Antarctic/Arctic

Ice voyage will explore ocean hidden for 100,000 years

Tuesday - Scientists are setting out to explore an Antarctic marine realm that was hidden from the Sun for more than 100,000 years.

Why sea-ice cover is so low (it’s not just climate change)

22 Jan 19 - Sea-ice cover in Antarctica shrank rapidly to a record low in late 2016 and has remained well below average. But what’s behind this dramatic melting and low ice cover since?

Greenland ice melt is in overdrive

7 Dec 18 - Melting on Greenland's ice sheet has gone into overdrive, with meltwater runoff increasing 50 per cent since the start of the industrial era and continuing to accelerate, new research shows.

Hunt begins for 'detergent' to clean up the sky

26 Nov 18 - Antarctic ice records pre-industrial levels of a chemical that scrubs the atmosphere of greenhouses gases.

How Antarctic melt could slow temperature rise

21 Nov 18 - Cold meltwater running off Antarctica’s ice sheets and into the ocean could dampen the pace of global temperature rise, a new study suggests.

Crucial Antarctic current is changing

19 Nov 18 - The Antarctic Circumpolar Current is the strongest ocean current on our planet and is vital for Earth’s health. It is also changing as the climate warms.

Shaw heads south to check out ice-melt threat

13 Nov 18 - Climate minister James Shaw is heading to Antarctica as scientists warn we already might have triggered tipping points leading to irreversible melting of the polar ice sheets.

Vehicle made from recycled plastic to explore the ice

12 Oct 18 - A vehicle powered by the sun and made out of plastic waste is set to explore Antarctica.

Frozen Arctic moves seawards in hectic melt

8 Oct 18 - Once trapped in a Russian ice cap north of Siberia, the frozen Arctic is moving fast, racing in decades from metres to kilometres a year.

New pact bans fishing across much of Arctic

5 Oct 18 - Commercial fishing will be banned across much of the Arctic under a new agreement just signed in Greenland.

What's causing Antarctica's ocean to warm up?

26 Sep 18 - The Southern Ocean around Antarctica is warming at an alarming rate - twice that of the rest of the world's oceans.

Nations scramble for power as warming opens up the Arctic

5 Sep 18 - On Monday, a Danish container ship sailed from South Korea. On September 22, it will dock in Germany. The bit in between could change the world.

Maersk moves in as warming Arctic opens up icy sea route

24 Aug 18 - Maersk, the world's largest container line, is about to test the frigid waters of the Arctic in a trial of shorter shipping lanes that could become viable as warmer temperatures open up the Northern...

‘Natural pulses’ figure in Antarctic melting

15 Aug 18 - A 16-year study of ocean conditions in Antarctica suggests that the periodic arrival of warm currents as a result of natural variability is worsening the rate of ice mass loss from key glaciers.

Big Krill backs vast Antarctic ocean sanctuary

11 Jul 18 - The creation of the world’s biggest ocean sanctuary, protecting a huge tract of remote seas around Antarctica, has come a step closer after major fishing companies came out in favour of the plan.

Scientists eye solution to Antarctic ice loss

25 Jun 18 - Scientists hope they might have discovered a mitigating factor that could slow or even prevent the West Antarctic ice sheet’ collapsing into the ocean.

How melting Arctic could cook the tropics

22 Jun 18 - The loss of sea ice from the Arctic Ocean will alter wind patterns and ocean currents, causing changes across the planet.

Antarctic melt just the tip of the iceberg

14 Jun 18 - Antarctica has lost three trillion tonnes of ice over the past 25 years, raising sea levels 7.6mm.

Plastic waste reaches last wilderness

8 Jun 18 - Plastic and traces of hazardous chemicals have been found in one of the world’s last great wildernesses.