UN negotiators are discussing measures to tackle climate change in the German city of Bonn. Meanwhile, the Arctic has seen its first heatwave of the year and the Russian war on Ukraine appears to have sparked a fossil fuel revival.
Tag: Arctic
The Arctic – A UK Science Perspective
Durham University just hosted the UK Arctic Science Conference 2022. Interesting times, in the shadow of the Russia-Ukraine invasion and troubled relations between Moscow and the West. Still, international collaboration to research the changing Arctic is key.
In search of consensus in troubled times: Students in Scotland run model Arctic Council
Students in the Scottish coastal town of Oban are staging the country's first Model Arctic Council. The pro-independence government is keen to extend links with its northern neighbours. It's an interesting time to hold SCOTMAC, when the Arctic Council's work has been paused over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Thawing permafrost: Arctic future on shaky ground bodes ill for the global climate
Arctic permafrost is thawing, threatening northern communities and speeding up the climate change that is thawing it in the first place. Only rapid and substantial cuts in greenhouse gas emissions can help avert catastrophe.
Business as usual for fossil fuels as polar ice melt bodes more climate chaos in 2022
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 …
Continue reading Glasgow outcome: a COP-out for the Arctic – and the rest of the planet
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 …
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.
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 …
Continue reading Tipping points: can a leaked report tip the scales to climate action?
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 …
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