International: Antarctic/Arctic
Greenland's ice sheet at 'point of no return'
18 Aug 2020
Greenland's ice sheet has reached the point of no return and would continue to melt even if the climate crisis were halted, scientists are warning.
Earth's biggest ice sheet more vulnerable than thought
28 Jul 2020
Shocking evidence suggests that the last time the East Antarctic ice sheet collapsed, it added more than three metres to sea level rise, and that it’s likely to happen again.
Human climate change causes record Arctic heat
27 Jul 2020
AN INTERNATIONAL team of scientists has pinned the strange weather and record heat in the Siberian Arctic firmly on human-induced climate change.
How many polar bears will be left in 2100?
23 Jul 2020
Researchers have long known that polar bear populations will almost certainly suffer as a result of climate change. But a new study projects that by the end of the century, the bears may exist only in a few subpopulations in the northernmost region of their range.
Australia has a bad idea in Antarctica
22 Jul 2020
Australia wants to build a 2.7km concrete runway in Antarctica, the world’s biggest natural reserve. The plan, if approved, would have the largest footprint of any project in the continent’s history.
We're encroaching on Antarctica’s last wild places
17 Jul 2020
Since Western explorers discovered Antarctica 200 years ago, human activity has been increasing. Now, more than 30 countries operate scientific stations in Antarctica and more than 50,000 tourists visit each year.
Nature doesn't trust us any more
13 Jul 2020
Frozen ground in the Arctic is thawing, harming indigenous people’s hunting livelihoods and destabilising buildings and roads across the rapidly warming region.
What an ocean hidden under Antarctica reveals about our future climate
6 Jul 2020
Jules Verne sent his fictional submarine, the Nautilus, to the South Pole through a hidden ocean beneath a thick ice cap. Written 40 years before any explorer had reached the pole, his story was nevertheless only half fiction.
Beavers new threat as Arctic lakes thaw
1 Jul 2020
Beavers are creating lakes that accelerate the thawing of frozen soils and potentially increase greenhouse gas emissions, a study finds.
Trump plan would open huge area of Alaska to drilling
29 Jun 2020
Some of most ecologically sensitive lands in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, a few hundred miles west of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, might soon be open for business to the oil industry.
The iciest Antarctic waters are now less icy
19 Jun 2020
An unusual combination of events has caused the Weddell Sea to lose more sea ice than in recent years.
'Zombie fires’ are erupting in Alaska
2 Jun 2020
The bitterly cold Arctic winter typically snuffs out the seasonal wildfires that erupt in this region. But every once in a while, a wildfire comes along that refuses to die.
Climate change turning Antarctica's snow green
21 May 2020
Warming temperatures in Antarctica are helping the formation and spread of “green snow” that in places can be seen from space.
Largest Arctic science expedition finds itself on thin ice
19 May 2020
Covid-19 is just one of many setbacks for hundreds of scientists pursuing critical climate questions in the world’s most remote and inhospitable environment.
Plastic waste now litters Antarctic shore
13 May 2020
British and German scientists have identified "sickening" levels of plastic waste in the Southern Ocean that washes around Antarctica.
North Pole may be clear water by mid-century
30 Apr 2020
Within 30 years, there could be clear blue water over the North Pole – not good news for most of the planet.
Greenland sheds ice at record rate
16 Apr 2020
The Greenland ice sheet melted at a near-record rate in 2019, and much faster than the average of previous decades, scientists have revealed.
We need not fear ancient methane timebombs
7 Apr 2020
The Arctic is predicted to warm faster than anywhere else in the world this century, perhaps by as much as 7deg.
Earth's deepest ice canyon vulnerable to melting
27 Mar 2020
East Antarctic's Denman Canyon is the deepest land gorge on Earth, reaching 3500m below sea level. It's also filled top to bottom with ice which has a significant vulnerability to melting.
One summer cost Greenland 600 billion tonnes of ice
20 Mar 2020
Greenland lost 600 billion tonnes of ice last summer due to an exceptionally warm season, according to a new study.
Record Antarctic temperatures fuel sea level worry
21 Feb 2020
Sea levels might threaten coastal cities sooner than expected, scientists say, as ice loss speeds up and Antarctic temperatures rise.
