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Video - Arctic Emergency: Scientists on Melting Arctic Ice

September 06, 2014 Add Comment Edit

In this video climate scientists address how rising temperatures in the Arctic are contributing the melting sea ice, thawing permafrost, and destabilization of a system that has been called "Earth's Air Conditioner". They make the point that global warming is here and is impacting weather patterns, natural systems, and human life around the world - and the Arctic is central to these impacts.

Scientists featured in the film include:

- Jennifer Francis, PhD. Atmospheric Sciences Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University.

- Ron Prinn, PhD. Chemistry TEPCO Professor of Atmospheric Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

- Natalia Shakhova, PhD. Marine Geology International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska-Fairbanks.

- Kevin Schaefer, PhD. Research Scientist, National Snow and Ice Data Center.

- Stephen J. Vavrus, PhD. Atmospheric Sciences Center for Climatic Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison

- Nikita Zimov, Northeast Science Station, Russian Academy of Sciences.

- Jorien Vonk, PhD. Applied Environmental Sciences Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University

- Jeff Masters, PhD. Meteorology Director, Weather Underground

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Implications of Arctic Heat: Less Ice and More Global Warming

March 11, 2014 Add Comment Edit

The Arctic continues to warm and ocean sea ice continues to retreat at an alarming pace. This has dramatic implications that are both global and local. Arctic ice has been both retreating and thinning in volume for four decades.

As reported in the Ecologist, the latest study by Stroeve et al. from the University College London, was published in Geophysical Research Letters. This study shows that the ice-free period is increasing by 5 days every decade. In some regions of the Arctic, the autumn freeze is now up to 11 days later every decade.

The research examined satellite imagery of the Arctic for the last 30 years. They found that the ice is melting and the increasing exposure to sunlight means that greater quantities of energy are being absorbed by the Earth.

"The extent of sea ice in the Arctic has been declining for the last four decades", said Professor Stroeve. "And the timing of when melt begins and ends has a large impact on the amount of ice lost each summer."
The Arctic is now warmer now than it has been for 40 millennia. This has a cascade of negative impacts which are both local and global.

Globally a warmer Arctic translates to less sea ice which means less reflection of sunlight and more absorption which translates to more heat. This is known as the albedo effect which is defined as the amount of solar energy (shortwave radiation) reflected from the Earth back into space. It is a measure of the reflectivity of the earth's surface. The lower the albedo the more we can expect planetary temperatures to increase. Locally this warming threatens the animals that depend for their existence on a stable cycle of seasons.

The rate of acceleration suggests that the polar ocean could be entirely free of ice in late summer in the next four decades. When ice loss is factored from the perspective of the albedo effect, this will further accelerate global warming.

© 2014, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Save the Arctic from a "Death Spiral"

February 11, 2014 Add Comment Edit

In last 30 years, we’ve lost as much as three-quarters of the floating sea ice cover at the top of the world. Satellite images reveal that the volume of that summer sea ice in the Arctic has shrunk so fast that scientists say it’s now in a ‘death spiral’. Due to human activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels, the Arctic may soon be ice free in the summer for the first time in over 800,000 years.

This will be devastating for polar bears, narwhals, walruses and other species that live there. It will also have profoundly destructive consequences for people all around the world as the Arctic helps to regulate global weather patterns and as a consequence has a powerful impact on global agriculture.

It is a tragic irony that the dirty energy companies that are causing the Arctic to warm at twice the rate of the rest of the world, are also looking to plunder oil and other resources that lie underneath the disappearing ice.

Arctic ecosystems are among the most fragile on Earth and according to recently declassified government documents, dealing with oil spills in the freezing waters is “almost impossible.” If there is one thing we have learned it is that spills are unavoidable and in the Arctic this will be far more destructive than anywhere else on the planet.

We cannot allow the Arctic to be exploited for its natural resources. We cannot allow the loss of the indiginous people's way of life by giant fishing companies. They have fished sustainably in the Arctic for thousands of years.

As part of its efforts to defend the Arctic, Greenpeace is asking people to sign a petition to create a global sanctuary around the North Pole, ban offshore drilling and other destructive industries in the Arctic. Thirty years ago they launched a similar campaign to protect the Antarctic. They were instrumental in helping to create a world park around the South Pole, now they are asking for people to come together to do the same for the Arctic Ocean.

Help Greenpeace to ban destructive industries in the Arctic and create a global sanctuary around the North Pole dedicated to peace and science. Join millions of people around the world and sign the petition to protect the Arctic.

