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Air Pollution In The Arctic | Earth Wise                     

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Climate change is shrinking the Arctic ice cover, which is making it easier for ships to travel along the northern coast of Russia, known as the Northern Sea Route or the Northeast Passage.  There is also the Northwest Passage, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans via waterways through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.

More than 600 fishing vessels sail the waters of the Arctic Ocean, but these fishing vessels are not the worst offenders when it comes to the growing problem of air pollution.  Giant natural gas tankers are becoming a much bigger problem.

In 2021, only 26 natural gas tankers traveled through Arctic waters.  But these ships can be 1000 feet long or more and produce far more CO2 emissions than fishing boats.   In 2019, the tankers accounted for 28% of the emissions and the number of them cruising the Arctic has been growing.

As the ice cover in the Arctic continues to shrink, more and more ships of all varieties, including cruise ships, fishing vessels, as well as tankers, are coming north and spending more time in the Arctic.  Any increases in ship traffic will increase the pollutant load in the Arctic and the Arctic is one of the most vulnerable environments in the world.

Between 2013 and 2019, the aggregated nautical miles that vessels traveled in what is called the Polar Code area increased by 75%. It isn’t just that more ships like tankers are going there.  It is that their operational season is expanding.

Air pollution isn’t the only problem.  Shipping in the Arctic brings with it light pollution, noise, marine litter, and more.  Only zero activity has zero pollution.

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The worst polluters in the Arctic are not what you think

Photo, posted February 26, 2015, courtesy of Chris Parker via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Polar Bears and Tires | Earth Wise

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There is lots of interest in traction.  People want to find better ways to move across wet and frozen surfaces safely.   This applies to both the shoes on our feet and the tires on our cars. 

Researchers at the University of Akron along with colleagues at Syracuse University and at Bridgestone, the tire company, have been studying how many arctic animals can walk and run across the ice without slipping and falling.  Their research focused on the paws of polar bears.

Previous studies discovered that polar bears have papillae – little bumps on the pads of their feet – that provide improved traction on snow.  The new research also looked at the paws of other species of bear – brown bears and black bears – and found that these others also have papillae on their paw pads, but that those of polar bears are as much as 50% taller.  These taller bumps give the pads a 30-50% increase in frictional shear stress.

The research may lead to various applications. For example, snow tires typically have deeper treads, but the polar bear study may lead to some new designs that would improve traction.  People who do high-altitude climbing are interested in the research as are companies that deliver goods in bad weather.  Anyone who has to be out and about in bad weather would like to get a better grip.

There are various other animals with traction-improving adaptations that are probably worth studying.  These include dogs, wolves, foxes, and mountain goats.  The same researchers at Akron have also studied other animals with unique abilities to deal with challenging surfaces including geckos, spiders, and mussels.  The natural world is filled with examples of creatures who can easily function in environments that we humans find very challenging.

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UA researchers’ focus on tire traction leads to investigation of polar bear paws

Photo, posted March 2, 2008, courtesy of Sam Weng via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Climate Change And Crabs | Earth Wise

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Globally, there are more than 6,000 species of crabs.  In Alaska’s waters alone, there are 18 species, including 10 that are commercially fished.  The perils of crab fishing in this region, including freezing temperatures, turbulent seas, and raising full pots that can weigh well over a ton, have been highlighted for many years in the reality TV series Deadliest Catch.        

One of those commercially-fished species is the Alaska snow crab.  Alaska snow crabs are a cold-water species found off the coast of Alaska in the Bering, Beaufort, and Chukchi Seas. 

In October, officials in Alaska announced that the upcoming winter snow crab season would be canceled for the first time ever due to a sharp population decline. While the number of juvenile snow crabs was at record highs just a few years ago, approximately 90% of snow crabs mysteriously disappeared ahead of last season.  Officials also canceled the Bristol Bay red king crab harvest for similar reasons for the second year in a row.

