The Elephant
A resource for journalists, politicians, policy makers, activists and citizens interested in climate change and the environmental emergency
The ElephantA resource for journalists, politicians, policy makers, activists and citizens interested in climate change and the environmental emergency
Tipping Points Report shows humanity on ‘disastrous trajectory’ - The Engineer
2023-12-06 by The Engineer in The EngineerHumanity is on the verge of triggering at least five major tipping points which could see the collapse of ice sheets, ecosystems and food production, according to a new report.
Tagged under: Agriculture | Ice Melting | Tipping Points
Melt rate of Greenland ice sheet can predict summer weather in Europe, scientist says
2024-03-14 in The GuardianLocation, extent and strength of recent freshwater events suggest an unusually warm and dry summer over southern Europe this year
Tagged under: Europe | Science | Climate Data | Greenland | Ice Melting
There are growing fears of an alarming shift in Antarctic sea ice | New Scientist
2024-03-11 in New ScientistAntarctic sea ice cover remains far below average levels for the third year in a row, but researchers are uncertain whether this is a permanent shift driven by climate change or part of natural fluctuations
Tagged under: Sea Level | Ice Melting | Antarctic
Strong increase in thawing of subsea permafrost in the 22nd century caused by anthropogenic climate change
2024-03-10 (or before) in TC - RecentAbstract. Most earth system models (ESMs) neglect climate feedbacks arising from carbon release from thawing permafrost, especially from thawing of subsea permafrost (SSPF). To assess the fate of SSPF in the next 1000 years, we implemented SSPF into JSBACH, the land component of the Max Planck Institute Earth System Model (MPI-ESM). This is the first implementation of SSPF processes in an ESM component. We investigate three extended scenarios from the 6th phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6). In the 21st century only small differences are found among the scenarios, but in the upper-end emission scenari...
Tagged under: Ice Melting | Climate Change Impacts | Permafrost
Radical idea to protect 'doomsday' Thwaites Glacier with 62-mile long curtain divides scientists
2024-03-06 in Sky NewsThe drastic idea has been praised by some scientists as "highly aspirational", while others have branded it "dangerous, illusionary and distracting".
Tagged under: Ice Melting | Antarctic | Geoengineering
Higher temperatures force New England fishers off ice early: ‘Global warming is real’
2024-03-06 in The GuardianFor generations, residents have hauled tiny fishing shacks on to frozen lakes, but milder winters are forcing them to quit early
Tagged under: Fish | Climate Change Impacts | Ice Melting | USA | Fishing
Ice-free summers in Arctic possible within next decade, scientists say
2024-03-05 in The GuardianHome of polar bears, seals and walruses could be mostly water for months as early as 2035 due to fossil fuel emissions
Tagged under: Ice Melting | Arctic
The US Buried Nuclear Waste Abroad. Climate Change Could Unearth It
2024-03-02 in WIRED MagazineA new report says melting ice sheets and rising seas could disturb waste from US nuclear projects in Greenland and the Marshall Islands.
Tagged under: Pollution | Sea Level | Greenland | Ice Melting | Nuclear Power
Ski resorts’ era of plentiful snow may be over due to climate crisis, study finds
2024-03-02 in The GuardianUS ski industry is losing billions as average season has become five to seven days shorter in past half century
Tagged under: USA | Climate Change Impacts | Ice Melting
Pumped up: will a Dutch startup’s plan to restore Arctic sea-ice work?
2024-02-27 in The GuardianAs the Arctic warms, devastating the climate and ecosystems, an old idea used to create skating rinks could be deployed to restore melting ice caps, despite scepticism from some experts
Tagged under: Geoengineering | Ice Melting | Arctic
Climate change: 'Ice bumps' reveal history of Antarctic melting
2024-02-27 in The BBCSatellites reveal a 50-year record of climate change by tracing the lumpiness in ice surfaces.