Click here for more information.

© 2014, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Talk - The Race to the North Pole: Climate Change and Biodiversity in Canada

December 08, 2013 Add Comment Edit

The race to the North Pole: climate change and biodiversity in Canada will take place on Wednesday, December 11, 2013, at the University of Ottawa, Biosciences Complex – RM 140, 30 Marie Curie St., Ottawa, Ontario. The reception will take place at 6 pm and the presentation will commence at 7 pm. Parking is available in parking lot V (In front of Marion Hall). The Faculty of Science at the University of Ottawa is pleased to invite National Capital Region community members to this special evening with Department of Biology professor Jeremy Kerr (BSc ’93 – Biology).

Jeremy Kerr was recently appointed as the University Chair in Macroecology and Conservation Biology. Professor Kerr will give an exhilarating talk entitled

“The race to the North Pole: climate change and biodiversity in Canada.”

The evening will be an opportunity to learn from one of the University of Ottawa Faculty of Science’s rising stars.

For more information contact Kyle Bournes:
Phone: 613-562-5800 ext. 7946
E-mail: kbournes@uOttawa.ca

To RSVP click here.

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Video - Richard Branson on the Need to Protect the Arctic

October 19, 2013 Add Comment Edit

In this video, Richard Branson, explains why we all have to do everything within our power to protect the Arctic.
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Video - The Arctic is Under Threat from Shell and Gazprom

October 19, 2013 Add Comment Edit

The fossil fuel companies Shell and Gazprom have ambitious plans to exploit the Arctic's oil and gas reserves. Scientists have made it clear that to avoid the worst impacts of a hot planet (ie 6 degree temperature increase) we must leave the vast majority of carbon reserves underground. Arctic drilling increases global warming and imperils Arctic ecology. We know that drilling for oil and gas inevitably leads to spills. To make matters worse Gazprom's old and outdated drilling equipment present an elevated level of risk. Drilling in the Arctic will devastate the region's fragile ecosystem which is already suffering from a warming world.

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Video - The Global Implications of Rapid Climate Change in the Arctic

September 14, 2013 Add Comment Edit

Paul Beckwith is a part time professor at the University of Ottawa and a post graduate studying and researching abrupt climate change, with a focus on the arctic.

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Geothermal Heating Accelerating Greenland's Ice Melt

August 16, 2013 Add Comment Edit

Everyone who follows the issue of melting ice knows that Northern ice is melting, but a new study shows that it is not only melting from above due to global warming, it is also melting from below. The fact that the ice is melting from above and below has important implications for scientific models.

The international research initiative IceGeoHeat led by the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences published their research in Nature Geoscience. The continental ice sheets play a central role in climate. GFZ scientists Alexey Petrunin and Irina Rogozhina have created a model which calculates ice melt from geothermal forces.

The Greenland lithosphere (the crust and upper mantle of the earth) is 2.8 to 1.7 billion years old and is only about 70 to 80 kilometers thick under central parts of Greenland. Presently the Greenland ice sheet loses about 227 gigatonnes of ice per year and contributes about 0.7 millimeters to the currently observed mean sea level change of about 3 mm per year.

© 2013, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Video - Unlocking Methane in the Permafrost is a Global Warming Time Bomb

August 03, 2013 Add Comment Edit

Methane has been locked in the permafrost of the far north for thousands of years, but it is being released because of the thaw associated with global warming. The permafrost has been thawing rapidly over the last three decades and if this trend continues the consequences could be catastrophic. Referred to as a methane pulse, vast amounts of this destructive GHG could be released into the atmosphere. This will profoundly exacerbate global warming and may push us pass irreversible tipping points.

Methane is one of the worst greenhouse gases because it stays in the atmosphere more than 20 times longer than carbon dioxide. More methane equals more warming and the release of even more methane.

For more information see NBC's series called "Changing Planet" which explores the impact that climate change is having on our planet. Information in this series is provided by the National Science Foundation.

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More Evidence that Arctic Warming is an Economic and Ecological Time Bomb

July 30, 2013 Add Comment Edit

Although our understanding of the Arctic is far from complete, there is a growing body of evidence that suggests melting Arctic ice will free massive deposits of methane locked in the permafrost of the far north. This represents an unprecedented danger both economically and ecologically. The latest evidence for this ticking time bomb was presented in a report by Gail Whiteman, Chris Hope & Peter Wadhams presented in the journal Nature.

