Category:Arctic
Once-in-a-decade heatwave is melting the Arctic -- Why?
FEBRUARY 11, 2017 — Records are shattering left and right across the Arctic, much like the ever-dwindling sea ice that once covered the entire Arctic Ocean.
First, the facts. January sea ice area has never been so small. In November, the coverage fell short of average by an area the size of the eastern half of the United States. Northeast Greenland had its warmest February day ever (by almost four degrees). The current heat wave brought temperatures near the North Pole to 50 degrees above average...
“We’re still trying to figure out what is happening here,” Mark Serreze, a senior research scientist with the Colorado-based Snow and Ice Data Center that compiles and reports the history of Arctic ice conditions.
“The ridiculously warm temperatures in the Arctic during October and November this year are off the charts over our 68 years of measurements,” Jennifer Francis, a climate scientist at Rutgers University...
Everyone agrees that "something is very, very wrong with the Arctic climate"...
Between 1980 and 2016 the amount of summer ice in cubic kilometers has decreased by an estimated 72 percent...
- January 19, 2017
Northern Routes Open as Ice Retreats
Exxon Mobil could tap huge Arctic assets if US - Russian relations thaw
- Former Exxon CEO and new US Sec of State Rex Tillerson meets with Russian President Putin
- during 2012 negotiations to move forward with joint oil/gas ventures described as historic
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February 2017
Former Chief of ExxonMobil Testifies Before US Congress
- President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, said he believes the risks of climate change "could be serious enough that action should be taken,” but he did not elaborate on what that action should be.
Tillerson testified that he formed his views “over about 20 years as an engineer and a scientist, understanding the evolution of the science.” Ultimately, he said, he concluded that increasing greenhouse-gas concentrations in the atmosphere are having an effect on the earth’s climate. But he added, “Our ability to predict that effect is very limited,” and precisely what actions nations should take “seems to be the largest area of debate existing in the public discourse.”
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Geopolitics in the Arctic
- United States and Russia move to claim fossil fuel exploration and production rights
- Military and Economic interests present serious challenges
- Environmental exploitation and 'gas/oil' rush looms
A Final Presidential Decision Re: Arctic Oil/Gas
December 19, 2016 / President Barack Obama prepares to leave office and prepares to block the sale of new offshore drilling rights in most of the U.S. Arctic and parts of the Atlantic. The executive order that could indefinitely restrict oil production there, according to people familiar with the decision.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/11/18/obama-blocks-new-oil-gas-drilling-in-arctic-ocean.html
Arctic Sea Ice at Record Lows / December 2016
http://phys.org/news/2016-12-state-arcticlonger-seasons-thinning-sea.html
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/13122016/arctic-melting-climate-change-noaa-science
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=89223
http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/Report-Card
- Not Good News, Arctic Sea Ice News
First Cruise Ship Crossing the Ice-Free Arctic Passage
- https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:Crystal_Serenity_cruises_2016.png
- https://www.wired.com/2016/03/climate-change-opens-first-luxury-arctic-cruise-route/
- http://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/15687-serenity-departs-for-northwest-passage-trip.html
- http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/crystal-serenity-cruise-ulukhaktok-1.3736984 Ulukhaktok
- http://www.ktva.com/shows/frontiers/episode-74-crystal-serenitys-historic-voyage-951/ Arrival (September 16, 2016) in New York City ...
- http://www.reuters.com/article/us-environment-shipping-arctic-idUSKCN12A14B
The beginning of cruise ships plying the formerly isolated, ice-bound region... prompting calls for a clamp-down to prevent Titanic-style accidents and the pollution of fragile eco-systems resulting from accidents -- and new gas/oil production.
Arctic nations begin to consider limiting the size of vessels and banning the use of heavy fuel oil in the region after first luxury cruise ship, Crystal Serenity, sailed through the Arctic from Alaska, across Canada's newly navigable Northwest Passage, to New York in the summer of 2016.
Next up, commercial shipping traffic, container ships ...
- http://container-news.com/arctic-ocean-shipping-routes-open-months/
Shipping industry report:
Sea-ice is in a committed, long-term decline as the polar north warms.
This year looks on course to be the second lowest in the satellite record. Researchers do not see this trend being reversed anytime soon.
“If we experience a 2-degree increase in global temperatures, we will get close to an Arctic that is effectively ice-free for part of the year; that’s less than a million sq km of ice cover,” said Reading University's Dr. Ed Hawkins.
“So, even if future emissions are consistent with the Paris agreement, it will of course mean shipping routes will be more open. Not every year, but more regularly than they are now.”
“Open water vessels won’t be hugging the Russian coast quite so much, and ice-strengthened ships will be going right over the pole,” he told BBC News.
Saving time
The incentives are clear: if vessels can transit the Arctic, they will shave many days off their journey times between the Pacific and North Atlantic ports, and save fuel.
In addition, by plotting a more central course, they can avoid the fees they would otherwise be charged for going through Siberian waters.
The team has been looking at how the opportunities might evolve in the decades ahead.
The group used five prominent climate computer models and essentially trained them to better reflect the distribution of Arctic sea-ice as seen in current observations.
They then ran those models forward through the century under different emissions scenarios, to gauge where and how frequently shipping routes would become navigable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Sea_Route (Russia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Passage (Canada)
2015
- http://www.reuters.com/article/us-sanctions-russia-arctic-shipping-idUSKBN0KV17520150122
2014/2013
- http://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-arctic-shipping-idUSBRE92718420130308
2012/2011
- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jul/06/us-russia-political-tensions-arctic
- https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/oct/05/melting-arctic-ice-supertankers
Read More:
Arctic News -- http://www.arcticnow.com/section/arctic-news/
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Geo-political Issues (@GreenPolicy's associated site, Strategic Demands)
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Subcategories
This category has the following 4 subcategories, out of 4 total.
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Pages in category "Arctic"
The following 44 pages are in this category, out of 44 total.
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- Glasgow Climate Summit - Pledges, Promises, Declarations - What's Next Up
- Global Climate Action Summit
- Green Stories of the Day
- Green Stories of the Day - GreenPolicy360 Archive
- GreenPolicy360 Archive Highlights 2013
- GreenPolicy360 Archive Highlights 2014
- GreenPolicy360 Archive Highlights 2015
- GreenPolicy360 Archive Highlights 2016
- GreenPolicy360 Archive Highlights 2017
- GreenPolicy360 Archive Highlights 2018
- GreenPolicy360 Archive Highlights 2019
- GreenPolicy360 Archive Highlights 2020
- GreenPolicy360 Archive Highlights 2023
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Media in category "Arctic"
The following 3 files are in this category, out of 462 total.
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- 7-20-2020 GreenPolicy360 RT No.2.jpg 591 × 510; 125 KB