Arctic

Congress doesn't believe global warming is a security threat

Climate change will shift the equation of global power and craziness, and the intelligence community is trying to place for those situations. But Congress isn't interested in that. Mother Jones' Kate Sheppard gives this example:

In 2008, [Thomas] Fingar, [former chairman of the National Intelligence Council] now a fellow at Stanford University, took the lead in drafting the first national intelligence assessment on the security challenges presented by climate change. It found that global warming will further destabilize already-volatile parts of the world and should be considered in national security planning. But congressional Republicans dismissed the report as "a waste of resources."

Daredevils rowing to North Pole to draw attention to climate change

In order to draw attention to the perilous state of the Arctic, "Scottish adventurer" Josh Wishart teamed up with fiver other fellows to row 500 miles across the Arctic sea, starting from Resolute Bay in Canada. The journey should take four to six weeks, and the men will row in three hour shifts in order to stave off fatigue.

Critical List: Wind turbines get bigger and better; tree-killing fungi are thriving

Wind turbines are becoming bigger, more efficient, and more powerful.

Drilling in the Arctic is not such a hot idea, as any spill will be tricky to clean up.

The Southeast is the only region in the country that hasn’t put renewable energy mandates in place.

Swedish mining company could move an entire town to get at valuable iron ore

The town of Kiruna, Sweden, is very cold, very close to that awesome ice hotel, and very much on top of a valuable lode of iron ore. The Swedish state-owned mining company, LKAB, wants to get at the ore by fracturing that portion of the ground, which wouldn't be so great for the people who live on it. Solution: Make the people live somewhere else. A large portion of the city is being entirely relocated so that mining companies can get in underneath.

Climate change already killing baby polar bears

Climate change isn't just killing polar bears, it's killing baby polar bears. YOU MONSTER.

A study that tracked polar bears swimming long distances found cubs that swam more than 30 miles at a time were more likely to die than cubs that didn't. Baby polars have a hard time making those swims because:

Critical List: Melting Arctic ice pollutes; wind farm could kill bald eagles

Melting Arctic ice is releasing banned chemicals like DDT, which were trapped there back when they were legal.

Post-tornado clean-up in Joplin, Mo. is going slowly.

Can water heaters store energy captured by wind turbines and solar panels? A startup called GridMobility thinks so.

Digging for permafrost in the Last Frontier

How much carbon is being released by the thawing of the Arctic's so-called permafrost? Ecologist Ted Schuur braves Alaska to find out.

Russia building floating nuclear power plants to unlock Arctic oil

A battle for the Earth’s last remaining frontier

In the Arctic Ocean, Big Oil is taking bigger risks than ever before.Photo: U.S. Geological SurveyThere are clear signs that a new Arctic oil rush has begun. Earlier this month, Shell submitted plans to the U.S. government for new drilling in the icy waters off Alaska’s north coast, and now a Scottish company has won […]