At the end of a year of fires, floods and other climate catastrophes, is the world coming to its senses? Or are we burning on regardless?
Glasgow outcome: a COP-out for the Arctic – and the rest of the planet
My expectations for COP26 were not high. What we needed to come out of it was huge. But at the latest when the G20 leaders meeting in Rome ahead of the Glasgow conference failed to agree on a commitment to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050, it was looking highly unlikely that we would …
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Walk the talk? Can COP26 drive global transformation in time to save the planet?
Will Glasgow’s COP26 be remembered like Copenhagen (disaster) or Paris (breakthrough)? Is the climate glass half empty or half full? With more than half the negotiating time over, you could be forgiven for wondering if there are two parallel events going on. Depending on who you listen to, you could expect either. The mass demonstrations …
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COP26 – A Glasgow fairytale
The situation for planet earth was looking bleak. There was more of those dangerous heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere than ever before (and the records could go back way beyond the bounds of human history, looking into the earth, the oceans and the ice.) The planet had become a hothouse. The ice at the poles …
Greenland to Glasgow: Arctic SOS to Climate COP26 as scientists demand urgent action to slow ice loss and avert sea-level and weather catastrophe.
With the final countdown running for the UN climate conference, COP26, in Glasgow, the mood is shifting between desperate hope for a breakthrough that will ensure the world can keep global warming below the critical 1.5 C mark - and fear that countries will not pledge the necessary reductions. This week top scientists working on the Greenland ice sheet and Arctic climate change issued an urgent message. The ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are melting faster than ever, with catastrophic implications for global sea level and the world's weather – and only rapid and substantial action can slow the pace.
When the rain falls on Greenland … only negative emissions can cool the Arctic – and the planet
Rain has fallen on the highest point of Greenland's ice sheet for the first time ever. The world's climate experts have given their starkest forecast for the future of the climate. Net zero by 2050 will not be enough to stabilize it. Without negative emissions, catastrophic impacts cannot be avoided.
1.5°C is way too high: thoughts from a flood-stricken German valley
We are fine and glad to live up a hill, but in shock, with the region around us devastated by the heaviest and longest lasting rain I have ever experienced and unprecedented floods. At least 160 people are dead here, more in neighbouring Belgium, and many more missing. This is in Germany, one of the …
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Tipping points: can a leaked report tip the scales to climate action?
I was working through my Twitter feed, fretting about the incredible temperatures in the high north and researching my next blog post. Could geoengineering be the way to cool the Arctic and the planet? Should it? And was the current hype about it not distracting too much attention from the need for immediate and drastic …
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Hot times ahead as oil-fuelled Russia chairs the Arctic Council and polar warming picks up pace
The bi-annual Ministerial Meeting of the Arctic Council in Reykjavik, Iceland, on May 20th attracted a lot of media interest – not least because the new US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was attending, alongside Russian foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. This is one arena where the two rivals and Cold War adversaries come together as …
German High Court win for climate activists is good news for the Arctic
In Germany, where I live, the country's highest court, the Federal Constitutional Court, - unnoticed by much of the international media – recently issued a game-changing verdict in a case initiated by campaigners supported by groups including Fridays for Future and Greenpeace. The plaintiffs argued the government was failing to act on climate change. The …
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Can we make peace with nature in a rapidly changing Arctic?
The United Nations Environment Programme is calling for bold action to “make peace with nature” by cutting greenhouse gases and restoring biodiversity as the world emerges from the COVID pandemic. “Innovation and investment only in activities that protect both people and nature”, is the motto. What does this mean for the rapidly changing Arctic and the Indigenous peoples living there?
International Polar Bear Day: Only rapid emissions reductions can ensure the Arctic icons survive beyond 2100
February 27th is International Polar Bear Day. In the rapidly warming Arctic climate, sea ice is declining at record rates, destroying the habitat the bears need to survive. Rapid emissions cuts could still ensure their long-term survival. Otherwise, all but a few populations could collapse by 2100.
2021: Future doesn’t just happen – It’s what we make it
As I started work on this post, on December 23rd, the thermometer here in north-western Germany showed 14° Celsius. I’ve long given up dreaming of a White Christmas in this part of the world, but roses and honeysuckle in bloom in mid-winter? 2020 marked the close of the warmest decade (2011-2020) on record, according to …
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The Arctic, the climate: some gloom but no doom – and a promise of progress
Last Monday, Germany’s public service broadcaster ARD dedicated its prime viewing time after the evening news to the Arctic, the start of a whole week of themed programme contributions. It showed a film documentary on the MOSAiC project, a spectacular year-long expedition, during which the legendary icebreaker Polarstern – (pole star) belonging to Germany’s polar …
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When the Arctic ice won’t freeze
Imagine you head for the North Pole to test your brand-new giant, state-of-the-art icebreaker – and you can’t find any ice thick enough to smash. That must have been a frustrating anti-climax for the crew and operators of the Russian Arktika. When I read the story by Thomas Nilsen on the Independent Barents Observer, I …
Dark summer for Greenland’s ice
Greenland's massive ice sheet is melting ever faster in a year of record temperatures. Has it passed the point of no return?
