Background Articles

Arctic climate science has been severely disrupted by the war in Ukraine, as US and European countries isolate Russia, leading to suspended funding, limited communication, and a fractured Arctic Council, hindering efforts to mitigate global warming and understand its dynamics.

Disagreements persist over the extent of the restoration plan for the Eklutna River in Alaska, with utilities arguing that a replacement dam would be costly and increase electric rates, while proponents of the plan believe it would benefit the public interest by boosting local fishing and tourism and improving the ecosystem.

Ancient pathogens that have been preserved in northern Russia’s permafrost for millennia could reawaken as global temperatures rise, scientists warn, potentially putting humanity at risk of never-before-seen diseases.

When Jody Potts-Joseph was growing up, her family mushed sled dogs during the harsh Alaskan winters to hunt and trap, feeding them salmon caught from the Yukon River by the thousands. But after rebuilding her sled dog team as an adult, Potts-Joseph, a member of the Han Gwich'in tribe, had to turn to store-bought dog food. The river that was once renowned for its salmon doesn't have enough to offer anymore.

Garden writer Jeff Lowenfels asks whether there is more matter falling from birch trees late this summer than in previous years,

A summer of devastating wildfires that burned huge swaths of the N.W.T. and forced countless communities across the country to evacuate has some experts questioning whether Canada is equipped for hotter, more intense fire seasons.

Researchers have developed a non-invasive method to monitor polar bear and lynx populations by extracting environmental DNA from their paw prints in the snow, offering a safer and potentially more informative alternative to traditional tracking methods.

Newtok's school faces demolition due to severe riverbank erosion, as the community grapples with climate-induced relocation challenges.

Researchers want to use the ultrafine rock particles left by eroding glaciers to suck climate-warming carbon from the air.

Weakened wind patterns likely spurred the wave of extreme ocean heat that swept the North Pacific last summer, according to new research led by the University of Colorado Boulder and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego. The marine heat wave, named the "Blob 2.0" after 2013's "Blob"; likely damaged marine ecosystems and hurt coastal fisheries. Waters off the U.S. West Coast were a record-breaking 4.5 degrees F (2.5 degrees C) above normal, the authors found.

Several people have drowned or been reported missing after swimming in Pacific Northwest bodies of water during the record-breaking heat wave in the past few days.

Back at his Spokane home, McCrea looked around. No bugs on the lights there either. No frogs in the pond. Only one bumblebee was buzzing against a porch light – and at an odd hour, around 10 p.m. that night.

Cars and houses submerged in water, commuters wading through buses knee-high in floods, and homeowners counting the cost of destroyed properties.

MOSCOW — Summer wildfires have already produced a record amount of carbon emissions in Russia’s Siberian region of Yakutia, with still more weeks of the fire season to come, according to the European Union’s Copernicus satellite monitoring unit. Environmentalists fear the fires, fuelled by hot weather, may thaw Siberian permafrost and peatlands, releasing even more

It’s not what you think.

A proposal to relocate Sitka black-tailed deer into areas crisscrossed with roads, farms and established wildlife populations may ultimately cause more problems than it’s worth, says an internal report from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Heading into the end of 2021, Yellowknife’s deputy fire chief is celebrating a record low number, three, of structure fires in the city this year.

A new study conducted at the Moscow State University confirms that the Arctic permafrost along the country’s northern coastline is thawing at terrifying speeds.

Researchers now are uncertain when and to what extent the ice may return, and have scrambled to better understand the consequences of back-to-back years of its loss.