The closures dealt a severe blow to crab fishers in the region.  According to the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, Alaska’s crab fishing industry is worth more than $200 million. 

The canceled seasons also raise questions about the role of climate change in the snow crab population crash. While the causes of the decline are still being researched, scientists suspect that warmer temperatures are responsible.  Temperatures in the Arctic region have warmed four times faster than the rest of the planet. 

As the climate continues to change, the warming waters around Alaska may become increasingly inhospitable to snow crabs and other species.   

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Alaska’s Bering snow crab, king crab seasons canceled

Alaska cancels snow crab season for first time after population collapses

Photo, posted November 16, 2010, courtesy of David Csepp / NOAA via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Vanishing Arctic Lakes | Earth Wise

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In recent decades, the warming in the Arctic has been much faster than in the rest of the world.  The phenomenon is known as Arctic amplification.  A study by the Finnish Meteorological Institute published in August in Communications Earth & Environment determined that during the past 43 years, the Arctic has been warming nearly four times faster than the rest of the globe.  The result of this amplified warming has been that glaciers are collapsing, wildlife is struggling, and habitats continue to disappear at a record pace.

Research published by the University of Florida has identified a new threat associated with Arctic amplification: lakes in the Arctic are drying up.

Over the past 20 years, many Arctic lakes have shrunk or dried up completely across the entire pan-Arctic region, which spans the northern parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, Scandinavia, and Alaska.

Arctic lakes are essential elements of the Arctic ecosystem and for the indigenous communities that live in the region.  They provide a critical source of fresh water for those communities and local industries. 

The rapid decline of Arctic lakes is unexpected.  Earlier predictions were that climate change would first actually expand lakes in the region as ground ice melted.  Lakes drying out was not expected until much later in this century or even in the 22nd century.  Instead, it appears that thawing permafrost may drain lakes and overwhelm the expansion effect caused by melting ice.  The theory is that thawing permafrost decreases lake area by creating drainage channels and increasing soil erosion.

The finding suggest that permafrost thawing is occurring faster than anticipated, which presents many additional problems.

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As the climate crisis intensifies, lakes across the Arctic are vanishing

Photo, posted June 20, 2014, courtesy of Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Resurrecting The Tasmanian Tiger | Earth Wise

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Tasmanian tigers earned their nickname because of the stripes along their back, but they were not felines.  In fact, they were carnivorous marsupials, the type of Australian mammal that raises its young in a pouch.

Tasmanian tigers, also known as thylacines, were once native to the Australian mainland, as well as the islands of Tasmania and New Guinea.  Dog-like in appearance, Tasmanian tigers were extensively hunted after European colonization.  The last known Tasmanian tiger died in captivity in 1936.

Nearly 100 years after its extinction, the Tasmanian tiger may live once again.  Scientists in Australia and the United States have launched an ambitious multimillion dollar de-extinction project to genetically resurrect the Tasmanian tiger.

In order to bring back the animal, researchers will have to take stem cells from a living species with similar DNA – like the fat-tailed dunnart – and use gene editing techniques to turn them into “Tasmanian tiger” cells – or the closest approximation possible.  The team will need new assisted reproductive technologies to use the stem cells to make an embryo, which will then have to be transferred into an artificial womb or a dunnart surrogate to gestate.  The research team is optimistic that there could be a hybrid baby Tasmanian tiger in 10 years. 

The ambitious project is a partnership between scientists at the University of Melbourne and the Texas-based company Colossal Biosciences.  This is the second de-extinction undertaking by Colossal Biosciences, which announced last year it planned to use its technology to recreate the woolly mammoth, and return it to the Arctic tundra.

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Scientists want to resurrect the extinct Tasmanian tiger

Tasmanian tiger: Scientists hope to revive marsupial from extinction

Photo credit: E.J. Keller, from the Smithsonian Institution archives, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Methane From Thawing Permafrost | Earth Wise

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The Arctic permafrost contains a massive amount of carbon in the form of frozen soil, which contains remnants of plants and animals that died millennia ago.  Estimates are that there is 2 ½ times as much carbon trapped in this Arctic soil than there is in total in the atmosphere today.

