Arctic sea ice is melting at a record pace - and every summer looks grimmer. This past summer saw the ice pack at its fourth-lowest level on record, and the overall trend in recent decades suggests this will only continue. "Using satellites, scientists have found that the area of sea ice coverage each September has declined by more than 40 percent since the late 1970s, a … [Read more...]
Antarctic melt could cause global coastal destruction
Parts of the vast ice sheet of East Antarctica – which collectively holds enough water to raise global sea levels by 53 metres – could begin an irreversible slide into the sea this century, causing an unstoppable process of global coastal destruction, scientists have warned. East Antarctica is widely considered to be more stable than the West Antarctic ice sheet but a study … [Read more...]
Tassie Arctic hero finally back home
Russian authorities arrested and detained the 30 crew members of Greenpeace vessel the Arctic Sunrise for 100 days for participating in a peaceful protest. On 10 September 2013 armed commandos boarded and seized the Arctic Sunrise in international waters for attempting to attach a banner to an Arctic oil platform operated by Gazprom. The Arctic 30 have finally returned home … [Read more...]
The Antarctic Legacy Project
Researchers at Stellenbosch University are compiling an electronic database cum archive of the diaries, photographs and personal anecdotes of South Africans' time in the Antarctic region (Marion Island, Gough Island and Antarctica). They are asking mariners, construction workers, scientists, joiners, engineers and doctors who have worked in the Antarctic region in the past … [Read more...]
Antarctic funding to study temperature stress on Marion Island
A Stellenbosch University researcher working on aspects of climate change, Dr Susana Clusella-Trullas (pictured), has received an Antarctic Science 2010 Award to study how marine invertebrates on Marion Island in the sub-Antarctic respond to changing temperature regimes. Dr Clusella-Trullas is a core-team member of the DST-NRF Centre for Invasion Biology based at … [Read more...]
