Blogs

Scientists report in the journal Nature Climate Change that the drought-stress currently being experienced by forests in the Southwestern U.S. "is more severe than any event since the late 1500s megadrought" that "probably led to deaths of a large proportion of trees living at the time." They warn that climate projections indicate that "the mean forest drought-stress by the 2050s will exceed that of the most severe droughts in the past 1,000 years."

The story of this year's Arctic sea ice decline did not end on 16 September when the sea ice reached its official minimum extent for the Arctic overall. The decline has continued in the Chukchi Sea -- with momentous consequences. While the National Ice Center indicated that a large "marginal ice zone" was present north of Alaska on 16 September, that zone continued to decline and on 24 September the marginal ice zone had been entirely replaced by open water.

On Saturday, 15 September -- the day before the Arctic sea ice extent reached its record low -- a scientist aboard the USGS Healy spotted a polar bear struggling across thin ice.  Her photos capture a situation facing growing numbers of polar bears as sea ice extent declines, and the ice grows thinner, in response to warming conditions. The bears must persevere on marginal ice or swim in search of suitable sea ice -- both far from preferred coastal waters; or they must abandon the ice altogether and swim to land.

In our world of information overload, we get used to hearing of records being broken. Even so, some moments stand out -- including now the record low Arctic sea ice extent reached earlier this month.   When we look closer, this and the many other climate-related records events we've witnessed in recent years are not isolated, but connected. And in this new era of extremes, we aren't just breaking records. By continuing to pour carbon pollution into the atmosphere we are rewriting the rulebook for the future of life on Earth.

The U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center today (19 Sept 2012) announced that the extent of Arctic sea ice reached an annual minimum of 1.32 million square miles, the lowest sea ice extent on record (since 1979 when satellites started to regularly monitor the ice). The extraordinary sea ice decline has enormous implications in the region, and has consequences that extend well south of the Arctic. “In a year of record-breaking extremes, shocking has become the new normal," says Lou Leonard, Managing Director for Climate Change at WWF-US. "But what’s happened in the Arctic this summer should be on the front page of every newspaper. This is an unprecedented planetary distress signal.”

In this video, the citizens of Tucson, Arizona, talk about the challenges climate change poses for the city and about the "Power to Prepare Tucson" summit the city held earlier this year (2012) to address those challenges. The event, was a central part of Tucson's participation in WWF's Earth Hour City Challenge, a competition among U.S. cities to prepare for climate change and reduce carbon footprints.  

A short video introduction to WWF's Earth Hour City Challenge, a competition among U.S. cities to prepare for climate change and to shift away from fossil fuels.

In this video from the BBC, Alan Thorpe of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) explains how declining Arctic sea ice and warming north Atlantic sea surface temperatures are contributing to shifts in the atmosphere that are disrupting summer weather in the U.K.  

Al Jazeera's Nick Clark reports from the Last Ice Area -- the northwest coast of Greenland and Canada’s High Arctic Islands -- aboard the Arctic Tern 1.  It is the first of four reports in a special series from WWF's Sailing to Siku voyage.

Al Jazeera's Nick Clark reports from Qerqertat, Greenland, the northernmost civilian community in the second of four reports  from the Last Ice Area -- the northwest coast of Greenland and Canada’s High Arctic Islands.