As the Arctic warms, the permafrost is starting to thaw.  Once that happens, microbes begin to consume the previously frozen organic matter trapped in the soil.  As part of this process, the microbes produce large amounts of methane, which is an extremely potent greenhouse gas.   Thus, there continues to be great concern that wide-scale thawing of the permafrost would result in massive amounts of methane being released into the atmosphere.

A recent study in northern Sweden revealed a glimmer of hope.  The study gauged methane emissions from a swath of permafrost that thawed in the 1980s and another that thawed 10 or 15 years later. 

In the first area, as ice melted underground, water on the surface sank down into the soil.  As the surface dried out, new plants emerged that helped to keep methane emissions buried underground.

Grasses found in wet areas have straw-like structures that convey oxygen to their roots.  The straws also allow methane in the soil to escape into the atmosphere.  As the areas dry out, other plants lacking the straws can sometimes replace the grasses.  When methane can’t escape, soil bacteria break it down into carbon dioxide.

The result is that the permafrost releases only a tenth of the methane as expected.  The hope is that changes in plant cover driven by climate change may limit methane emissions from thawing permafrost.

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Thawing Permafrost In Sweden Releases Less Methane Than Feared, Study Finds

Photo, posted July 7, 2014, courtesy of NPS Climate Change Response via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Dangers Of Thawing Permafrost | Earth Wise

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The thawing of the permafrost in the Arctic is a major concern from the standpoint of the potential release of enormous amounts of carbon dioxide trapped in it.  There are nearly 2,000 billion tons of carbon there, which is as much as humanity releases into the atmosphere in 50 years.  But greenhouse gases are not the only danger posed by permafrost thawing.  There are also microbes, unknown viruses, and chemicals that could be very dangerous.

More than 100 diverse microorganisms in Siberia’s deep permafrost have been found to be antibiotic resistant.  The deep permafrost is one of the few environments on Earth that have not been exposed to modern antibiotics.  As the permafrost thaws, its bacteria could mix with meltwater and create new antibiotic-resistant strains.

By-products of fossil fuels – introduced into permafrost environments since the beginning of the industrial revolution – are present.  Metal deposits including arsenic, mercury, and nickel, have been mined for decades and have contaminated large areas.

Now-banned pollutants and chemicals – including DDT – came to the Arctic through the atmosphere and over time have become trapped in the permafrost.

There is now ongoing research further characterizing the microbes frozen in permafrost and providing more precise measurement of emissions hotspots in permafrost regions.  Scientists are increasingly turning to integrated Earth observations from the ground, the air, and space.

There are models that predict the gradual release of emissions from permafrost over the next century.  Other models say it could happen within just a few years.  The worst-case scenario would be utterly catastrophic but none of the scenarios portend anything good.

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Thawing Permafrost Could Leach Microbes, Chemicals Into Environment

Photo, posted February 9, 2017, courtesy of Benjamin Jones/USGS via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Permafrost Thaw | Earth Wise

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We’ve talked about permafrost before.  It is the frozen soil, rock, or sediment piled up in the Arctic that has been there at least for two years but, for the most part, for millennia or even over a million years.  Permafrost holds the carbon-filled remains of vegetation and animals that froze before they could start decomposing.   Estimates are that there are nearly 2,000 billion tons of carbon trapped in Arctic permafrost.  To put that in perspective, annual global carbon emissions are less than 40 billion tons.

Keeping all that carbon frozen plays a critical role in preventing the planet from rapidly heating. The ongoing warming of the Arctic is causing the subsurface ground to thaw and release long-held carbon to the atmosphere.