Tagged under: Ice Melting
Scientists drilled an ice core from Antarctica and were alarmed by what they found | CNN
2024-02-08 by in CNN InternationalEvidence from a 2,000-foot-long ice core shows rapid past melting — a stark warning for potential sea level rise as temperatures soar
Tagged under: Ice Melting | Sea Level | Collapse
Antarctica Under Siege and XR Takes a Radical Turn
2024-01-05 by in Counter PunchAntarctica has finally succumbed to rapid climate change. This past year (2023) brought changes to the icy continent that left climate scientists feeling
Tagged under: Activism | Ice Melting | Climate Change | Antarctic
Tipping Points Report shows humanity on ‘disastrous trajectory’ - The Engineer
2023-12-06 by The Engineer in The EngineerHumanity is on the verge of triggering at least five major tipping points which could see the collapse of ice sheets, ecosystems and food production, according to a new report.
Tagged under: Agriculture | Ice Melting | Tipping Points
Compare & Animate | National Snow and Ice Data Center
2023-10-23 (or before) in National Snow and Ice Data CenterUse the interactive tools below to compare sea ice trends and anomalies and to animate monthly extent, concentrations, anomalies, and trends.
Tagged under: Ice Melting
Greenland’s massive ice sheet is melting — here’s how to save it
2023-10-18 in NatureThe ice sheet could experience runaway melting if the world overshoots climate targets, but even then quick action could stabilize it. The ice sheet could experience runaway melting if the world overshoots climate targets, but even then quick action could stabilize it.
Tagged under: Ice Melting
Climate action must respond to extreme weather driving health crisis, says WHO
2023-09-19 in The GuardianMelting ice caps and rising sea levels are urgent but people care more about the floods, wildfires and droughts that are here now, New York summit hears
Tagged under: COP28 | Libya | Drought | Africa | Ice Melting | Sea Level | Health | Middle East | Wildfires
Antarctic sea-ice at 'mind-blowing' low alarms experts - BBC News
2023-09-17 (or before) in The BBCMissing winter sea ice signals changes that could be a "disaster for the world", scientists say.
Tagged under: Antarctic | Ice Melting
Aerosol geoengineering will not stop Antarctic ice sheet from melting, simulations suggest – Physics World
2023-08-31 in Home – Physics WorldEmissions reduction is the only way to avoid catastrophic sea-level rise
Tagged under: Antarctic | Geoengineering | Ice Melting | Sea Level
Revisiting the global hydrological cycle: is it intensifying?
2023-08-15 (or before) in HESS - RecentAbstract. As a result of technological advances in monitoring atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere and biosphere, as well as in data management and processing, several databases have become freely available. These can be exploited in revisiting the global hydrological cycle with the aim, on the one hand, to better quantify it and, on the other hand, to test the established climatological hypotheses according to which the hydrological cycle should be intensifying because of global warming. By processing the information from gridded ground observations, satellite data and reanalyses, it turns out that the established hypotheses are...
Tagged under: Ice Melting | Sea Level | Electricity Grid
'Big-time bad news': what a secret Cold War project could tell us about the fate of Greenland's ice sheet
2023-07-21 (or before) in ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)Tagged under: Nuclear Power | Climate Change | Ice Melting
An earth system model shows self-sustained thawing of permafrost even if all man-made GHG emissions stop in 2020 - Scientific Reports
2023-07-03 (or before) in NatureThe risk of points-of-no-return, which, once surpassed lock the world into new dynamics, have been discussed for decades. Recently, there have been warnings that some of these tipping points are coming closer and are too dangerous to be disregarded. In this paper we report that in the ESCIMO climate model the world is already past a point-of-no-return for global warming. In ESCIMO we observe self-sustained thawing of the permafrost for hundreds of years, even if global society stops all emissions of man-made GHGs immediately. We encourage other model builders to explore our discovery in their (bigger) models, and report on their...
Tagged under: Oceans | Climate Change | Arctic | Albedo | Ice Melting | Tipping Points
Himalayan glacier loss speeding up with dire outcome for millions
2023-06-20 (or before) in YouTubeNew research shows glaciers in the Hindu Kush Mountain range in the Himalayas could lose 75% of its ice by the end of the century. The report shows melting i...
