Andy Revkin's Dot Earth blog alerted me to a significant milestone in Arctic melting: There is a continuous circle of water around the Arctic now: the Northwest Passage (north of North America) and the "Northeast Passage" (a.k.a. the Northern Sea Route, north of Eurasia) are both open at the same time, for the first time in recorded human history. The last time the Northern Sea Route was open was 2005, but the Northwest Passage wasn't open then. The Northwest Passage opened up last summer (2007), but the Northern Sea Route wasn't open then. This year is the first time in human history that you could sail a boat completely around the North Pole through open water... but you'd have to have a pretty fast boat (because it's going to start freezing up again within a couple of weeks).

The last month's worth of retreating sea ice data is shown in this animation loop.

Article in the Independent (U.K.)

Press release by the National Ice Center (Sept. 5):

"As of September 4, 2008, the Northern Sea Route (Northeast Passage) appears 'open'. According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), open water is defined as areas with less than 1/10th ice concentration (WMO Sea-Ice Nomenclature, 1970). National Ice Center (NIC) analysis of Synthetic Aperture Radar imagery suggests a 10-15km wide area of open water that winds along the Taymyr Peninsula and through the Laptev Sea. Even with small openings, currents from the north could clog openings again quickly, in the same fashion that has opened the sea ice lead in a matter of days. A sea ice lead is any fracture or passage-way through sea ice which is navigable by surface vessels. There are also substantial amounts of dangerous multi-year ice present in the area. Shallow or uncharted bathymetries may present additional hazards in those areas where ice concentration is reduced. Current charting of bathymetry from the International Bathymetric Chart of the Arctic Ocean (IBCAO) suggests depths between 10-20 meters along the Taymyr Peninsula and 20-30 meters through the lead in the Laptev. This is the first recorded occurrence of the Northwest Passage and Northern Sea Route both being open at the same time. The NIC will continue to monitor this area and will report on any changes in the status of polar navigation routes."

UPDATE: You may also be interested in the fate of some specific ice shelves: "Rapid Retreat: Ice Shelf Loss on Canada's Ellesmere Coast," a well-illustrated update from NASA's Earth Observatory.

Labels: alaska, canada, climate change, global warming, russia

A new study in Current Biology looks at mitochondrial DNA evidence from 160 woolly mammoth fossils on both sides of the Bering Land Bridge, and finds that the beasts trooped east from Asia into North America, and then marched back again 40,000 years ago, at which point the Asian mammoths slid into decline and extinction. The interpretation by the study's authors is that the North American prodigal mammoths returned to the mother country and possibly wiped out their Asian cousins.

The original article on the Current Biology* site. *Link wasn't working quite right this morning...
Scientific American's treatment of the story.
An article in the New York Times reviewing the study.

Labels: alaska, critters, fossils, mammals, pleistocene, russia

There's been some interesting articles in my media subscriptions lately. Thought I'd use today's post to share.

In the June National Geographic, a study of the geology of Stonehenge reveals the source of the monoliths ("polyliths?") there. They came from the Preseli Mountains of Wales. That's a long journey for such big rocks. Also in the same issue is an eye-popping pictorial piece on sea slugs. You must check it out, because it features dozens of David Doubilet images like this one:

WIRED's cover story this month is about environmental "heresies": ideas that supposedly environmentalists aren't supposed to like, but need to happen. The basic premise is that "only cutting carbon matters," and so they come up with some interesting recommendations like: (1) use A/C more, and heating less, (2) "screw the spotted owl" (don't worry about the loss of biodiversity), and (3) buy a used Geo Metro rather than a new Prius. I found this last of particular interest, as it recounts a web rumor that it took less carbon to make a Hummer than a Prius, and therefore Hummers were more environmentally friendly. (The Prius' battery has a lot of high-carbon-cost nickel in it.) WIRED breaks it all down into BTUs, and runs the numbers. According to their analysis, it takes the Prius 100,000 miles to catch up (i.e. be more carbon-efficient) than an old Toyota. Bummer... Big bummer. (At least the Hummer bit has been debunked.)

As usual, Smithsonian had a bunch of interesting pieces in it. Almost everything in there catches my imagination. It's a very well done magazine.

The New Yorker had a couple of articles, too: In their recent "innovators issue," Alex Ross profiled John Luther Adams, the man responsible for the mesmerizing "the place where you go to listen" in the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. If you haven't ever been there and find yourself in Fairbanks, I would recommend this museum highly, and this one room / art installation in particular: it plays certain notes and tones and changes the lighting depending on what the aurora, seismic activity, and other Earth processes are doing. And Margaret Talbot profiled Irene Pepperberg, who raised the parrot Alex and taught him to talk. This article explores the insights into intelligence gained from this serendipitous longterm experiment.

On the commodities front, the New York Times reports today that thieving biofuellers are stealing vegetable oil in Oregon, and that guano stocks are being closely guarded in Peru. Telling quote from the latter: "Before there was oil, there was guano, so of course we fought wars over it," (Pablo Arriola).

Labels: alaska, birdies, environmental, mollusks, news, prius, wales

Labels: alaska, travel