Background Articles

A new study sheds light on some of the risks associated with Arctic shipping finding that vessels with lower ice-classes are up to 20 times more likely to become stuck in sea ice along Russia’s Northern Sea Route than vessels with higher levels of protection.

Russia has proposed its strategic Arctic shipping route as an alternative to the Suez Canal after a 400-meter cargo ship got stuck in the canal, blocking one of the world's key shipping routes and sparking fears of a rise in oil prices.

Lyubov Morekhodova glides over the ice on skates made by her father not long after World War II. She has lived on the shores of Lake Baikal all her life, where winter temperatures plummet to minus 50C.

Learn about the Kalamazoo River oil spill, its environmental impact, and what made it one of the worst inland oil spills in US history.

Plastic pollution is threatening the wildlife in the Mekong River Basin.

The landfill in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, is overfull, but the hamlet can’t open a new landfill until it can pay to decommission the old one, says hamlet Mayor Harry Towtongie. A new environmental report says bad dumps are a problem in all of Canada's Inuit regions.

While the eruption site in Geldingadalur is closed today due to adverse weather conditions and high levels of toxic gases, authorities are aware of people’s interest in seeing the eruption and are working on securing the area and providing safe access. When visiting an active volcanic eruption, there are several things that must be taken […]

Scientists have discovered microplastics in rainwater and snow, in remote parts of Russia. The researchers first started looking into the pollution in 2020, and they have determined that the small fibers were carried to the remote wilderness by air currents.

There was a strong correlation between the observations of dead birds and wildfires and the toxic gases they produced, but not with the early winter storms.

Also dubbed the murder hornet, the invasive wasps threaten pollinators and have been found in communities along both sides of the Canada-U.S. border and on Vancouver Island. B.C. officials will focus on the Fraser Valley in their efforts to track and eradicate Asian giant hornets this year.

An endangered species of whale that lives off the East Coast is having its best season for new babies in several years.

Recent storms have battered the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta coast and dumped multiple feet of snow in some places. Some are saying that this is more snow than

Enlarged tooth projecting from upper jaw of males offers window onto life in frozen seas as far back as 1960s. From 1990 until 2000, ice in northwest Greenland began to decline and the diet of the narwhals shifted to open-ocean prey such as capelin and polar cod. Narwhals accumulated small quantities of mercury as the new items of prey sat lower in the food chain.

Pine siskins, a type of finch, can spread salmonella bacteria when they poop on the high-traffic platforms

The climate crisis has caused a steep decline in butterfly sightings in the Rocky Mountain range. This decline is also consistent among other insect populations around the world. If this die-off continues, a great percentage of natural pollinators will cease to exist.

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, at least 358 manatees have died in Florida since Jan. 1. This is a staggering number compared to just 122 deaths by this time last year.

However the phenomenon is not only seen in people who suffer from pollen allergies, Finnish experts noted.

The study shows the destruction of the kelp forest was related to an explosion in the population of purple sea urchin, which eats it, and two warm water events that lasted from 2014 to 2016.

As permafrost thaws around the world, the steel, concrete and tarmac structures sitting on top are warping and crumbling. Is there anything engineers can do to adapt?