Tagged under: Climate Change | Glaciers | Ice Melting
New Ice Discovery Means Glaciers Could Melt Way Faster Than Predicted
2023-05-09 by in ScienceAlertA closer look at the junction where a Greenland glacier crunches into the ocean floor, known as its grounding line, has revealed less stability amid the shifting of tides – and therefore a greater rate of melting – than previously estimated thanks...
Tagged under: Oceans | Predictions | Ice Melting
UCI, NASA JPL researchers discover a cause of rapid ice melting in Greenland
2023-05-08 in UCI News – Releases, features, advisories, briefs and coverage regarding UC IrvineStudy suggests extent of future sea level rise could be vastly underestimated
Tagged under: Ice Melting | Sea Level
Antarctic ocean currents heading for collapse - report - BBC News
2023-03-30 (or before) in The BBCMelting ice could trigger a disastrous chain reaction, a new Australian study warns
Tagged under: Oceans | Antarctic | Ice Melting | Collapse
Greenland temperatures surge up to 50 degrees above normal, setting records - The Washington Post
2023-03-07 in The Washington PostThe record-breaking warmth is raising concerns about melting summer ice.
Tagged under: Ice Melting
Brunt Ice Shelf: Giant iceberg breaks away from Antarctic ice shelf
2023-01-23 in Sky NewsThe British Antarctic Survey (BAS) said the calving happened a decade after scientists first detected the growth of vast cracks in the ice. They relocated the Halley research station 23km inland in 2016 after what they called Chasm One began to widen.
Tagged under: Ice Melting | Antarctic
Extensive melting in West Antarctica and the Peninsula | Greenland/Antarctica Ice Sheet Today
2023-01-14 (or before) in National Snow and Ice Data CenterTagged under: Antarctic | Ice Melting
Greenland's glaciers are melting 100 times faster than estimated
2022-12-19 in Live ScienceScientists are getting a better handle on how fast Greenland's ice is flowing out to sea. Old models that used Antarctica as a baseline were way off the mark.
Tagged under: Antarctic | Ice Melting
World faces ‘terminal’ loss of Arctic sea ice during summers, report warns
2022-11-07 in The GuardianThe dramatic vanishing of polar ice sheets will cause catastrophic sea level rise that will threaten cities, according to a major new study
Tagged under: Arctic | Ice Melting | Sea Level
Arctic sea ice loss to increase strong El Niño events linked to extreme weather: Study
2022-10-24 in MongabayAs Arctic sea ice begins melting out fully in summer, the frequency of strong El Niños could increase by 35% by century's end, causing extreme weather events to increase, says recent modeling study.
Tagged under: Extreme Weather | Arctic | Ice Melting | El Niño
Next pandemic may come from melting glaciers, new data shows
2022-10-18 in The GuardianAnalysis of Arctic lake suggests viruses and bacteria locked in ice could reawaken and infect wildlife
Tagged under: Arctic | Wildlife | Ice Melting
Glaciers in the Alps are melting faster than ever – and 2022 was their worst summer yet
2022-10-18 by in The ConversationSwitzerland’s glaciers just lost 6% of their ice in a single year.
Tagged under: Ice Melting
Arctic System Collapse? Devastating new research.
2022-09-19 (or before) in YouTubeThe arctic region is a key driver of global climate patterns. In the summer of 2022, three peer reviewed research papers were published, all of which showed ...
Tagged under: Arctic | Climate Change | Ice Melting | Sea Level | Collapse
Late Season Melting in Greenland
2022-09-14 (or before) in NASA Earth ObservatorySome scientists think the widespread late-season melting could have implications for the ice sheet’s near future.