Scientists from Europe and the US are working together to better track permafrost carbon dynamics.  They are trying to understand the mechanisms that lead to abrupt thaws in the permafrost that have taken place in some locations.  These rapid thawing events are not well understood.  Researchers are also studying the effects of the increasingly frequent wildfires in the Arctic on the permafrost.

Researchers are using satellites to better understand the effects climate change is having on the Arctic environment and how these changes, in turn, are adding to the climate crisis.  Permafrost cannot be directly observed from space, so that its presence has to be inferred from measurements like land-surface temperature and soil moisture readings.  Terrestrial observations are also necessary for understanding how greenhouse gases – both CO2 and methane – are being emitted from the Arctic.

Thawing permafrost is a ticking timebomb for the environment that demands the growing attention of the scientific community.

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Permafrost thaw: it’s complicated

Photo, posted January 24, 2014, courtesy of Brandt Meixell / USGS via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Beavers Are Flooding The Warming Arctic | Earth Wise

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The accelerating warming in the Arctic has transformed the region into a warmer, wetter, and more diverse environment.  Warming temperatures have encouraged the increasing growth of vegetation, particularly shrubs that provide beavers with bark to eat and branches to build with.  Warming temperatures also mean that lakes and streams freeze solid for shorter periods of time or not at all, allowing beavers to pursue their construction projects for longer periods during the year.

Prior to the mid-1970s, residents of the Alaskan Arctic encountered few beaver ponds.  In 2018, researchers using satellite imagery mapped 12,000 beaver ponds in Alaskan tundra.

Beavers are causing major changes in the streams and floodplains that many small Alaskan villages depend upon for food, water, and navigation.  As the rodents transform lowland tundra ecosystems, they are eliminating food sources, deteriorating water quality, and making it difficult to navigate waterways.

The migration of beavers across the Arctic landscape is largely a result of climate change.  But it is also becoming one of the factors amplifying climate change.  Scientists are trying to figure out the degree of permafrost thawing that beaver dam-and-den building is causing and how fast these defrosted organic soils will degrade and release trapped carbon and methane.

Beaver dams alter the hydrology of streams by slowing the flow, storing and spreading water to create wetlands, raising the water table, and lowering the oxygen content of the water. 

Climate-driven changes in species distributions affect human well-being as entire ecosystems continue to change.  Shifts in animal habitat stimulated by climate change could have profound consequences across the globe.

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Beavers Are Flooding the Warming Alaskan Arctic, Threatening Fish, Water and Indigenous Traditions

Photo, posted June 12, 2018, courtesy of Peter Pearsall/USFWS via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Invasive Species On Ships In Antarctica | Earth Wise

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The Southern Ocean around Antarctica is the most isolated marine environment on Earth.  Antarctica’s native species have been isolated for the last 15-30 million years.  As a result, wildlife there has not evolved the ability to tolerate the presence of many groups of species.

New research by the University of Cambridge and the British Antarctic Survey has traced the global movements of all the ships entering Antarctic water and has found that Antarctica is connected to all regions of the globe via ship activity to an extent much greater than previously thought.  Fishing, tourism, research, and supply ships are exposing Antarctica to invasive, non-native species that threaten the existing ecosystems.

In all, the research identified over 1,500 ports with links to Antarctica.  From all these places, non-native species including mussels, barnacles, crabs, and algae attach themselves to ships’ hulls.  The process is known as biofouling. 

The greatest concern is the movement of species from pole to pole.  These species are already cold-adapted.  They may come on tourist or research vessels that spend the northern hemisphere summer in the Arctic before traveling south for the Antarctic summer season.

Mussels have no competitors in Antarctica should they be accidentally introduced.  Shallow water crabs would introduce a new form of predation that Antarctic animals have never encountered before.

Current biosecurity measures to protect Antarctica, such as cleaning ships’ hulls, focus on a small group of so-called gateway ports.  The new findings indicate that these measures need to be expanded to protect Antarctic waters from non-native species.

