Nearly 60 years after a radiation-leaking reactor was removed from a US Army base on the Greenland ice sheet, the military is exploring portable nuclear reactors again.
Arctic char dries in the sun in Gjoa Haven, Nunavut.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson
The Arctic and sub-Arctic regions are no longer exempt of industrial contamination. Researchers have found high blood levels of potentially harmful chemicals in people living in the North.
All 129 men who embarked on the Franklin expedition died. DNA analysis is being used to identify the remains.
(Shutterstock)
129 officers and crew died during the 1845 Franklin Northwest Passage expedition. DNA analysis from their remains of members can reveal the identity of the men who perished during the journey.
Russia is attempting to claim more of the Arctic seabed, an area rich in oil, gas and minerals. It’s also expanding shipping and reopening Arctic bases. Here are two things the U.S. can do about it.
A helicopter drops water on a forest fire in Alaska.
Michael Risinger/U.S. Army National Guard
We can learn about the spread of diseases through populations by studying naturally occurring instances of herd immunity. Avian cholera in the Canadian Arctic provides a useful case study.
The giant predators were a deadly danger to early European explorers of the Arctic.
Chris Hellier/Corbis Historical via Getty Images
Zachary Lawrence, University of Colorado Boulder and Amy Butler, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The media often call unusually cold, snowy storms a ‘polar vortex.’ The real polar vortex isn’t coming down to visit the lower 48, but changes to the polar vortex can influence winter weather.
The Arctic is particularly vulnerable to climate change, but efforts to tackle it risk alienating the people who live there.
Permafrost is thawing across the Arctic, releasing microbes and organic materials that have been trapped in the frozen ground for thousands of years.
NOAA via Wikimedia Commons
New research shows that permafrost contains huge amounts of particles that make it easier for cloud moisture to freeze. Thawing permafrost is releasing these ice-nucleating particles.
Through the Paris Agreement, the world’s countries agreed to work to keep global warming well under 2 degrees Celsius.
Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images
The US is formally back in the Paris climate agreement as of today. As one of the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters, it has a lot of work to do, with food security, health and safety at stake.
Deputy Lead Scientist, National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado Boulder
Research Scientist, National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado Boulder