Background Articles

The spruce beetles found in Alaska belong to a genus of 17 bark beetle species that are so notorious for destroying trees that it’s named “dendroctonus,” or “tree killer.” Despite

Average daytime temperatures in Guatemala have risen over the past decade, while crop-damaging frosts are more common.

Extreme erosion of Arctic coastlines in a changing climate—up to a metre a day—has been revealed with drone surveys.

The Kotzebue area saw average temperatures as high as 11.4 degrees F above normal in May, with similar conditions in nearby villages. Utqiaġvik saw a 6.6-degree jump, while Prudhoe Bay experienced temperatures more than 8 degrees higher than normal.

In Reykjavík, Akureyri, and Stykkishólmur, this was the second warmest since record-keeping began. After last year’s unusually cold and rainy spring and summer, locals are enjoying pleasant weather.

"Tularemia outbreaks in hares are reported every May and June in the Fairbanks North Star Borough," said Kimberlee Beckmen, an Alaska Department of Fish and Game veterinarian.

Environmentalists often decry the loss of species diversity in rivers that have been dammed. But while some species lose when we meddle with rivers, others win, sometimes in dramatic and ways.

A series of spring storms has kept the snowpack — a key source of the state’s water supply — at its highest level for early June since 2011.

One operator flies clients to a “glamping” site on Spencer Glacier. Another visits a giant new Lake George iceberg. Their clients say they want to see the glaciers before they shrink further.

About 70 gray whales have been spotted dead so far this year along the West Coast from California to Alaska, the most in almost 20 years. Many of them appeared malnourished, according to NOAA officials.

From African waters to China and back again, over half the fish on Nigerian tables is imported

The drought has had damaging economic and ecological impacts.

Two summers ago, federal scientists discovered something shocking: The Northern Bering Sea was teeming with cod and pollock. Those two commercially valuable species had never been found in such large huge numbers that far north.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch covers an area twice the size of Texas or three times the size of France.

In a paper published Wednesday, researchers theorize the die-off is at least partially attributable to the changing climate.

A melting Arctic may be confounding the jet stream and making trouble for everyone.

The Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska has a climate change adaptation plan. It wants the region to be included in the climate change discussion.

In the Eureka Sound Lowlands on Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg islands, the permafrost is more than half a kilometre deep, and the average air temperature is –19.7 C. But higher summer temperatures have caused the earth to collapse.

Researchers are trying to determine the cause of a gray whale die-off along the West Coast, including Alaska. And they're looking at whether recent warming trends in the Arctic, and reduced sea ice, has affected their prey.

Sargassum is infesting Mexico’s coastline. Researchers are scrambling to stop an ecological crisis, and maybe even make something good of it.