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Invasive species ‘hitchhiking’ on ships threaten Antarctica’s unique ecosystems

Photo, posted April 12, 2016, courtesy of NOAA’s National Ocean Service via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

An Arctic Bus | Earth Wise

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People have built vehicles for all sorts of extreme environments.  There are deep-sea exploration vessels and there have been lunar and Mars rovers.  But one thing that hasn’t existed so far are buses to transport groups of people around in extreme conditions in the Arctic.  Engineers at two Russian Universities are developing a passenger bus for riding in the Far North.   The project is being funded by the Russian Federation Ministry of Science and Higher Education and the URAL Automobile Manufacturing Plant.

The requirements for the vehicle are daunting.  The bus must be operable at extreme temperatures – 60 below zero Fahrenheit and lower – and have no difficulties even in challenging off-road conditions.

Current Arctic crew buses are not capable of getting through snow blockages and the all-terrain tracked vehicles that can get through them do not have sufficient passenger capacity. In addition to being able to go through snowbanks, the bus should be able to float on water for an hour.

Apart from its ability to withstand harsh Arctic conditions, the bus will also have a quarters module.  This means that it will have an autonomous life-support system for passengers in case of emergency.  The quarters module will be designed to sustain up to 20 people for up to 24 hours.  The module might also be used to hold medical equipment, thereby enabling practitioners to reach remote settlements and treat patients. 

The first tests of prototypes for the bus will be conducted in the near future.  The project aims to have the new Arctic Bus design complete and ready for manufacture by the end of 2023 and it will go into production in 2024.

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“Arctic Bus” Being Readied to Be Tested in the Far North

Photo, posted April 21, 2017, courtesy of Markus Trienke via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The All-Time Hottest Day | Earth Wise

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Last year saw record high temperatures in many places around the world and this year started out with more of the same.  In mid-January, Onslow, a small town in Western Australia, measured a high temperature of 123.3 degrees, tying the all-time highest temperature ever recorded anywhere in the Southern Hemisphere.  The previous reading was also made in Australia back in 1960.

The new temperature record was set just as climate institutions around the world were announcing that the past seven years have been the highest in recorded history.

The list of temperature records set in 2020 and 2021 is a long one.   2020 was the hottest year in recorded history.  July 2021 was the hottest month ever recorded.   The hottest official temperature ever recorded anywhere in the world was 129.9 degrees, occurring in Death Valley, California on both August 16, 2020, and July 9, 2021. 

The hottest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic was 100.4 degrees on June 20, 2020 in Verkhoyansk in Russia’s Sakha Republic.  (Amazingly, that small town also holds the record for the coldest temperature ever recorded in Asia at -90 degrees). 2021 saw an all-time high temperature recorded in Europe, in Syracuse, Sicily, on August 11 at 119.8 degrees. 

Overall, 400 documented weather stations in communities or outposts worldwide established all-time high temperatures in 2021 alone.  The climate we have lived through over the past decades is changing and these changes will have consequences to our way of life.

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Australia hits 123 degrees, tying hottest temperature on record in Southern Hemisphere

Photo, posted January 21, 2013, courtesy of A. Dombrowski via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Melting Himalayan Glaciers | Earth Wise

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The great mountain ranges of central Asia, including the Himalayas, contain the third-largest deposit of ice and snow in the world, trailing only Antarctica and the Arctic.  The Himalayan range contains about 15,000 glaciers, and is part of a region widely referred to as the Third Pole due to its extraordinary reserves of freshwater.

But in recent years, scientists have observed an increase in the rate of Himalayan glacier loss.  According to a new study led by researchers from the University of Leeds in the UK, the accelerating melting of the Himalayan glaciers threatens the water supply of millions of people in Asia. 

In the study, researchers reconstructed the reach of the Himalayan glaciers during the Little Ice Age, which was the last major glacier expansion 400-700 years ago. They found that these glaciers began losing ice 10 times faster during the modern era.  In fact, the glaciers have shrunk from a peak of nearly 11,000 square miles to around 7,500 square miles today.   

