No collapswashing

In March 2022, a New York City-sized ice shelf collapsed in East Antarctica, long thought to be relatively stable against rapid change. The Conger-Glenzer ice shelf collapsed following decades of ocean-induced thinning, allowing its long-stabilizing features to transform into destabilizing ones.

Global warming has already caused the Arctic to release more climate-warming methane—but exactly how much will depend closely on the actions we take to halt climate change.

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation is the main driver of northward heat transport in the Atlantic Ocean today, setting global climate patterns. Whether global warming has affected the strength of this overturning circulation over the past century is still debated: observational studies suggest that there has been persistent weakening since the mid-twentieth century, whereas climate models systematically simulate a stable circulation. Here, using Earth system and eddy-permitting coupled ocean–sea-ice models, we show that a freshening of the subarctic Atlantic Ocean and weakening of the overturning circulation increase the temperature and salinity of the South Atlantic on a decadal timescale through the propagation of Kelvin and Rossby waves. We also show that accounting for upper-end meltwater input in historical simulations significantly improves the data–model agreement on past changes in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, yielding a slowdown of 0.46 sverdrups per decade since 1950

Harry is a U.K.-based senior staff writer at Live Science. He studied marine biology at the University of Exeter before training to become a journalist. He covers a wide range of topics including space exploration, planetary science, space weather, climate change, animal behavior, evolution and paleontology. His feature on the upcoming solar maximum was shortlisted in the "top scoop" category at the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) Awards for Excellence in 2023. 

A new declaration aims to make the southernmost continent an autonomous legal entity, akin to a nation-state, with inherent rights to participate in decision making that affects it.

De oppervlakte van het Antarctisch Schiereiland waar planten groeien, is vandaag minstens 12 keer groter dan in 1986. Dat blijkt uit satellietfoto's. De vergroening van de Zuidpool, door de klimaatverandering, gaat steeds sneller. Daardoor zou Antarctica er binnen enkele decennia wel eens heel anders kunnen uitzien.

As a six-year investigation into the Thwaites glacier in Antarctica wraps up, the scientists involved are pessimistic for the future of this glacier and the consequences for sea level rise

Arctic Sea ice reaches it's minimum extent each year around the middle of September. This year is one of the lowest in recorded history. Ocean temperatures have been so 'off the charts' in 2023 and 2024 that scientists fear those waters have reached their capacity to mop up after us humans and are now starting to release that energy. On our current trajectory, by 2100, our planet will reach a temperature not seen for 3 MILLION years!. So...what's the plan???

Het gat in de ozonlaag is zich pas begin deze maand beginnen vormen, later dan normaal. Dat meldt de Europese aardobservatiedienst Copernicus. Het gat is daardoor ook kleiner dan de voorgaande jaren. Dat heeft vooral te maken met de temperatuur van de stratosfeer boven Antarctica, die deze zomer bokkensprongen maakte.

The Svalbard archipelago’s ice caps suffered extreme episodes of melting in summer 2024, brought on by exceptionally high air temperatures.

Blog edited by Sam Carana, with news on climate change and warming in the Arctic due to snow and ice loss and methane releases from the seafloor.

De hele mensheid profiteert van Antarctica en de oceaan die het continent omringt, schrijven Natalie Stoeckl en Rachel Baird, hoogleraren aan de Universiteit van Tasmanië. Een schatting van de economische waarde kan volgens hen een goede motivatie zijn voor de bescherming van dit unieke ecosysteem.

Marine heat waves will become a regular occurrence in the Arctic in the near future and are a product of higher anthropogenic greenhouse-gas emissions, according to a study just released by Dr. Armineh Barkhordarian from Universität Hamburg's Cluster of Excellence for climate research CLICCS. Since 2007, conditions in the Arctic have shifted, as confirmed by data recently published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment. Between 2007 and 2021, the marginal zones of the Arctic Ocean experienced 11 marine heat waves, producing an average temperature rise of 2.2 degrees Celsius above seasonal norm and lasting an average of 37 days. Since 2015, there have been Arctic marine heat waves every year.

A new paper published in the journal Science has warned that melting areas in the Arctic have become 'frontlines for resource extraction', describing it as a 'modern day gold rush'.

Ocean-driven melting of floating ice-shelves in the Amundsen Sea is currently the main process controlling Antarctica’s contribution to sea-level rise. Using a regional ocean model, we present a comprehensive suite of future projections of ice-shelf melting in the Amundsen Sea. We find that rapid ocean warming, at approximately triple the historical rate, is likely committed over the twenty-first century, with widespread increases in ice-shelf melting, including in regions crucial for ice-sheet stability. When internal climate variability is considered, there is no significant difference between mid-range emissions scenarios and the most ambitious targets of the Paris Agreement. These results suggest that mitigation of greenhouse gases now has limited power to prevent ocean warming that could lead to the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. The authors use a regional ocean model to project ocean-driven ice-shelf melt in the Amundsen Sea. Already committed rapid ocean warming drives increased melt, regard

Antarctica’s sea ice levels are plummeting as extreme weather events happen faster than scientists predicted

Le président russe Vladimir Poutine a donné jeudi à Mourmansk le coup d'envoi de la première chaîne d'Arctic LNG 2, gigantesque projet de gaz naturel liquéfié (GNL) dans l'Arctique, dont le français TotalEnergies s'est retiré en 2022.

As the Arctic warms, shrinking glaciers are exposing bubbling groundwater springs which could provide an underestimated source of the potent greenhouse gas methane, finds new research published in Nature Geoscience. The study, led by researchers from the University of Cambridge and the University Center in Svalbard, Norway, identified large stocks of methane gas leaking from groundwater springs unveiled by melting glaciers.

Permafrost and glaciers in the high Arctic form an impermeable ‘cryospheric cap’ that traps a large reservoir of subsurface methane, preventing it from reaching the atmosphere. Cryospheric vulnerability to climate warming is making releases of this methane possible. On Svalbard, where air temperatures are rising more than two times faster than the average for the Arctic, glaciers are retreating and leaving behind exposed forefields that enable rapid methane escape. Here we document how methane-rich groundwater springs have formed in recently revealed forefields of 78 land-terminating glaciers across central Svalbard, bringing deep-seated methane gas to the surface. Waters collected from these springs during February–May of 2021 and 2022 are supersaturated with methane up to 600,000 times greater than atmospheric equilibration. Spatial sampling reveals a geological dependency on the extent of methane supersaturation, with isotopic evidence of a thermogenic source. We estimate annual methane emissions from prog

The world just had the hottest June on record, with unprecedented sea surface temperatures and record low Antarctic sea ice extent, according to a new report.