Ice Melt

(The Conversation) – Danielle Halle, University of Waterloo and Wesley Van Wychen, University of Waterloo In higher elevations, firn, frozen water that is something between snow and ice, covers the top of glaciers. Firn plays a critical role in regulating glacial meltwater and sea level rise. It does this by absorbing meltwater, the water released […]

Antarctica

We’ll all Feel the Abrupt Changes Striking Antarctica Sea Ice and Ocean Currents

The Conversation

By Nerilie Abram, Australian National University; Ariaan Purich, Monash University; Felicity McCormack, Monash University; Jan Strugnell, James Cook University, and Matthew England, UNSW Sydney (The Conversation) – Antarctica has long been seen as a remote, unchanging environment. Not any more. The ice-covered continent and the surrounding Southern Ocean are undergoing abrupt and alarming changes. Sea […]

Antarctica

Melting Antarctic Ice will slow the World’s strongest Ocean Current – and the global Consequences are Profound

The Conversation

By Taimoor Sohail, The University of Melbourne and Bishakhdatta Gayen, The University of Melbourne Flowing clockwise around Antarctica, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current is the strongest ocean current on the planet. It’s five times stronger than the Gulf Stream and more than 100 times stronger than the Amazon River. It forms part of the global ocean […]

Antarctica

1/4 to 1/2 of Glaciers will Melt by 2100, raising Sea Level, As our burning of Fossil Fuels Heats Earth

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A new multi-author study in Nature finds that the world’s 200,000 glaciers are melting at an increasingly alarming rate. If all of them melted, it would raise sea level by over a foot, a disaster for coastal communities around the world. And it isn’t just a matter of coasts — […]

Arctic

The Greenland Ice Sheet is falling Apart – New Study

The Conversation

By Tom Chudley, Durham University Observing Greenland from a helicopter, the main problem is one of comprehending scale. I have thought we were skimming low over the waves of a fjord, before noticing the tiny shadow of a seabird far below and realising what I suspected were floating shards of ice were in fact icebergs […]

Arctic

The Alarming Findings of AI Model that analysed Millions of Images of retreating Glaciers

The Conversation

By Tian Li, University of Bristol; Jonathan Bamber, University of Bristol, and Konrad Heidler, Technical University of Munich (The Conversation) – The Arctic has warmed nearly four times faster than the global average since 1979. Svalbard, an archipelago near the northeast coast of Greenland, is at the frontline of this climate change, warming up to […]

Arctic

Why we need to Transform the Arctic Ocean into a North Pole Marine Reserve

The Conversation

(The Conversation) – Kirsten Freja Young, University of Exeter and Brendan Godley, University of Exeter At the most northerly tip of the UK, looking north from the island of Muckle Flugga, Shetland, the cold wind whips up the sea and gannets dive. While biodiversity loss in the Arctic Ocean may seem like a distant issue, […]

Climate Crisis

Meltwater from Greenland and the Arctic is weakening Ocean Circulation, speeding up Warming down South

The Conversation

By Laurie Menviel, UNSW Sydney and Gabriel Pontes, UNSW Sydney (The Conversation) – A vast network of ocean currents nicknamed the “great global ocean conveyor belt” is slowing down. That’s a problem because this vital system redistributes heat around the world, influencing both temperatures and rainfall. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation funnels heat northwards through […]

Arctic

Global Heating: Alaska’s Top-Heavy Glaciers are Melting, approaching an Irreversible Tipping Point

The Conversation

By Bethan Davies, Newcastle University | – (The Conversation) – The melting of one of North America’s largest icefields has accelerated and could soon reach an irreversible tipping point. That’s the conclusion of new research colleagues and I have published on the Juneau Icefield, which straddles the Alaska-Canada border near the Alaskan capital of Juneau. […]