024 as the warmest year on record globally, and the first calendar year exceeding 1.5°C, at 1.60°C above pre-industrial levels. Human-induced climate change remained the primary driver of extreme air and sea surface temperatures; while other factors, such as the El Niño […]

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 3 December 2024 Climate change is affecting Arctic shoreline sea-level rise and permafrost thaw, as storms intensify and coastal sea ice thins. Coastal erosion is an increasing Arctic hazard as a result, yet the combined impact of sea-level rise and permafrost thaw subsidence on future Arctic coastal erosion […]

Scientific Reports, 3 January 2025 A new Antarctic-wide measuring project (using gravity inversion for bathymetry) that includes all Antarctic ice shelves has shown a deeper continental shelf in many regions, along with previously unknown underwater canyons. These would result in an overall greater exposure of the Antarctic ice sheet’s grounding line (where the ice rests […]

Summarizing recent results from an Arctic sea ice paper last month on which she was co-author, Dr. Alexandra Jahn from the University of Colorado Boulder explained paper calculations of when the first occurrence of ice-free conditions in the Arctic Ocean will likely occur; and how emissions reductions today can greatly limit future ice-free periods and […]