This exceptional acceleration of melting of the Himalayan glaciers could have significant implications.  Hundreds of millions of people rely on Asia’s major river systems for food and energy, and depend on these glaciers to feed rivers during the dry seasons.  These rivers include the Brahmaputra, Ganges, and Indus.  The changing global climate could disastrously impact water resources and livelihoods of the Greater Himalayan region.

According to the research team, people living in these regions have already seen changes that are unlike anything witnessed for centuries.  This study is the latest to confirm that these changes are accelerating and pose a significant threat to entire nations and regions. 

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Himalayan glaciers melting at ‘exceptional rate’

Photo, posted March 13, 2018, courtesy of Sarunas Burdulis via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Fire And Ice | Earth Wise

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In recent years, there have been countless stories about the effects of the changing climate.  Many of those stories have been about the dwindling sea ice in the Arctic and many others have been about the worsening wildfires in the western United States.   According to a recent study published by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, those two things are very much related.

As sea ice in the Arctic melts from July to October, sunlight warms the surrounding land and sea surfaces.  The resulting differences in air pressure create and strengthens a vortex in the atmosphere above the heated area which spins counterclockwise like a cyclone.

The powerful vortex pushes the polar jet stream out of its typical pattern and diverts moist air away from the western United States.  With the jet stream moved off its usual course, a second vortex, this time spinning clockwise, forms under the ridge of the polar jet stream above the Western U.S.  This second vortex brings with it clear skies and dry conditions:  fire-favorable weather.

Arctic sea ice has continually declined at least since the late 1970s.  It is predicted that there will be periods of entirely iceless Arctic waters before the 2050s.  In turn, conditions in the already fire-ravaged West are likely to be further exacerbated.  More than three million acres have burned across California alone during the 2021 wildfire season.

Climate conditions in one part of the world can, over time, influence climate outcomes thousands of miles away.  The research at Pacific Northwest Laboratory reveals how regional land and sea surface warming caused by Arctic ice melting can trigger hotter and drier conditions in the West later in the year.

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Fire and Ice: The Puzzling Link Between Western Wildfires and Arctic Sea Ice

Photo, posted July 28, 2018, courtesy of Bob Dass via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Arctic Communities And Permafrost Thaw | Earth Wise

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Permafrost is frozen soil, rock or sediment that can be as much as a few thousand feet thick.  To qualify as permafrost , the material has to have been at or below the freezing point of water for two or more years.  Most of it is located in high latitudes in the Arctic and Antarctic regions.   Permafrost covers nearly a quarter of the exposed land in the Northern Hemisphere.

Permafrost contains enormous amounts of carbon in the form of frozen soil that includes remnants of plants and animals, in some cases that have been there for more than 20,000 years.

The Arctic region has been warming faster than any place else on earth and thawing permafrost is already unleashing methane and carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, adding to the global temperature rise.

Apart from the impact on the global climate, thawing permafrost is making the ground unstable and is causing serious problems for local communities.

Recent research using satellite observations provides an overview of the Arctic to identify communities and infrastructure that will be at risk over the next 30 years.

Using high-resolution data from the Copernicus Sentinel satellite missions along with ground-based data going back to 1997, researchers modeled the permafrost ground temperature trends and extrapolated them out to 2050.  The results were that 55% of the infrastructure currently located on permafrost and within 60 miles of the Arctic coastline – infrastructure on which many communities rely – is likely to be affected.

Most human activity in the Arctic takes place along permafrost coasts.  Permafrost thaw is exposing these coasts to rapid change that threatens biodiversity and puts pressure on communities.

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Satellites pinpoint communities at risk of permafrost thaw

Photo, posted January 24, 2014, courtesy of Brandt Meixell / USGS via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

July Was A Scorcher | Earth Wise

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July 2021 has the unfortunate distinction as being the world’s hottest month ever recorded according to global data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.   July is typically the warmest month of the year, but this July was the warmest month of any year on record.

