Background Articles

The sand dunes in Hooper Bay, Alaska, which serve as a protective barrier against storms and preserve the community's cultural history, are rapidly eroding and may lead to the relocation of the village. The dunes were once home to sod houses and artifacts dating back to 1600 A.D. The loss of the dunes threatens not only subsistence food resources but also the community's connection to its past. As the dunes continue to erode, there are concerns about the potential relocation of the community and the preservation of their stories and artifacts.

A possible cougar sighting has been reported in Whitehorse's McIntyre neighbourhood, with conservation officers taking the report seriously but considering it unconfirmed.

Families in Hooper Bay, Alaska, who were displaced by Typhoon Merbok last year and currently live in low-income housing, may lose their housing by the end of the month due to the expiration of their temporary emergency placement.

A new study reveals that four dozen Antarctic ice shelves have shrunk by at least 30% since 1997, with 28 of them losing more than half of their ice, raising concerns about sea level rise due to climate change.

Coastal Alaskans in Hooper Bay and Chevak are struggling to find subsistence foods, such as berries and underground caches of roots called “mouse food”, due to the impact of Typhoon Merbok's storm surge and a cold, rainy summer.

Most of the humpbacks were seen near the Inupiat village of Point Hope, indicating a feeding hotspot in that area. While sightings farther north have been less numerous, there has still been an increase in recent years. The study suggests that climate change and the reduction of Arctic sea ice may be a factor in the expansion of humpback whale range.

Lichens can provide valuable information about air quality and environmental conditions, as different species have different sensitivities to pollution and humidity levels, making them useful indicators of climate and pollution levels in a given area.

Nearly 1,000 migrating birds died after crashing into a building in Chicago due to a confluence of specific conditions, including unfavorable weather and lights being left on in the building.

The extreme drought sweeping across Brazil’s Amazon rainforest is already impacting hundreds of thousands of people and killing local wildlife.

The Department for Fisheries and Hunting in Greenland is responding to reports of sick and dead birds along the country's west coast and east coast, with concerns that it may be due to avian influenza, but the risk of transmission to humans is low.

Unalaska in Alaska is under an air quality advisory due to ashfall from the eruption of Mount Shishaldin on Unimak Island, with the advisory extended until Thursday.

More than 100 dolphins have died in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest in the past week as the region grapples with a severe drought, and many more could die soon if water temperatures remain high, experts say.

Scientists are pretty good at recognizing marine heat waves. A global network of thousands of oceanic buoys and orbiting satellites allow them to see, in real time, ocean surface temperatures, changing currents and storm systems as they develop, move or stall from the Antarctic to the North Pole.

After an exceptionally warm summer, ripe cloudberries are for the first time documented at 78° North. 

Most of the 28 yearlings that were released into the herd in during the summer of 2022 didn't survive.