Sea lions, otters and birds were some of the many wildlife species that were hit hard by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. Oil spills like these expose the wildlife to new contaminants and can be fatal.
(AP Photo/Jack Smith, File)
The resting place of Shackleton’s ill-fated ship is now an international heritage site, and a reminder of how Antarctica’s place in our collective consciousness has changed since the ‘heroic age’.
Community members from Utqiagvik, Alaska, look to open water from the edge of shorefast sea ice.
Matthew Druckenmiller
Sea ice is thinning at an alarming rate. Snow is shifting to rain. And humans worldwide are increasingly feeling the impact of what happens in the seemingly distant Arctic.
Arctic sea ice has been declining overall since NASA began tracking it by satellite in the 1970s.
Miemo Penttinen
A closer look at how ice cover changed through the months offers some important insights into the role of climate change and why every year isn’t a record.
Mangrove captures four times more carbon than a same area of rainforest.
By Annabell Mayke/Shutterstock
Some of the climate changes will be irreversible for millennia. But some can be slowed and even stopped if countries quickly reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, including from burning fossil fuels.
Russia is attempting to claim more of the Arctic seabed, an area rich in oil, gas and minerals. It’s also expanding shipping and reopening Arctic bases. Here are two things the U.S. can do about it.
Belugas swimming near Utqiagvik, Alaska, in July 2017.
(Lisa Barry/NOAA Fisheries)
Belugas use sound to communicate, navigate the dark marine environment and find food. But climate change is opening up Arctic waters to more sound, and could affect the health and survival of belugas.
A boat navigates at night next to large icebergs in eastern Greenland.
(AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
Scientists find oceanic heat has overtaken atmospheric heat as the main cause of melting.
This Arctic heat wave has been unusually long-lived. The darkest reds on this map of the Arctic are areas that were more than 14 degrees Fahrenheit warmer in the spring of 2020 compared to the recent 15-year average.
Joshua Stevens/NASA Earth Observatory
Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica's Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong
Research Scientist, National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado Boulder
Deputy Lead Scientist, National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado Boulder