Background Articles

The world surpassed the 2-degree warming threshold for the first time, signaling an urgent need to address greenhouse gas emissions as climate impacts worsen.

Alaska communities are facing significant challenges due to climate change, including the disappearance of snow crabs, threats to subsistence hunting and fishing, and difficulties in processing and storing food, but some communities are taking action and developing local climate adaptation plans with the support of funding and collaboration between different governments and agencies.

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.

A U.S. Energy Department climate scientist visited Utqiaġvik to evaluate research progress on permafrost and climate change, highlighting the importance of accurate measurements and models in predicting future climate patterns in the Arctic.

Researchers say climate change is playing a big role in the collapse, which has left thousands of people along the river without the salmon they depend on. 

More than 80 per cent of B.C.'s water basins are experiencing level 4 or 5 drought conditions, with salmon in many parts of the province struggling to make it to their spawning grounds.

A new report from NOAA and NASA confirms that last month was the hottest July ever recorded, driven to new heights by human-caused climate change.

There are now 140 active Interior wildfires, with Southeast Alaska seeing "abnormally dry" conditions.

The R/V Sikuliaq is a familiar sight in the Port of Nome. The ice-breaking research vessel is owned by the National Science Foundation and operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks. This year, while the vessel is out at sea it will be collecting water that could signal whether a bloom is occurring.

The temperature of asphalt and pavement and concrete and sidewalks in Arizona on a warm sunny day or summer afternoon is 180 degrees sometimes.

Anchorage is cool and wet this summer as the rest of the world bakes in the sun and heat.

Extreme heat around the nation is affecting some flights departing from airports including Salt Lake City, Las Vegas and Phoenix, which have had triple-digit temperatures this week.

An entomologist who works with the N.W.T. government said mosquito populations throughout the territory are lower than average. That’s because most types of mosquitoes "love water," and conditions in parts of the territory have been hot and dry instead. 

Wildfire smoke has been blasting much of the N.W.T. lately, with air quality advisories in nearly every community Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, much of the territory is also coping with record-breaking heat.

The virtual reality project Qikiqtaruk: Arctic at Risk is transporting people to Yukon's northernmost point without them ever having to leave home.

This rural part of the island of Oahu is not connected to city sewers — and waste from toilets, sinks and showers is mostly collected in hundreds of pits called cesspools. Rising seas are also pushing groundwater closer to the surface, allowing cesspool effluent to mix with the water table and flow into the ocean.

Rick Thoman is thinking hard about the cost of climate change and the benefits of better tracking, potentially influencing Alaska’s response to extreme weather and more.

The state’s rural areas lead the world in renewably powered microgrids. So if the grid of the future is being incubated in rural Alaska, can urban Alaska, like the Railbelt, benefit from some of these strategies and lessons learned?

Heat waves like the one that engulfed parts of parts of the South and Midwest and killed more than a dozen people are becoming more common.

Scientists say worsening heat waves have a clear link to climate change. This year, a seasonal El Niño pattern will also be adding fuel to the fire.