Antarctica & Arctic

"The Arctic is now warming three times as fast as the global average, and faces an ongoing barrage of dangerous climate and environmental pollutants, Arctic Council experts warned at the start of their meetings in Reykjavik, Iceland this week. Black carbon, or soot, remains high on the list of concerns because of its negative effect on human health and because it accelerates the Arctic meltdown by darkening snow."

"In the boreal forests of the planet’s far north, where the climate is warming faster than almost anywhere else in the world, some wildfires are surviving winter snows and sparking back up again in spring."

"U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Reykjavik, Iceland, for talks on climate change and to take part in an Arctic Council ministerial meeting."

"Arctic sea ice reaches its annual maximum extent in March. But while ice extent is high this year, scientists are far more concerned by the drastic loss of sea ice volume, which continues its steady decline."

"On Alaska’s North Slope, treeless and snow-shrouded for much of the year, it isn’t easy being a wolverine. The sinewy, solitary animals survive through a constant search for food, burrowing into snowdrifts to rest."

"A Russian court has ordered a mining company involved in a massive Arctic fuel spill last year to pay approximately $1.96 billion in compensation."

"This year’s vast wildfires in far northeastern Russia were linked to broader changes in a warming Arctic, according to a report Tuesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration."

"President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday Russia wanted to retain its “superiority” in the Arctic and that it planned to renew its icebreaker fleet to bolster its presence there."

"After a summer that saw record Siberian fires and polar temperatures topping 100 degrees Fahrenheit, along with near record low sea ice extent in September, the Arctic Ocean’s refreeze has slowed to a crawl."

"The region is unravelling faster than anyone could once have predicted. But there may still be time to act".