Melting Arctic ice is expected to have far reaching impacts well beyond the far north. One of the most grievous threats comes from the release of methane trapped in the permafrost beneath the East Siberian Sea. The authors estimate that the cost of a massive methane release off the northern coast of Russia alone is $60 trillion. This is a startling figure when we consider that the value of the global economy in 2012 was estimated to be $70 trillion.

“As the amount of Arctic sea ice declines at an unprecedented rate, the thawing of offshore permafrost releases methane. A 50-gigatonne (Gt) reservoir of methane, stored in the form of hydrates, exists on the East Siberian Arctic Shelf. It is likely to be emitted as the seabed warms, either steadily over 50 years or suddenly. Higher methane concentrations in the atmosphere will accelerate global warming and hasten local changes in the Arctic, speeding up sea-ice retreat, reducing the reflection of solar energy and accelerating the melting of the Greenland ice sheet. The ramifications will be felt far from the poles.”

The release of methane will rapidly accelerate the rate at which the earth is warming and therefore the rate of global flooding, ocean acidification, altered ocean and atmospheric circulation. As a corollary we can expect more extreme heat, droughts and storms and their concomitant impacts on agriculture.

The authors of the study ran many scenerios using the PAGE09 integrated assessment model which calculates the impacts of climate change and the costs of mitigation and adaptation measures.

All their statistical modeling came to the same conclusion:

“There is a steep global price tag attached to physical changes in the Arctic.”

Even in the low-emissions case, the mean net present value of global climate-change impacts is $82 trillion without the methane release (methane pulse), an extra $37 trillion, or 45 percent is added.

The researchers found that the "methane pulse will bring forward by 15–35 years the average date at which the global mean temperature rise exceeds 2°C above pre-industrial levels."

It is clear that melting Arctic ice will have major implications for our oceans and our climate. The affects will be felt by all nations on earth, but some of the world's poorest nations will be hardest hit.

The full costs of climate change transcends economics and augurs an apocalyptic future that threatens civilization itself.

© 2013, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Video - O' Canada Stand Up for the Arctic and Oppose Climate Change

June 29, 2013 Add Comment Edit

This 2011 video from the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences (CFCAS) makes the point that Canada is truly an Arctic nation. The Arctic makes up over 40 percent of our landmass, and includes nearly three quarters of Canada's coastline. It's an essential part of our national identity and our climate. Sadly since this video was made climate change has continued to significantly undermine the Arctic. In 2012 we saw levels of Arctic ice melt that are unprecedented in recorded history.

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Video - Beautiful Arctic: A Look at the Awe Inspiring Beauty We Stand to Lose

April 20, 2013 Add Comment Edit

While the warming of the Arctic has very destructive global repercussions, there is also an unspeakably catastrophic loss of what can only be described as awe inspiring beauty. What kind of civilization would we be if we allowed our avarice to lay waste to such natural splendor?

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Video - Arctic Warming: Risks for Methane Emissions

April 20, 2013 Add Comment Edit

Dr. Ronald Prinn, TEPCO Professor of Atmospheric Science at MIT shares the result of his project measuring the rates of change in atmospheric concentrations of trace greenhouse gases. After more than 30 years of research, he and his colleagues recently noted an unexplained increase in methane concentrations. He outlines the risks posed by this finding in his discussion of "Arctic Warming: Risks for Methane Emissions, Sea Ice Loss, and Ocean Overturn." This talk is part of Cambridge Forum's After Copenhagen: Global Climate Change Conference.

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Video - Warming Arctic, Changing Planet

April 20, 2013 Add Comment Edit

On November 12, 2012 The Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Earth Institute, Columbia University and Quebec Government Office presented an exciting discussion about the effects of climate change on the Arctic. Experts highlighted how Arctic sea ice, climate, marine mammals, tundra, and indigenous communities have been affected by and are adapting to climate change. In addition, each expert addressed how these effects of climate change go far beyond the polar bears and may even impact you.

Moderator:

Andy Revkin, Senior Fellow for Environmental Understanding, Pace University; Blogger, DotEarth

Speakers and Panelists

Julie Payette, Canadian Astronaut, Scientific Delegate, Quebec Government Office
Natalie Boelman, Lamont Assistant Research Professor, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University
Kevin Griffin, Professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University
Igor Krupnik, Anthropologist, Arctic Studies Center, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Stephanie Pfirman, Professor and Chair, Department of Environmental Science, Barnard College
Pierre Richard, Research Scientist, Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Bruno Tremblay, Associate Professor, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, McGill University

Video - I Love Arctic (Greenpeace)

April 20, 2013 Add Comment Edit

Climate change impacts the Arctic more than almost anywhere on earth and to make matters worse the life forms that live there may be more susceptible to the toxic environment created by global warming (for more information click here). Join the call for a global sanctuary in the uninhabited area around the North Pole.