The combined global land and ocean surface temperature was 62.07 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 1.67 degrees above the 20th century average.  This was the highest monthly average since records began 142 years ago.  It broke the previous record set in July 2016 and tied in 2019 and 2020.

The Northern Hemisphere was 2.77 degrees above average.  Asia had its hottest July on record.  Europe had its second hottest July on record.  Places like Africa, Australia, and New Zealand all had top-ten warmest Julys.

Other aspects of the changing climate included the observation that Arctic sea ice coverage for July was the fourth-smallest in the 43-year record.  Interestingly, Antarctic sea ice extent was actually above average in July.  Global tropic cyclone activity this year so far is above normal for the number of named storms.  In the Atlantic basin, the formation of the storm Elsa on July 1 was the earliest date for a 5th named storm.

It remains very likely that 2021 will rank among the 10 hottest years on record.  Extreme heat is a reflection on the long-term climate changes that were outlined recently in a major report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.  These latest global observations add to the disturbing and disruptive path that the changing climate has set for the world.

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It’s official: July was Earth’s hottest month on record

Photo, posted July 15, 2021, courtesy of Lori Iverson/National Interagency Fire Center via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Drilling Rights In The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge | Earth Wise

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The battle to prevent oil and gas drilling rights from being sold in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska has been going on for 40 years.  The Trump administration spent nearly four years pushing to auction off those drilling rights and finally accomplished it in early January.

The ANWR was created in 1960 and is the largest intact wilderness in the U.S., covering nearly 30,000 square miles in Alaska.  It is an important breeding habitat for polar bears as well as the home of more than 200 other species including caribou, arctic foxes, golden eagles, and snowy owls.  Parts of it are also sacred ground for the indigenous Gwich’in people.

The auction carved out a 5% slice of the refuge for leases and proponents anticipated it would generate billions of dollars in revenues that would offset tax cuts in Alaska.

Of the 22 parcels of land offered, totaling 1.1 million acres, only 12 were bid on at all and the state of Alaska was the sole bidder on 9 of those.  In total, the auction raised a paltry $14 million. 

Whether the remarkable absence of interest was due to a lack of infrastructure or roads around the region, the decline of fossil fuel investments and use during the pandemic, or the anticipation that any leases would be the subject of endless legal battles by indigenous tribes and environmental activists, the net result was that the auction was basically a flop.

President Biden has stated that he is entirely against Arctic drilling, so the new administration is likely to try to repeal or interfere with any drilling leases or other industrial activity in the ANWR. 

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Arctic Oil Drilling Plans Suffer ‘Stunning Setback’ as Almost ‘No One Shows Up’ For the Sale

Photo, posted July 3, 2019, courtesy of Alaska Region U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via Flickr. Photo Credit: Danielle Brigida/ USFWS

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

What’s Killing Orcas? | Earth Wise

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With their characteristic tall dorsal fins and black and white color patterns, orcas are one of the ocean’s most iconic species.  Measuring up to 32 feet long and weighing as much as 6 tons, orcas have one of the largest geographic distributions of any species.  They live in all latitudes, in all oceans, from the Arctic to Antarctica.    

While they are often referred to as killer whales, orcas are actually not whales at all.  Orcas are the largest dolphin species and one of the most powerful predators on the planet. 

But human interference has made life significantly more difficult for orcas in recent years.  According to pathology reports on more than 50 orcas stranded over nearly a decade in the northeast Pacific and around Hawaii, the predators face a myriad of mortal threats.  Many of those threats stem from human interactions. 

Researchers from the British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture analyzed these orca pathology reports in a new study, which was recently published in the journal PLOS ONE,.  Of 52 orcas stranded between 2004 and 2013, causes of death were determined for 42%. For example, one orca died after receiving a halibut hook injury. Two orcas died from the blunt force trauma of vessel strikes. While there was no singular common cause of death, the study found a common theme:  human-caused deaths occurred in every age class – from juveniles to adults.

