Tag Archives: sea ice
‘YOUR PLANE TRAVEL DESTROYS POLAR BEAR HABITAT’: Flying to/from Svalbard melts about 3 sq. m. of ice, study suggests

Folks who criticize as hypocritical all those scientists and tourists flying to Svalbard to see the pristine environment and effects of climate change have a new scientific number of their own to cite – each round-trip flight emits enough CO2 to melt about three square meters of the sea ice that is vital for polar bears and other Arctic wildlife.
ASK THEM ANYTHING: FAQs for Svalbard science pros at forum include oldest rock, next ice age, microplastics, nuclear waste storage, zombie apocalypse
Briefs from Svalbardposten for the week of Dec. 3, 2019

An expansion to nearly double the size of Svalbardbutikken beginning soon, a large amount of sea ice around Svalbard is definitely not a sign climate change impacts are lessening, and the lack of a director at Visit Svalbard for the past eight months is taking a toll on employees and planned projects.
Random weirdness for the week of Jan. 3, 2017

Since this week’s fishwrapper is pretty much all about random weirdness, it seems fitting to start this space off with an item that conveniently combines some of the more eye-opening stats of the past week. We’ve run stuff all year about record-high heat and precipitation, and record-low sea ice, so the record year-end figures weren’t in themselves all that shocking to us. But even so it did boggle our tiny minds to read the “Dec. 19-like” storm that hit last week pushed the edge of Svalbard’s ice sheet 60 to 70 kilometers further north, according to the Norwegian Metereorlogial Institute.
Lance struggling to return ‘home’ after successful hookup with space case
‘Did you feel that?’

Being researchers, it was certainly exciting discovering a new concept of “shift change.”
A new team of scientists and crew members is working aboard the Lance research vessel with the reassurance it’s solidly frozen into the sea ice at a safe northern latitude. But their initiation was anything but tranquil as the final hours of the departing participants were shook up by the ice around the vessel breaking up well to the south of its present location.