Thousands of people will come together on April 20 to form human banners spelling out I (heart) Arctic. Together we will call on our political leaders to protect the Arctic from activities that put this fragile environment at risk, such as oil drilling and industrial fishing.

Become a part of this global mobilisiation in cities from Buenos Aires to Bangkok and from Oslo to Yellowknife: join or organise a human banner in your city.

What happens in the Arctic affects us all - that's why we are coming together on April 20 to take joint action across the globe!

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The Arctic's Dangerous Combination of Environmental Toxicity and Genetic Vulnerability

April 19, 2013 Add Comment Edit

The Arctic is often perceived to be a pristine environment free of environmental toxins, however recent research reveals that this is not the case. There are many unique features associated with the distinctive flora and fauna of the Arctic and one of those defining characteristics is fragility. Life forms that inhabit the Arctic appear to be more vulnerable to environmental insults. This is true of the landscape and of the animals and plants that occupy the region, it is also true of the people that inhabit the area around the North pole.

Arctic haze is pollution that travels all the way from much more densely populated locations. Even seriously toxic bioaccumulation of things like PCB's (polychlorinated biphenyls), fluorinated and brominated compounds, bisphenol, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), chlorinated pesticides and polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDEs), have been found in Arctic wildlife and people.

"We have documented several direct harmful effects of these and other chemicals, especially in seabirds, top predators such as the glaucous and ivory," says Geir Wing Gabrielsen, an environmental scientist at the Norwegian Polar said, "Climate change is having an effect and it is resulting in higher levels of contaminants in the environment and [therefore] also in the animals," Gabrielsen warns.

According to researcher Arja Rautio at the Center for Arctic Medicine in the University of Oulu, Finland, people living in Arctic areas can be more sensitive to pollutants due to their genetics. Rautio suggested that "people of the north are exposed to higher levels than for example the general population in Europe."

Climate change may be exacerbating this situation. Water movement and wind currents may be pushing hazardous chemicals into the Arctic. The Arctic is the fallout region for long-range transport pollutants, and in some places the concentrations exceed the levels of densely populated urban areas.

"Moreover, some of these chemicals reside in the environment — and in the body — for a long time, and this means that they may build up," says Thomas Zoeller at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, recently edited a recent World Health Organization report which warned that chronic diseases are increasing worldwide and many are related to hormones which are disrupted by some of these chemicals.

Although more research is needed, the initial results suggests both higher levels of Arctic toxicity and greater genetic vulnerability.

© 2013, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Melting Arctic Ice is Releasing Massive Amounts of Methane

More Evidence of Historic Arctic Warming: Lake Sediment and Ice Cores

April 19, 2013 Add Comment Edit

The Arctic is getting warmer and the implications for the entire Earth are dramatic. In addition to impacts on local wildlife and local peoples, Arctic warming is altering the climate around the world. It has been widely documented that Arctic sea ice is at historic lows. Research also shows that Arctic summers are warmer than they have been in six centuries and the North Atlantic current is warmer than it has been for almost two thousand years.

Arctic Summers are the Hottest they have been in Six Centuries

The past several summers in the Arctic have been the warmest in at least 600 years, according to a new study published in Nature. According to research by Harvard University, a combination of temperature readings, ice cores, lake sediments and trees indicate that the summers of 2005, 2007, 2010 and 2011 were all warmer than any previous summer in the past 600 years. The summer of 2010 was most likely the warmest ever recorded in western Russia, the Canadian Arctic and western Greenland.

"What we are trying to do is put statistical inference of past changes in temperature on a more solid and complete footing," said Martin Tingley, one of the authors of the study. "The [ice core, tree and lake sediment records], unlike thermometers, generally only give information about seasonal average temperatures, and we have not explored changes in variability at the daily and weekly timescales."

Tingley says that recent extreme events, such as the 2010 Russian heat wave and the 2003 heat wave ,are likely to become more common if the trend persists.

"These results suggest that the hottest summers will track along with increases in mean temperature," he said. As temperatures continue shifting higher, "then the probability of extreme events would go up even more rapidly."

High Arctic Norwegian Summers are the Hottest they have been in Almost Two Millennia

According to a new study, summer temperatures on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard in the High Arctic are now higher than during any time over the last 1,800 years.