Tagged under: Ice Melting
“Zombie Ice”: Greenland’s Melting Glacier to Raise Sea Levels Nearly 1 Foot, Double Previous Estimate
2022-09-04 (or before) in Democracy Now!Tagged under: Ice Melting | Sea Level
Major sea-level rise caused by melting of Greenland ice cap is ‘now inevitable’
2022-08-29 in The GuardianLoss will contribute a minimum rise of 27cm regardless of what climate action is taken, scientists discover
Tagged under: Oceans | Ice Melting | Sea Level
Antarctica's ice shelves could be melting faster than we thought
2022-08-14 (or before) in Phys.org - News and Articles on Science and TechnologyA new model developed by Caltech and JPL researchers suggests that Antarctica's ice shelves may be melting at an accelerated rate, which could eventually contribute to more rapid sea level rise. The model accounts for an often-overlooked narrow ocean current along the Antarctic coast and simulates how rapidly flowing freshwater, melted from the ice shelves, can trap dense warm ocean water at the base of the ice, causing it to warm and melt even more.
Tagged under: Oceans | Antarctic | Ice Melting | Sea Level
Unprecedented die-offs, melting ice: Climate change is wreaking havoc in the Arctic and beyond
2022-01-06 (or before) in Phys.org - News and Articles on Science and TechnologyForces profound and alarming are reshaping the upper reaches of the North Pacific and Arctic oceans, breaking the food chain that supports billions of creatures and one of the world's most important fisheries.
Tagged under: Oceans | Arctic | Climate Change | Fish | Ice Melting
Greenland's ice sheet is melting so fast, it's raising sea levels and creating global flood risk
2021-11-04 (or before) in USA TodayThe second-largest ice sheet in the world has lost 3.5 trillion tons of ice in the past decade, and more could be in store by the end of the century.
Tagged under: Ice Melting | Sea Level
Antarctica's ice sheet is melting 3 times faster than before | AP News
2021-10-19 (or before) in Associated Press NewsWASHINGTON (AP) — The melting of Antarctica is accelerating at an alarming rate, with about 3 trillion tons of ice disappearing since 1992, an international team of ice experts said in a new study...
Tagged under: Climate Change | Antarctic | Ice Melting
Sea level rise matches worst-case scenario
2021-10-19 (or before) by in University of LeedsIce sheets in Greenland and Antarctica whose melting rates are rapidly increasing have raised the global sea level by 1.8 cm since the 1990s, and are matching the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s worst-case climate warming scenarios.
Tagged under: Climate Change | Antarctic | Ice Melting | Sea Level
Heat stored in the Earth system: where does the energy go?
2021-08-08 (or before) in Earth System Science Data<p><strong class="journal-contentHeaderColor">Abstract.</strong> Human-induced atmospheric composition changes cause a radiative imbalance at the top of the atmosphere which is driving global warming. This Earth energy imbalance (EEI) is the most critical number defining the prospects for continued global warming and climate change. Understanding the heat gain of the Earth system – and particularly how much and where the heat is distributed – is fundamental to understanding how this affects warming ocean, atmosphere and land; rising surface temperature; sea level; and loss of grounded and floating i...
Tagged under: Oceans | Climate Change | Earth Energy Imbalance | Ice Melting | Sea Level
Inside the race to rescue clues to Earth’s past from melting glaciers
2021-06-23 (or before) by in New ScientistTagged under: Climate Change | Ice Melting
‘Birthplace of Ice’ in Russia’s Arctic Sees Record-Breaking Start to Melting Season - The Moscow Times
2021-06-02 by in The Moscow TimesThe Laptev Sea plays a crucial role in generating ice coverage for the entire Arctic.
Tagged under: Arctic | Climate Change | Ice Melting | Russia
Snow chaos in Europe caused by melting sea-ice in the Arctic
2021-04-14 (or before) in Phys.org - News and Articles on Science and TechnologyThey are diligently stoking thousands of bonfires on the ground close to their crops, but the French winemakers are fighting a losing battle. An above-average warm spell at the end of March has been followed by days of extreme frost, destroying the vines with losses amounting to 90 percent above average. The image of the struggle may well be the most depressingly beautiful illustration of the complexities and unpredictability of global climate warming. It is also an agricultural disaster from Bordeaux to Champagne.