Antarctic melt led to 3m sea level rise 120,000 years ago
14 Feb 2020
Mass melting of the West Antarctic ice sheet, driven by warmer ocean temperatures, was a major cause of extreme sea level rise more than 100,000 years ago, according to new research.
Antarctica logs hottest day on record
10 Feb 2020
Antarctica has logged its hottest temperature on record, with an Argentinian research station thermometer reading 18.3deg, beating the previous record by 0.8deg.
Rewilding the Arctic would be a mammoth task
31 Jan 2020
It would be a monumental task to start rewilding the Arctic, but the climate payoff could be mammoth.
What's driving the Antarctic meltdown?
14 Nov 2019
Along with warmer water eating away at Antarctic ice shelves from below, atmospheric rivers are causing trouble from above.
Melting glaciers reveal five islands in Arctic
23 Oct 2019
The Russian navy says it has discovered five new islands revealed by melting glaciers in the remote Arctic.
Antarctica shows 65,000 ‘meltwater lakes’
4 Oct 2019
Blue lakes have been forming in record numbers around the edges of the Antarctic ice sheet as warmer temperatures cause snow and ice to melt and collect in depressions on the surface.
Giant iceberg breaks off east Antarctica
2 Oct 2019
The calving of the 1636 sq km iceberg in Antarctica is not linked to climate change, scientists say, but could speed up further melting.
Changes turning Arctic into economic hotspot
26 Aug 2019
As melting ice opens Arctic shipping lanes and reveals incredible riches, the region is seen as a new geopolitical and economic asset, with the US, Russia, China and others wanting in.
Changing climate traumatises Greenlanders
14 Aug 2019
The climate crisis is causing unprecedented levels of stress and anxiety to people in Greenland who are struggling to reconcile the traumatic impact of global heating with their traditional way of life.
Winds of change driving Antarctic ice melt
13 Aug 2019
Global warming is driving a shift in regional winds around the edges of Antarctica, and that's speeding up the meltdown of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, new research shows.
DRONE ALONE: Ocean-going science in the southern seas
7 Aug 2019
New Zealand scientists have played a major role in the voyage of a wind-powered surface vehicle called a saildrone that is the first unmanned system to circumnavigate Antarctica.
Artificial snow could save the world, but there's a downside
6 Aug 2019
In theory, artificial snow could save the ice caps and limit sea level rise. The downside is that rescuing civilisation this way would sacrifice Antarctica.
Iceland leaves memorial to a glacier - and a global warning
24 Jul 2019
The first of Iceland’s 400 glaciers to be lost to the climate crisis will be remembered with a memorial plaque – and a sombre warning for the future.
Manmade Antarctic snows could save coastal cities
18 Jul 2019
Spraying trillions of tons of snow over west Antarctica could halt the ice sheet’s collapse and save coastal cities across the world from sea level rise, according to a new study.
Antarctic melting might become irreversible
11 Jul 2019
Antarctica faces a tipping point where glacial melting will accelerate and become irreversible even if global heating eases, research suggests.
Antarctic sea ice records 'precipitous' fall
3 Jul 2019
The vast expanse of sea ice around Antarctica has suffered a “precipitous” fall since 2014, satellite data shows, and fell at a faster rate than seen in the Arctic.
HOT SPOT: Welcome to the fastest-heating place on Earth
3 Jul 2019
In the world’s most-northerly town, temperatures have risen by 4deg, having a devastating effect on homes, wildlife and even the cemetery. Will the rest of the planet heed its warning?
Arctic permafrost melting 70 years ahead of time
17 Jun 2019
Permafrost has begun thawing in the Canadian Arctic more than 70 years early because of climate change, according to new research.
Changing climate has seabirds dying in their thousands
6 Jun 2019
The bodies started washing ashore on St Paul Island, Alaska, in October 2016. One after another, the small carcasses of seabirds - mostly puffins - landed on the beach in extraordinary numbers.
Ross Ice Shelf melting at faster rate
6 May 2019
Part of the Ross Ice Shelf, the world's largest, is melting 10 times faster than the rest, shedding light on how it might respond to climate change.
