Background Articles

Warming ocean waters are an invitation to all sorts of pathogens with the potential to remake ocean life.

"We've all known with climate change, the bears are coming ashore earlier, they're spending more time onshore, and they're becoming habituated," said Rockwell, a research associate with the American Museum of Natural History.

The earth's glaciers are melting much faster than scientists thought. A new study shows they are losing 369 billion tons of snow and ice each year, more than half of that in North America.

Dumps are often chock-full of plastic and, as a new survey shows, polar bears are ingesting a lot of it. In an analysis of the stomach contents of 51 polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea, researchers led by Raphaela Stimmelmayr, a wildlife veterinarian with Alaska’s North Slope Borough Department of Wildlife Management, found that 25 percent of the bears had plastic in their stomachs.

Watch where you step.

Climate change has caused a 60-fold increase in active landslides on one Canadian Arctic island.

Increasing ground temperatures in the Arctic are indicators of global climate change, but until recently, areas of cold permafrost were thought to be relatively immune to severe impacts. A new study by Antoni Lewkowicz, a professor in the Department of Geography, Environment and Geomatics at the University of Ottawa and published in the journal Nature Communications, however, shows that areas of cold permafrost can be vulnerable to rising summer temperatures.

The Czech Hydro-meteorological Office says this winter has been one the warmest ever in this country.

The average temperature for the entire country was 1.2 degrees above normal in March. It is thus the twelfth month in a row that the temperature in Norway has been above normal.

Alaska could be joining dozens of other states by adopting the framework of Next Generation Science Standards. On Friday, the State Board of Education unanimously approved a draft slated for public comment.

Rabies reported in three towns in eastern Essex County

I knew that those Japanese currents would come to our waters, and so that’s why I volunteered to do the testing,” Eddie Ungott, a resident of Gambell.

The mysterious die-off of freshwater turtles throughout the massive St. Johns River watershed continues despite an ongoing year-long investigation by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and its partners to determine the cause and prevent damage to the ecosystem with the loss of the species.  The commission and its conservation partners currently are asking the public for help by providing information about any sick, dead or dying turtles they find in Northeast Florida.

Officials cited rockfall danger and traffic hazards created by people stopping to fill containers.

March becomes the hundredth month in a row with temperatures above normal. "It is unique and shows how fast climate change is happening in the Arctic," says climate scientist Ketil Isaksen at the Meteorological Institute (MET).

The record early departure of the sea ice offshore Nome (March 12), and ice gone missing from Norton Sound astounded weather experts.

Recent storms have destroyed the progress made in ice formation endangering coastal habitats and fishing practices.

The latest statistics on the mountain hare (or blue hare) population of Finland, for instance, show that the species' numbers are plummeting while the European (or brown) hare is thriving, especially in southern parts of the country.

Colorado has seen more 2,500 avalanches this season, some larger than any on record.

Since 2014 St. Lawrence Islanders have been collecting sea water samples, knowing that the radiation would eventually show up. Now the signature of Fukushima has finally been identified, the northern most sample evidence of the plume. Fortunately the levels are low.