Tagged under: Extreme Weather | Arctic | Ice Melting | France
Greenland ice loss may have begun as early as the mid-'80s
2021-03-06 (or before) in Phys.org - News and Articles on Science and TechnologyThe amount of snow falling on Greenland's glaciers may have been less than the water lost through icebergs calving and melting since at least the mid-1980s, a study of almost 40 years of satellite images has revealed.
Tagged under: Ice Melting
Global Ice Loss on Pace to Drive Worst-Case Sea Level Rise - Inside Climate News
2021-01-26 in Inside Climate NewsFrom the polar caps to the glaciers of Europe, Asia and South America, global warming is melting the planet’s ice faster than ever and speeding the inundation of the world’s coastlines. New research shows the annual melt rate grew from 0.8 trillion tons in the 1990s to 1.3 trillion tons by 2017, and has accelerated […]
Tagged under: Global Warming | Ice Melting | Sea Level
New climate models suggest faster melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet - Carbon Brief
2020-12-15 in Carbon BriefGreenland’s vast ice sheet could melt faster than previously thought over the 21st century, according to a new study.
Tagged under: Ice Melting
Climate change: Greenland's ice faces melting 'death sentence' - BBC News
2020-11-04 (or before) in BBCThe massive ice sheet covering Greenland may have melted by a record amount this year, scientists say.
Tagged under: Climate Change | Ice Melting
The Arctic is in a death spiral. How much longer will it exist?
2020-10-26 (or before) in The GuardianThe region is unravelling faster than anyone could once have predicted. But there may still be time to act
Tagged under: Arctic | Predictions | Climate Change | Ice Melting
Ice Sheet Melting Is Perfectly in Line With Our Worst-Case Scenario, Scientists Warn
2020-09-09 (or before) by in ScienceAlertThe Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, which hold enough frozen water to lift oceans 65 metres, are tracking the UN's worst-case scenarios for sea level rise, researchers said Monday, highlighting flaws in current climate change models.
Tagged under: Oceans | IPCC | Climate Change | Antarctic | Ice Melting | Sea Level
Pools of Water Atop Sea Ice in the Arctic May Lead it to Melt Away Sooner Than Expected - Inside Climate News
2020-08-11 in Inside Climate NewsThe thickening atmospheric stew of greenhouse gases is punching holes in Arctic sea ice, leading it to crumble at a rapidly increasing rate. Last spring, ponds of meltwater on the ice sped the melting of the glossy shield that reflects incoming heat from the sun back to space. By July, the ice had dwindled to […]
Tagged under: Arctic | Greenhouse Gases | Ice Melting
Most polar bears to disappear by 2100, study predicts
2020-07-20 in The GuardianMelting Arctic sea ice could cause starvation and reproductive failure for many as early as 2040, scientists warn
Tagged under: Arctic | Greenhouse Gases | Predictions | Wildlife | Ice Melting | Russia | Alaska
Scientists confirm dramatic melting of Greenland ice sheet
2020-04-15 in The GuardianStudy reveals loss largely due to high pressure zone not taken into account by climate models
Tagged under: Arctic | Ice Melting
Greenland And Antarctica Are Melting Six Times Faster Than In The 1990s
2020-03-31 (or before) by in ForbesThis month, a comprehensive assessment of the changing ice sheets published in the journal Nature, found that in the 2010s, the rate of ice loss has risen by a factor six.
Tagged under: Climate Change | Antarctic | Ice Melting | Sea Level
Antarctica's doomsday glacier is melting. Can we save it in time?
2020-01-28 (or before) by in New ScientistTagged under: Oceans | Climate Change | Antarctic | Ice Melting | Sea Level
In Greenland’s Melting Ice, A Warning on Hard Climate Choices
2020-01-25 (or before) in Yale E360Greenland is melting at an unprecedented rate, causing vast quantities of ice to disappear and global sea levels to rise. The fate of the ice sheet is not sealed, but unless CO2 emissions are sharply cut, the long-term existence of Greenland’s ice is in doubt.