These results were derived from an analysis of algae buried in deep lake sediments. Their findings reveal that since 1987, summer temperatures in Svalbard have been 2 to 2.5 degrees Celsius (3.6 to 4.5 degrees F) warmer than during the Medieval Warm Period, which lasted from roughly 950 to 1250 AD.

The Medieval Warm Period is often cited by climate change skeptics as proof that the planet has experienced periods of high temperatures in recent centuries unrelated to the burning of fossil fuels. "Our record indicates that recent summer temperatures on Svalbard are greater than even the warmest periods at that time," said William D'Andrea, a climate scientist at Columbia University. The algae, which make more unsaturated fats in colder periods and more saturated fats in warmer periods, reveal critical clues about past climates.

The North Atlantic current flowing into the Arctic Ocean is warmer than for at least 2,000 years. Scientists said that waters at the northern end of the Gulf Stream, between Greenland and the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, averaged 6 degrees Celsius (42.80F) in recent summers.

"The temperature is unprecedented in the past 2,000 years," lead author Robert Spielhagen of the Academy of Sciences, Humanities and Literature in Mainz, Germany.

The summer water temperatures, reconstructed from the makeup of tiny organisms buried in sediments in the Fram strait (the main carrier of ocean heat to the Arctic), have risen from an average 5.2 degrees Celsius (41.36F) from 1890-2007 and about 3.4C (38.12F) in the previous 1,900 years.

"We found that modern Fram Strait water temperatures are well outside the natural bounds," Thomas Marchitto, of the University of Colorado at Boulder, one of the authors, said in a statement.

This research is yet more supporting evidence for anthropogenic global warming that is melting sea ice at the North Pole. Most scientists have indicated that the disappearance of Arctic sea ice has profound global consequences.

© 2013, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Why the Fate of the Arctic Should be of Concern to Us All

April 19, 2013 Add Comment Edit

What at the first glance looks like a cold and barren north is really a treasure of life and beauty, home to people and amazing wildlife. The Arctic and subarctic regions are home to approximately 30 different peoples with unique cultures and traditions. The Indigenous Peoples in the Arctic, many of them called Inuit, inhabit the most northern regions of North America, Asia and Greenland. Although modern times have changed the everyday life in the Arctic, people in the region still live in very close connection with and depend on their natural environment and the Arctic wildlife.

Walruses, narwhals and polar bears are possibly the most iconic animals to be found in the Arctic, and they provide examples of how beautiful, unique and diverse the Arctic wildlife is. Life in the Arctic forms a complex and sensitive ecosystem. Canada’s Arctic sector covers 1,425,000 square kilometers and is home to a population of more than 14,000 Inuit. After Greenland, the Canadian Arctic Archipelago is the world’s largest high-Arctic land area.

But the Arctic is not only home to people and wildlife. It affects the lives of many even far away. By regulating our climate and reflecting much of the sunlight back into space. The Arctic acts like a refrigerator for the northern hemisphere and strongly influences weather patterns all around the world.

Rising temperatures caused by climate change rapidly alter the face of the Arctic, bringing new risks and big challenges for the environment and wildlife, as well as for people in the Arctic and all around the world.

Greenpeace aims to mobilize millions of people to take a stand and help ensure the protection this frozen treasure so desperately needs.

For more information click here.

Source: Greenpeace

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The Greenpeace I ♥ ARCTIC Campaign

April 19, 2013 Add Comment Edit

Join Greenpeace on April 20 2013 as people around the globe create iconic images for world leaders saying: "I ♥ ARCTIC." Thousands of people will come together this Saturday, to form human banners spelling out I ♥ Arctic. Together we will call on our political leaders to protect the Arctic from activities that put this fragile environment at risk, such as oil drilling and industrial fishing.

What happens in the Arctic affects us all - that's why we need to take action on April 20. This event is being organized ahead of the Arctic Council which is meeting in Sweden in May.

Shell has canceled its plans to drill in the Arctic this year, but the company plans to resume operations. It’s up to us to make sure this doesn’t happen. Newly appointed Secretary of State John Kerry can help to do just that. Secretary Kerry was a champion for global warming legislation in the Senate and now has the power to advocate for Arctic protection through the Arctic Council.

Become a part of this global mobilization and tell Secretary of State John Kerry to be an Arctic ambassador in his role as an international delegate on the Arctic Council.

Spread the word on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter, use #ilovearctic as your tag.

To find an event near you this Saturday click here.

Related Articles
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