Recent News
The U.S. is closely watching the Russian buildup in the Arctic, the biggest since the fall of the USSR with Russia bolstering its fleet of nuclear-fueled icebreakers, reopening abandoned Soviet military bases and building a string of new ones.
[ More ]
The Arctic is warming more than twice as fast as the rest of the planet, suggests a huge assessment of the region. The warming is hastening the melting of Arctic ice and boosting sea-level rise.
[ More ]
British scientists exploring an underwater mountain in the Atlantic Ocean have discovered a treasure trove of rare minerals which could be a boon for renewable energies that depend on rare earth metals but posing an uncertain risk to the fragile underseas environment.
[ More ]The Arctic is undergoing an astonishingly rapid transition as climate change overwhelms the region. New research sheds light on the latest example of the changes afoot, showing that parts of the Arctic Ocean are becoming more like the Atlantic. Warm waters are streaming into the ocean north of Scandinavia and Russia, altering ocean productivity and chemistry. That’s making sea ice recede and kickstarting a feedback loop that could make summer ice a thing of the past.
[ More ]
China has a new generation of stealthy, supersonic anti-ship missiles, and the U.S. is clearly worried about them. Former U.S. rear admiral Eric McVadon described them as the “strategic equivalent of China’s acquiring nuclear weapons in 1964.”
[ More ]The air pollution that lingered over eastern China for nearly a month in 2013 has been linked to the loss of Arctic sea ice the previous autumn.
[ More ]A new study offers an extreme solution to shrinking Arctic ice sheets -- if we covered ice in tiny wind-powered pumps, say researchers from Arizona State University, we could potentially pump seawater onto the surface of the ice during the winter. As the water freezes and thickens, it could help the ice survive the next summer.
[ More ]Every spring, Arctic plants rely on direct and indirect cues from the environment — like warmer weather, longer days and shrinking sea ice cover — to tell them when they should awaken from winter’s slumber. But as the climate warms, these plants are getting mixed signals about when to rouse.
[ More ]Russia is increasing its presence, both militarily and commercially, in the Arctic, taking advantage of the absence of U.S. leadership or presence in the region.
[ More ]New satellite imagery appears to confirm a report earlier this week that China has nearly completed structures intended to house surface-to-air missile systems on its three largest outposts in the disputed Spratly chain of the South China Sea — “part of a steady pattern of Chinese militarization” there.
[ More ]