Tagged under: Ice Melting | Sea Level
Greenland's ice sheet melting seven times faster than in 1990s
2019-12-10 by Fiona Harvey in The GuardianScale and speed of loss much higher than predicted, threatening inundation for hundreds of millions of people
Tagged under: Oceans | Predictions | Science | Glaciers | Global Warming | Ice Melting | Greenland | Climate Change | Sea Level
Russia's Taymyr plan: Arctic coal for India risks pollution - BBC News
2019-11-30 (or before) in BBCA huge wildlife haven is at risk as Russian coal ships exploit melting Arctic ice in Siberia.
Tagged under: India | Arctic | Coal | Wildlife | Ice Melting | Russia
Interior Alaska is too warm for North Pole’s annual Christmas ice park
2019-11-21 in Anchorage Daily News: Alaska News, Politics, Outdoors, Science and EventsOfficials canceled the event for the first time in 14 years, citing lack of ice on ponds to harvest for ice carving.
Tagged under: Ice Melting | Alaska
With Greenland's Extreme Melting, a New Risk Grows: Ice Slabs That Worsen Runoff - Inside Climate News
2019-09-18 in Inside Climate NewsScientists have added a new item to the long list of Greenland Ice Sheet woes. Along with snow-darkening algae and increasing rainfall, giant slabs of ice have been thickening and spreading under the Greenland snow at an average rate of two football fields per minute since 2001, new research shows. The slabs prevent surface meltwater […]
Tagged under: Extreme Weather | Extreme Rainfall | Climate Change | Ice Melting | Sea Level
The Antarctic ice sheet is melting and, yeah, it’s probably our fault.
2019-08-14 in RealClimateGlaciers in West Antarctica have thinned and accelerated in the last few decades. A new paper provides some of the first evidence that this is due to human activities. by Eric Steig It’s been some time since I wrote anything for RealClimate. In the interim there’s been a lot of important new work in the area of my primary research interest – Antarctica. Much of it is aimed at addressing the central ...
Tagged under: Antarctic | Ice Melting
'Ecological grief': Greenland residents traumatised by climate emergency
2019-08-12 by Dan McDougall in The GuardianIslanders are struggling to reconcile impact of global heating with traditional way of life, survey finds
Tagged under: Arctic | Ice Melting | Global Warming | Greenland | Climate Anxiety and Grief | Climate Change
Greenland Is Melting Away Before Our Eyes
2019-07-31 by in Rolling Stone - Music, Film, TV and Political News Coverage“I have my fingers crossed for it not being washed away”
Tagged under: Ice Melting
Research Highlight: Loss of Arctic's Reflective Sea Ice Will Advance Global Warming by 25 Years
2019-07-19 in Scripps Institution of OceanographyLosing the remaining Arctic sea ice and its ability to reflect incoming solar energy back to space would be equivalent to adding one trillion tons of CO2 to the atmosphere, on top of the 2.4 trillion tons emitted since the Industrial Age, according to current and former researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego.
Tagged under: Oceans | Solar Energy | Ice Melting | Global Warming | Arctic
Himalayan glacier melting doubled since 2000, spy satellites show
2019-06-19 in The GuardianIce losses indicate ‘devastating’ future for region and 1 billion people who depend on it for water
Tagged under: Ice Melting
Emissions from thawing Arctic permafrost may be 12 times higher than thought, scientists say
2019-04-17 in The Independent‘This needs to be taken more seriously than it is right now,’ says author of new study
Tagged under: Global Warming | Arctic | Alaska | Feedback Loops | Ice Melting | Methane | Permafrost | Greenhouse Gases | Climate Change
Greenland’s Melting Ice Nears a ‘Tipping Point,’ Scientists Say (Published 2019)
2019-01-21 in The New York TimesTagged under: Oceans | Tipping Points | Arctic | Ice Melting
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