Permafrost collapse might double warming
3 May 2019
the Arctic is warming fast, and frozen soils are starting to thaw, often for the first time in thousands of years.
Emperor penguins flee unsteady ice
29 Apr 2019
Antarctica's charismatic emperor penguins have abandoned one of their biggest colonies after breeding pairs there failed to raise almost any new chicks in three years.
IT'S NO JOKE: Laughing gas is leaking from Alaska permafrost
24 Apr 2019
US scientists have identified yet another hazard linked to the thawing permafrost - laughing gas.
'Hair dryer' winds pressure Antarctic ice
16 Apr 2019
Warm, dry winds in Antarctica can cause major melt as they sweep across the ice, even during frigid winter months.
Warming pushes Arctic toward ‘unprecedented state'
10 Apr 2019
Global warming is transforming the Arctic, and the changes have rippled so widely that the entire biophysical system is shifting toward an "unprecedented state," scientists say.
Last Antarctic forests send a message on climate change
8 Apr 2019
Scramble across exposed rocks in the middle of Antarctica and it's possible to find the mummified twigs of shrubs that grew on the continent millions of years ago.
‘No doubt’ Arctic temperatures will rise 3.5deg
20 Mar 2019
New research by the UN has found that a temperature rise of up to 3.5deg in the Arctic is now inevitable.
Arctic warming must be urgently tackled, warns UN
14 Mar 2019
Sharp and potentially devastating temperature rises of 3deg to 5deg in the Arctic are now inevitable even if the world succeeds in cutting greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris agreement, new research has found.
Massive iceberg set to break with Antarctic
1 Mar 2019
An iceberg of 660 square miles is set to break away from an Antarctic ice shelf as a result of a rapidly spreading rift that is being monitored by Nasa.
How bad can climate damage get? Worse than you imagine
Thu 26 Jun 2025
How bad can climate damage get? Worse than you imagine, if Australians’ recent experience of more extreme weather and natural disasters — driven by a hotter climate — are an indication, because the past is no longer a reliable guide to the future.
US government cuts key data used in hurricane forecasting
Today 10:30am
Weather experts are warning that hurricane forecasts will be severely hampered by the upcoming cutoff of key data from U.S. Department of Defense satellites, the latest Trump administration move with potential consequences for the quality of forecasting.
Floods swamp cities in Southwest China with more storms due
Thu 26 Jun 2025
Citizens in Guizhou and other parts of southern China have been swamped by days of record-breaking rainfall as the East Asia monsoon kicked into high gear over the past week.
Next EU climate target to allow carbon offsets from 2036, draft shows
Today 10:30am
The European Commission will permit countries to outsource a portion of their climate efforts to poorer countries from 2036, according to a draft proposal.
UK can reach net zero by 2050, climate report finds
Thu 26 Jun 2025
Climate Change Committee says current targets could be met provided country takes ‘steps forward’ to achieve them.
Is Mark Carney turning his back on climate action?
23 Jun 2025
The G7 summit in Alberta, hosted by Prime Minister Mark Carney, has ended with only passing mention of fighting climate change, including a statement on wildfires that is silent on the pressing need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Pakistan slams climate ‘injustice’ as deadly floods hit country again
Today 10:30am
Pakistan’s climate minister says country facing ‘crisis of injustice’ as more deadly flooding and extreme weather events hit the country.
Nearly a third of Tuvaluans have applied for climate migration visa
Fri 27 Jun 2025
With their country threatened by sea level rise, the people of Tuvalu have been offered an escape route through an agreement with Australia, and many are contemplating leaving their home.
Congo death toll hits 77 after extreme weather brings floods and sinks boats, 107 remain missing
18 Jun 2025
Authorities in Congo said the death toll following devastating floods and separate boat accidents has reached 77, with more than 100 people missing.
‘We are perilously close to the point of no return’: climate scientist on Amazon rainforest’s future
Today 10:30am
Carlos Nobre, who has fought for decades to save the rainforest, says up to 70% of it could be lost if a tipping point is reached.
How UN climate negotiations can end fossil fuel-industry influence
Today 10:30am
COMMENT: Climate COPs remain alarmingly exposed to lobbyists, unlike most global health and anti-corruption bodies that have safeguards to limit interference.
