Tag: Arctic

LOOK: The effects of global warming in the Arctic

Warming Arctic driving extreme weather Infographics on how global warming in the Arctic is weakening the jet stream and polar vortex, leading to severe winter storms at lower latitudes. Arctic warming at twice global average Variation in temperature, in the Arctic and worldwide, compared to the average temperature for the period 1981-2010

Heatwaves from the Arctic to Japan: a sign of things to come?

  by Amélie Bottolier-Depois Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Intense heatwaves like the one which fuelled Greece’s deadly wildfires are set to become increasingly frequent around the world due to climate change, experts warn. – Is the current heatwave exceptional? – Record high temperatures have been registered across the Northern Hemisphere in recent weeks, from Norway to Japan. Sweltering summers are the norm in Greece, where at least 82 people have been killed […]

Climate change sinking Arctic archeological treasures

by Michel Comte Agence France Presse A mad rush is needed to preserve or catalogue thousands of Arctic archeological sites before they are washed away by warming hastening the thaw of permafrost and coastal erosion, a study said Thursday. For millennia, the cold has conserved ivory artifacts, driftwood houses and human remains in often near-perfect conditions. But with faster and more severe climate change in the poles than the rest of the world, the situation […]

Warming Arctic is ‘new normal,’ will affect us all: report

by Kerry SHERIDAN Agence France Presse MIAMI, United States (AFP) — A rapidly warming Arctic, where temperatures are rising twice as fast as the rest of the planet, is the “new normal,” and the melting ice is triggering environmental changes that will affect the whole world, warned a global scientific report Tuesday. The Arctic is going through “an unprecedented transition in human history,” that will accelerate sea level rise and boost the frequency of extreme […]

Warmer Arctic harms crops in US, Canada: study

by Marlowe Hood Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Exceptionally warm years in the Arctic have provoked extra-cold winters and springs further to the south, decreasing crop yields across central Canada and the United States, researchers said Monday. “Our study demonstrates for the first time an apparent linkage between Arctic temperature variations and agricultural productivity in mid-latitudes,” they reported in the journal Nature Geoscience. Overall, global warming during the last half-century has boosted plant […]

Tillerson hosts Arctic forum in shadow of Russia spat

by Dave Clark Agence France-Presse FAIRBANKS, United States (AFP) – Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was in Alaska to play host to the eight nations of the Arctic Council on Thursday, trailed by burning questions about Russia and climate change. The policy forum for the countries of the great white north got underway in the former gold prospecting town of Fairbanks, far away from the political frenzy gripping Washington DC. But two of the questions […]

Dog sledders complete Polar Expedition across Scandanavia

Reuters — The 2017 edition of Fjallraven Polar was completed by 28 people on Sunday (April 9) as the dogsledders crossed 300 kilometers of Arctic wilderness from Norway to Sweden. The participants from 12 countries and more than 200 sled dogs set off from Singnaldalen, Norway on April 3 and camped at various sites along the route to Jukkasjarvi, Sweden. Fjallraven Polar was founded by Ake Nordin when he met Kenth Fjellborg, one of Sweden’s […]

World’s polar ice caps are shrinking little by little

The world’s polar ice caps are shrinking little by little. The Arctic is heating up twice as fast as the rest of the planet…with Greenland’s glaciers receding particularly quickly. This process is speeding up all by itself. Melting snow exposes ice underneath, which then absorbs the sun’s rays and increases thawing. At the opposite end of the earth, 90% of the ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula are starting to disintegrate. Ice melt is also […]

Global warming is top threat to polar bears

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US wildlife authorities released on Monday a broad plan to try to save Arctic polar bears from going extinct, as global warming melts away their icy habitat an increasing pace. With just 22,000 to 31,000 polar bears estimated to be left in the world, the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Polar Bear Conservation Management Plan calls for a series of actions to save these iconic creatures. Above all, it calls […]

May goes down as Earth’s hottest on record: NASA

WASHINGTON, united States (AFP) — May’s temperatures broke global records yet again, as the northern hemisphere finishes its hottest spring on record, statistics released Tuesday by NASA showed. The Arctic in particular experienced abnormal heat, causing Arctic sea ice and the Greenland ice sheet to start melting unusually early, said NASA. Alaska recorded its warmest spring on record by a wide margin, and in Finland the average May temperature was between three and five degrees […]

Attempt to sail Northeast Passage across Arctic begins

MURMANSK, Russia, September 8 (Reuters) — A trimaran skippered by China’s Guo Chuan crossed the start line on Thursday (September 3) and set out on a journey of about 3300 nautical miles to cross the Arctic Sea from Murmansk to the Bering Strait. The super trimaran “Qingdao China” rapidly traveled over 1000 nautical miles in the first few days at sea. The crew, Jochen Krauth and Quentin Monegier of France, Boris Herrmann and Tim Bastian […]

Putin says Russia must strengthen its economic, military position in Arctic

(Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Moscow had to strengthen its position, economically and militarily, in the resource rich Arctic region, where other countries are vying for influence. “Our interests are concentrated in the Arctic. And of course we should pay more attention to issues of development of the Arctic and the strengthening of our position (there),” Putin told a youth camp outside Moscow, enumerating military and economic plans for Russia’s Arctic.