“Ground zero”: Why the warming Arctic must top the global agenda

On 27. Oct 202428. Oct 2024 By iqiceblogIn Arctic, Cryosphere, Global climate1 Comment

As we head into COP29 in oil-and-gas-rich Azerbaijan with the UN warning we are on course for up to 3°C of temperature rise, climate scientists are urging governments to focus on cryosphere. The frozen regions of our planet are warming several times faster than the global average. If the nations of the world cannot agree on measures to hold global warming to a maximum of 1.5°C, the experts warn of potentially devastating and irreversible impacts from cryosphere melt, not just for the icy north, but for the whole planet.

Bonn to Baku – cryosphere in crisis – where’s the hope for the world’s icy regions?

On 27. Jun 202427. Jun 2024 By iqiceblogIn Antarctic, Arctic, Cryosphere, Global climate, Greenland1 Comment

Six months after the last underwhelming UN climate conference COP28 in oil-rich Dubai, negotiators at the UN's climate headquarters in Bonn, Germany, have been trying to smooth the path to the next COP to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan in November. Another mega-gathering in another fossil-fuel capital - is there any hope of action to protect the world's rapidly melting ice and snow and avert the catastrophic consequences for the rest of the globe?

COP28 in oil-rich Dubai – Can states agree action to protect the cryosphere and limit devastating global impacts?

On 2. Dec 20232. Dec 2023 By iqiceblogIn Allgemein, Cryosphere, Global climate1 Comment

There has never been a more pressing need for the world to unite and take urgent, radical action to halt emissions, to avoid further changes to the frozen parts of the Earth with catastrophic consequences for people all round the globe.

Photo: Ted Scambos, University of Colorado, Boulder, NSDIC. CMp on Thesited Glacier

A Sign of the TIME(s)? Why ice researchers count among the world’s most influential people

On 17. Apr 2023 By iqiceblogIn Antarctic, Arctic, Cryosphere, Global climate3 Comments

Climate change is impacting the frozen regions of our planet faster and more seriously than expected. The naming of two ice scientists as amongst the world's most influential people shows growing recognition of the key role played by the cryosphere and the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to protect it.

Earth’s temperature rises as geopolitical climate cools

On 3. Mar 20234. Mar 2023 By iqiceblogIn Arctic, Cryosphere, Global climate3 Comments

It's now one year since Russia invaded Ukraine. There’s no sign of any end to the conflict. And we are not looking at a regional dispute. This war has become a major clash between systems, with repercussions for the whole planet. Putin’s invasion has plunged us into a time of multiple crises – war, an …

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Moving North – Arctic Frontiers in a changing world

On 1. Feb 2023 By iqiceblogIn Allgemein, Arctic, Cryosphere, Global climateLeave a comment

Tromso is living up to its image as Norway's Arctic capital, as I step off the plane into a flurry of snowflakes and a landscape of white. I first came up here to to the Arctic Frontiers gathering in 2007 to research and make contacts for a series of documentaries to mark the International Polar …

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In search of consensus in troubled times: Students in Scotland run model Arctic Council

On 8. Mar 2022 By iqiceblogIn Allgemein, Arctic, Global climate2 Comments

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

On 11. Feb 202211. Feb 2022 By iqiceblogIn Arctic, Cryosphere, Global climate, Greenland3 Comments

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.

COP26 – A Glasgow fairytale

On 30. Oct 202130. Oct 2021 By iqiceblogIn Allgemein, Cryosphere, Global climate3 Comments

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 …

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1.5°C is way too high: thoughts from a flood-stricken German valley

On 20. Jul 202120. Jul 2021 By iqiceblogIn Global climate13 Comments

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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