Polar News and Notes Polar News & Notes

In June 1988, a government scientist named James E. Hansen told a Senate committee that the greenhouse effect was changing the climate. “We have already reached the point where the greenhouse effect is important,” he said.
It is now generally agreed that Hansen’s presentation to the committee alerted other scientists, policymakers, and the general public to […]

The same U.S. House committee that heard testimony from climate scientist James Hansen on June 23, the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, held a joint hearing the following Wednesday with the Intelligence Community Management (ICM) Subcommittee to discuss the results of the first-ever U.S. Government analysis of the security threats posed […]

This July, a team of four scientists, a writer and a photographer from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the University of Washington will return to Greenland for their third year of investigating glacial lakes, which form atop the ice sheet each spring and summer. The expedition runs from July 7 to 24.
From their tents […]

News from the polar regions in June includes speculation on the future of the Arctic sea ice and permafrost, unexpected behavior of an Antarctic ice stream, and new technology designed to assist in polar research. Missed these stories the first time? Read on!
In May, we reported on an international, three-week expedition designed to validate the […]

This September in a two-hour broadcast titled Earth 2100, ABC News will bring scientists, historians, economists, and viewers worldwide together to predict what the planet will be like by the next century. The news organization is inviting Internet viewers now to create short videos about what life will be like if we do nothing about […]

National research centers in the United States and the United Kingdom have agreed to work together on atmospheric science and technology and develop joint educational and training programs. The agreement, which runs for three years, is between the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and Britain’s National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS).
NCAS Director Stephen […]

What’s happening under and inside the masses of ice in the polar regions is of great interest to scientists. Recently researchers in West Antarctica have found that one ice stream–a region of the ice sheet that moves faster than the surrounding ice—jerks along in an earthquake-like pattern equivalent to a magnitude 7 quake.
Their findings ran […]

While many scientists are studying snow, ice, and permafrost on the earth for clues to climate change, others are flying a jet into the tropopause, the boundary between the lower atmosphere (troposphere) and the stratosphere. They are interested in this region because the buildup of greenhouse gases has altered it in ways that are not […]

Jeff Peneston, a PolarTREC teacher, Program Director of Camp Fire USA (Camp Talooli), and a 9th grade Earth Science teacher, is traveling to Antarctica on the International Expedition of the Icebreaker Oden. He has created his own expedition flag as well as a special Camp Talooli Antarctic Expedition flag, and is initating a flag exchange […]

This summer 75 teenagers, ages 14-19, will sail to the Arctic with a team of scientists, environmentalists and polar educators in the Students on Ice program. The Arctic expedition, August 2-17, will explore southern Baffin Island, Nunavut, and the northern reaches of Nunavik in Quebec province. The itinerary includes workshops, lectures and seminars as well […]