An enormous iceberg tore away from Greenland glacier on Monday. This incredible video shows how much the glacier has lost over the past few years
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Arctic
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EcocentricOil
It’s Not Just Spills—the Climate Risks of Arctic Drilling
Royal Dutch Shell is set to begin drilling in the Arctic waters off Alaska beginning next month, assuming the Obama Administrations doesn’t hold off on needed permits at the last-minute. (With President Obama fighting for …
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How Climate Change Is Growing Forests in the Arctic
If there’s a single lesson for early 21st century life on the planet Earth, it’s this: everything connects. That’s true whether we’re looking at the global economic system, in which sickness is now spreading from the euro zone to …
EcocentricWildlife
Can Polar Bears Keep Their Heads Above Water in a Warming World?
Polar bears are classified as marine mammals, like a seal or a walrus, which might come as a surprise given that they’re usually pictured on land. But polar bears spend a lot of their time in the waters of the Arctic, fishing or …
EcocentricOceans
Free Boris: Over 100 Beluga Whales Trapped in Russian Ice
Bad news for whales out of the Russian Far East: over 100 belugas are reportedly trapped in water between ice floes in the Chukotka region, cut off from the sea. Fishermen in the area—one of the poorest in Russia, bordering the …
EcocentricOil
An Oil Company Strikes Out in the Arctic
Oil companies are salivating at the prospect of prospecting for crude in the Arctic. Early tests have shown significant potential for oil in the cold waters of the far North, but there was always one slight problem: ice. The …
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An Arctic Wildcard Could Make the Climate Go Bust
Last week I wrote about a study that said something unusual—climate change may not turn out to be as serious as our worst fears. Well, there was a reason why that study was such an outlier—most of the science on climate …
EcocentricOil
Why Obama’s Offshore Drilling Plan Isn’t Making Anyone Happy
Is it just me, or is the past getting past faster than ever before? It wasn’t that long ago—a little more than a year and a half—that President Obama stood at Andrews Air Force Base and outlined an ambitious energy deal. Greens would get the carbon cap-and-trade legislation they had been working for since the start of his time in …
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Arctic Permafrost: Climate Wild Card
On the basics, the science of climate change is pretty straightforward. Carbon dioxide released into the air—whether through the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation or other natural causes—adds to the greenhouse effect, which traps more solar energy in the atmosphere and warms the planet. But just how this will happen—how fast …