Ice Blog
A continuation of The Ice Blog on DW by environment journalist Irene Quaile, @iceblogger
Since my first experiences of hiking in the Alps in the 1970s, I have had a fascination for ice, snow and sky. Later, as an environment journalist with Deutsche Welle, I had my first opportunity to visit the Arctic in 2007. It was the start of the international polar year and Moira Rankine of Soundprint in the USA approached me along with other award-winning science and environment colleagues from international broadcasters with a view to making a series of radio features on the Arctic and the Antarctic. After just one trip, I was hooked. When the snow melts on Svalbard was my first feature for the series. The years that followed took me back to Svalbard, Greenland and – in 2008 – to Arctic Alaska, where the Ice Blog was born. I am fascinated by the fragile beauty of the unique ecosystem, the people who live there, the animals and plants that thrive in the cold. And I am deeply disturbed by the extent to which our behaviour has warmed and goes on warming the planet, endangering the icy regions which play such an important role in regulating the climate all over the globe.
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FeaturedArctic 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… Read more
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FeaturedIceblogger 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… Read more
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FeaturedA 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… Read more
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Featured2020 – 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… Read more
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FeaturedCOP25 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… Read more
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FeaturedArctic 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… Read more
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FeaturedPolar 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… Read more
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FeaturedWarming 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… Read more
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Ice Blog reloaded
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 also of a deep concern for the icy regions of our planet and… Read more
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