By Bob Berwyn

In 2008, polar bears had the dubious distinction of being the first animal placed on the United States’ endangered species list due to climate threats, specifically the loss of Arctic sea ice. 

By Bob Berwyn

At the current level of human-caused global warming, extreme rainfall from atmospheric rivers, as well as an extensive network of previously undetected micro-cracks, could degrade large parts of the Greenland Ice Sheet faster than expected and accelerate melting toward worst-case projections for ice loss and sea level rise, recent research shows. 

By Lydia Larsen

For most of the year, snow and ice cover the Zackenberg research station on the coast of northeast Greenland. But every spring the temperatures rise and the ice melts to uncover a landscape of flowering plants, insects and migratory birds that arrive from all over the world to nest through a brief arctic summer. 

By Emma Ricketts

Beverly Hoffman grew up on the Kuskokwim River, a storied 700-mile waterway that flows from the Alaska Range to the Bering Sea. Now 71 years old, she says its fish have nourished her for most of her life—particularly the salmon, which is woven into family routines and tribal traditions.

By Lydia Larsen

The remote Arctic islands of Svalbard, Norway, the northernmost settlement in the world, have been called a canary in the coal mine of climate change, warming more than two times faster than other areas of the Arctic and five to seven times faster than the rest of the planet.  

By Bob Berwyn

June 2023 may be remembered as the start of a big change in the climate system, with many key global indicators flashing red warning lights amid signs that some systems are tipping toward a new state from which they may not recover.

By Bob Berwyn

With the planet warming by a fraction of a degree every few years, glaciers melting away in a trickle and sea level rising two inches per decade, global warming sometimes seems to be happening at a slow and steady pace. 

By Bob Berwyn

A new study of the seafloor near the coast of northern Norway brings an ominous warning from the past, showing that some of the planet’s ice sheets retreated in pulses of nearly 2,000 feet per day as the oceans warmed at the end of the last ice age.

By Kiley Bense

There’s a moment about five minutes into the critically-acclaimed 2022 documentary short “Haulout,” which was nominated in January for an Oscar, that feels like a scene from a horror movie. The screen snaps from a shot of wild landscape into total black; floorboards creak under the weight of solitary footsteps; and wind howls as if through a tunnel. Strange, feral sounds grow in the darkness. A headlamp is switched on, illuminating Maxim Chakilev, a marine biologist, who is sitting at a bare table. Only his hands and the sleeves of his sweater are visible in the lamp’s white glare. 

By Nicholas Kusnetz

The Biden administration gave final approval Monday to a major Arctic oil project, marking one of its most significant and controversial decisions on climate change and energy. The drilling project had become an important symbol for both environmentalists and the oil industry over the last year as each camp fought to bend the decision in its favor.