The researchers also note that humans aren’t just indirectly hurting orcas with things like lack of salmon or legacy toxins.  Humans are also directly killing killer whales with boat strikes and fishing gear.   

These findings will help establish a baseline of information to assess future orca conservation efforts. 

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What’s killing killer whales?

Photo, posted July 5, 2009, courtesy of Rennett Stowe via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Record Heat In The Arctic | Earth Wise

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By mid-November, the Arctic stays dark around the clock and twilight does not return until the end of January.  But even as winter darkness descended upon the Arctic this year, record-breaking high temperatures in the region continued.  In late November, temperatures across the entire Arctic basin were 12 degrees Fahrenheit above normal and some locations saw temperatures as high as 30 degrees above normal.

The entire summer and fall in the Arctic were characterized by exceptionally warm temperatures.  In June, the Siberian town of Verkhoyansk – located north of the Arctic Circle – registered a high temperature of 100.4 degrees.  The refreezing of the Arctic Ocean was greatly delayed this year.  The Northeast Passage along the Siberian Coast remained navigable for a record 112 days before freezing in November, breaking the previous record by more than a month.  The extent of sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean in October was the lowest ever recorded for that month.

The strongest warming occurring in the Arctic is during the fall.  That is because rapidly disappearing sea ice is enabling the dark waters of the Arctic Ocean to absorb heat in the summer and then radiate it back into the atmosphere until late in the fall.  The Arctic region is heating up three times faster than the rest of the planet, which has led to the volume of sea ice decreasing by 2/3 in the past 40 years.

According to researchers, the extreme heat in Siberia this year would have been virtually impossible without human-caused climate change and became 600 times more likely because of human emissions of greenhouse gases.

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Record-shattering Warmth Pushes Arctic Temperatures to 12 Degrees F Above Normal

Photo, posted September 1, 2009, courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey via Flickr. Photo Credit: Patrick Kelley, U.S. Coast Guard.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Replacing Plastic Tableware | Earth Wise

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Plastics have been described as the “ubiquitous workhorse material of the modern economy.”  But their versatility, pliability, and durability comes at a heavy price to the environment.  Plastic pollution is quite literally everywhere.  Plastic debris and microplastic particles can be found in every corner of the globe, including the Arctic and Antarctic. 

The scourge of plastic pollution is driving scientists to create ecologically-friendly alternatives.  According to a paper recently published in the journal Matter, scientists have developed “green” tableware made from sugarcane and bamboo that doesn’t sacrifice on convenience or functionality.  This eco-friendly tableware could serve as a permanent replacement for plastic cups and other disposable plastic containers. 

Traditional plastic polymers, a product of petroleum, can take as long as 1,000 years to decompose in landfills.  The new material only takes 60 days to break down.

To create this material, scientists used bamboo and bagasse, also known as sugarcane pulp.  Bagasse is one of the largest food-industry waste products.  The researchers wound the fibers together to form a mechanically stable and biodegradable material.  They added an alkyl ketene dimer, an eco-friendly chemical, to increase the oil and water resistance of the material.  The green material is durable enough to hold liquids like hot coffee and hot greasy foods like pizza.   

There’s another advantage: the green material’s manufacturing process emits 97% less CO2 than the process to make commercial plastic containers.  The next step is to lower the manufacturing cost.  While the cost of cups made from the green material is $2,333 per ton, traditional cups made from plastic are still slightly cheaper at $2,177 per ton.

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This tableware made from sugarcane and bamboo breaks down in 60 days

Photo, posted May 19, 2013, courtesy of Henry Burrows via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

WAMC Northeast Public Radio

WAMC/Northeast Public Radio is a regional public radio network serving parts of seven northeastern states (more...)