Climate change

Scientists: Arctic snowpack on land melting faster than sea ice

It's not only Arctic sea ice that's receding quickly. Canadian scientists say the Arctic snowpack on land is disappearing in springtime even more quickly. They tell NPR News that has implications for everything from snowmelt runoff and the decline of permafrost to less solar radiation being...

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Archive by category ''Climate change

CLIMATE CHANGE

Appeals court rules against village in global-warming suit

A federal appeals court has ruled against the Northwest Alaska village of Kivalina, which sued energy companies over claims that greenhouse emissions contributed to global warming that is threatening the community's existence.
ALASKA NEWSREADER

Alaska birds pick up malaria strain in warming climate

A strain of malaria found in birds and unable to infect humans has been detected in Alaska birds from Anchorage to Fairbanks latitudes, say scientists writing in the journal PLOS ONE . The Kodiak Daily Mirror (subscription required) says the San Francisco State University-led research team...
CLIMATE CHANGE

As climate change worries rise, campaigns stay quiet

The nation's disappointing economic picture, as well as the complexities of each presidential candidate's record on global warming, make climate change a tough sell for the independent voters who will decide the presidential race.
CLIMATE CHANGE

Record loss of Arctic ice may trigger extreme weather

Arctic sea ice is shrinking at a rate much faster than scientists ever predicted and its collapse, due to global warming, may well cause extreme weather this winter in North America and Europe, scientists say.
ENVIRONMENT

Large groups of orcas sighted in Arctic Ocean off Alaska

Scientists counting marine mammals off Alaska's Arctic Ocean coast spotted two large groups of killer whales last month, but orca experts are not ready to say the species has increased its numbers in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas.
ALASKA NEWSREADER

Quick decline in Arctic ice this summer took scientists by surprise

A "catastrophic" melting of the Arctic Ocean ice cap in August -- which led to a record low ice extent -- was not expected by any of the science teams that annually attempt to forecast Arctic ice, reports The Atlantic. It's still possible that the melting will end earlier than usual and make...
ALASKA NEWSREADER

Arctic sea ice record low expected within days

From the U.K.'s Guardian: "Arctic sea ice is set to reach its lowest ever recorded extent as early as this weekend in "dramatic changes" signalling that man-made global warming is having a major impact on the polar region."
CLIMATE CHANGE

Group wants corals listed as threatened

An environmental group is petitioning the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to list 43 cold-water corals as threatened species.
OIL AND GAS

Murkowski hopes Senate will approve Law of the Sea treaty

Melting summer sea ice is opening up the Arctic Ocean to commercial opportunities but the United States could miss them if it doesn't sign the Law of the Sea treaty, according to U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
CLIMATE CHANGE

Researchers map methane hydrate sites

Experts have long known that deposits of methane hydrate, an ice-like substance that traps methane, the primary component of natural gas, lie below the seafloor under the shallow waters of Alaska's Beaufort Sea. But now concerns that a warming climate may cause these hydrates to break up, expelling...