Not “if” but “when”: Polar Bears could disappear from most of the Arctic in eighty years.
Rapid emissions cuts could still ensure their long-term survival. Otherwise, some Arctic regions seem set to lose polar bears by 2080 – and all but a few populations could collapse by 2100, according to a new study.
Zackenberg revisited –Greenland climate research station under threat from permafrost thaw
Zackenberg station from the air (I.Quaile) In the remote, high Arctic region of north-eastern Greenland, at 74° North, a scattered group of blue and white buildings and tent-like structures perches above a river which starts to swell with melting ice, in a broad valley amongst green and brown hills, dotted with snow. For almost 25 …
Summer 2020: When the unprecedented becomes the precedent
Heatwaves across the Arctic, smouldering wildfires, early melt onset in Greenland while corona holds up climate negotiations- summer 2020 takes us into unknown territory.
Hooked on the Arctic
This blog post was written for Arctic Relations , a website devoted to “Arctic scholarship and stories”, led by Hannes Hansen-Magnusson, a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Cardiff, and coordinated by Charlotte Gehrke from the same University. There is a wonderful network of Arctic experts and enthusiasts around the planet. Thanks …
Arctic conferencing in times of corona
With much of the world in lockdown and the potentially lethal corona virus dominating the agenda, it is easy to become distracted from other important issues – such as climate change in the Arctic. There is a trend - which I consider unfortunate and counter-productive - especially in the social media to discuss how the …
Iceblogger Images
As the iceblogger - like most folks these days - gets organised in the days of corona, with virtual meetings and conferences in the making, perhaps these favourite Arctic pictures will bring a smile until the next post is ready. If you read German, I have written a couple of articles for Polar Journal, where …
A warm breeze coming up from the pole? What’s going on in Antarctica?
Scientists find ancient Antarctic ice melt could happen again, raising sea levels by three metres. During my first trip to Australia back in 1990, in the days when we had no mobiles and travellers had to queue up outside a telephone box, a breath of chilly air (by Australian winter standards) prompted a local next …
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2020 – Crunch time – or squelch time – for the Arctic?
I would love to be looking forward to the 2020s as the decade when the Arctic as we have known it will be saved; climate change decisively halted; emissions will peak; fossil fuels become true fossils; sustainable living will be the 'in' -thing. The Arctic will not become ice-free in summer after all. And Fridays …
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COP25 and the Arctic: stakes high, expectations low as tipping points tumble
Another year, another COP... What's a year in the history of a planet? And as we head for 2020 – the start of a new decade - what's ten years in the evolution of the earth? The UNFCCC tells us COP25 serves to “build ambition ahead of 2020, the year in which countries have committed …
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Arctic sea ice record low. Can we communicate our way out of climate paralysis?
The latest figures from the NSIDC do not make happy reading. The Arctic sea ice extent averaged for October 2019 was 5.66 million square kilometers (2.19 million square miles), the lowest in the 41-year continuous satellite record. The experts tell us this was 230,000 square kilometers (88,800 square miles) below that observed in 2012—the previous …
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Polar bear pictures and the climate emergency
Recently, the picture editor of the Guardian, Fiona Shields, published a piece explaining "why we are going to be using fewer polar bears and more people to illustrate our coverage of the climate emergency". She writes: "At the Guardian we want to ensure that the images we publish accurately and appropriately convey the climate crisis …
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Warming Arctic, warming world: the chilling truth
When the latest IPCC report on climate change and the ocean and cryosphere was published last month, I wrote this commentary for Deutsche Welle. It is so directly related to the Ice Blog brief that it seems right to publish it again here. I am especially encouraged by the reactions of some of my young …
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Ice Blog reloaded
Melting ever-faster: the Greenland ice sheet (Pic: Irene Quaile) Changing Arctic, Changing World This is a continuation of the Ice Blog. My fascination with the Arctic started back in 2007, when I was invited to join an international radio project to cover the International Polar Year. It was the beginning of a love affair and …
The Ice Blog 