The Energy Mix

Top Menu

  • About
  • Latest Digest/Archive
  • Partners
  • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Contact

Main Menu

  • News Archive by Category
    • Climate & Society
      • Carbon Levels & Measurement
      • Carbon-Free Transition
      • Climate Action/”Blockadia”
      • Climate Denial & Greenwashing
      • Climate Policy/Meetings/Negotiations
      • Culture, Curiosities, & Humour
      • Demographics
      • Energy Politics
      • Energy Subsidies
      • Energy/Carbon Pricing & Economics
      • Finance & Investment
      • First Peoples
      • Insurance & Liability
      • International Agencies & Studies
      • Jobs & Training
      • Legal & Regulatory
      • Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion
      • Methane
      • Travel, Leisure & Recreation
    • Climate Impacts & Adaptation
      • Biodiversity & Habitat
      • Drought, Famine & Wildfires
      • Food Security
      • Forests & Deforestation
      • Health & Safety
      • Heat & Temperature
      • Human Rights & Migration
      • Ice Loss & Sea Level Rise
      • International Security & War
      • Severe Storms & Flooding
      • Soil & Natural Sequestration
      • Water
    • Demand & Distribution
      • Air & Marine
      • Auto & Alternative Vehicles
      • Batteries/Storage
      • Buildings
      • Cities
      • Electricity Grid
      • Energy Access & Equity
      • Off-Grid
      • Petrochemicals & Plastics
      • Supply Chains & Consumption
      • Transit
      • Walking & Biking
    • Jurisdictions
      • Africa
      • Arctic & Antarctica
      • Asia
      • Australia
      • Brazil
      • Canada
      • China
      • Europe
      • India
      • International
      • Mexico, Caribbean & Latin America
      • Middle East
      • Oceans
      • Small Island States
      • South & Central America
      • Sub-National Governments
      • United States
    • Non-Renewable Energy
      • CCS & Negative Emissions
      • Coal
      • Nuclear
      • Oil & Gas
      • Pipelines/Rail Transport
      • Shale & Fracking
      • Tar Sands/Oil Sands
    • Opinion & Analysis
    • Renewable Energy
      • Bioenergy
      • Demand & Efficiency
      • General Renewables
      • Geothermal
      • Hydrogen
      • Hydropower
      • Research & Development
      • Solar
      • Wave & Tidal
      • Wind
  • Special Reports
    • Alberta’s Bitumen Pipe Dream
    • Canada’s Drive to Net Zero
    • Carbon Farming
    • City and Sub-National Action
    • Drawdown
    • Drive to 1.5
    • 26-Week Climate Transition Program for Canada
    • America’s Electoral Climate 2020
    • Canada’s Climate Change Election 2019
    • The Energy Mix Yearbook 2018
      • Climate Extremes
      • Fossils Go For Broke
      • Renewables (R)Evolution
      • Electric Vehicles
      • Canada’s Contradiction
      • COP24
      • Pipeline Politics
      • Jobs and Just Transition
      • Cities and Sub-Nationals
      • Finance and Divestment
      • Climate Litigation
  • Webinars & Podcasts
  • About
  • Latest Digest/Archive
  • Partners
  • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Donate

logo

  • News Archive by Category
    • Climate & Society
      • Carbon Levels & Measurement
      • Carbon-Free Transition
      • Climate Action/”Blockadia”
      • Climate Denial & Greenwashing
      • Climate Policy/Meetings/Negotiations
      • Culture, Curiosities, & Humour
      • Demographics
      • Energy Politics
      • Energy Subsidies
      • Energy/Carbon Pricing & Economics
      • Finance & Investment
      • First Peoples
      • Insurance & Liability
      • International Agencies & Studies
      • Jobs & Training
      • Legal & Regulatory
      • Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion
      • Methane
      • Travel, Leisure & Recreation
    • Climate Impacts & Adaptation
      • Biodiversity & Habitat
      • Drought, Famine & Wildfires
      • Food Security
      • Forests & Deforestation
      • Health & Safety
      • Heat & Temperature
      • Human Rights & Migration
      • Ice Loss & Sea Level Rise
      • International Security & War
      • Severe Storms & Flooding
      • Soil & Natural Sequestration
      • Water
    • Demand & Distribution
      • Air & Marine
      • Auto & Alternative Vehicles
      • Batteries/Storage
      • Buildings
      • Cities
      • Electricity Grid
      • Energy Access & Equity
      • Off-Grid
      • Petrochemicals & Plastics
      • Supply Chains & Consumption
      • Transit
      • Walking & Biking
    • Jurisdictions
      • Africa
      • Arctic & Antarctica
      • Asia
      • Australia
      • Brazil
      • Canada
      • China
      • Europe
      • India
      • International
      • Mexico, Caribbean & Latin America
      • Middle East
      • Oceans
      • Small Island States
      • South & Central America
      • Sub-National Governments
      • United States
    • Non-Renewable Energy
      • CCS & Negative Emissions
      • Coal
      • Nuclear
      • Oil & Gas
      • Pipelines/Rail Transport
      • Shale & Fracking
      • Tar Sands/Oil Sands
    • Opinion & Analysis
    • Renewable Energy
      • Bioenergy
      • Demand & Efficiency
      • General Renewables
      • Geothermal
      • Hydrogen
      • Hydropower
      • Research & Development
      • Solar
      • Wave & Tidal
      • Wind
  • Special Reports
    • Alberta’s Bitumen Pipe Dream
    • Canada’s Drive to Net Zero
    • Carbon Farming
    • City and Sub-National Action
    • Drawdown
    • Drive to 1.5
    • 26-Week Climate Transition Program for Canada
    • America’s Electoral Climate 2020
    • Canada’s Climate Change Election 2019
    • The Energy Mix Yearbook 2018
      • Climate Extremes
      • Fossils Go For Broke
      • Renewables (R)Evolution
      • Electric Vehicles
      • Canada’s Contradiction
      • COP24
      • Pipeline Politics
      • Jobs and Just Transition
      • Cities and Sub-Nationals
      • Finance and Divestment
      • Climate Litigation
  • Webinars & Podcasts
Advanced Search
Arctic & AntarcticaBiodiversity & HabitatCanadaDrive to 1.5First PeoplesFood SecurityIce Loss & Sea Level RiseOceans
Home›Jurisdictions›Arctic & Antarctica›Arctic Ocean Study Documents Rapid, Unprecedented Change

Arctic Ocean Study Documents Rapid, Unprecedented Change

April 29, 2020
April 29, 2020
 
56
0
Share:
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  Print This Story
Patrick Kelley/NOAA

From melting ice to spiking acidity, from stagnating thermoclines to troubled food chains, frighteningly rapid changes are under way in the waters of the Arctic Ocean, while a lack of long-term data leaves scientists and Indigenous peoples uncertain about how to respond.

Canada’s first complete assessment of the Arctic Ocean, “the result of work by dozens of federal scientists and Inuit observers,” has documented “a vast ecosystem in unprecedented flux: from ocean currents to the habits and types of animals that swim in it,” reports the Canadian Press. And climate change in the Arctic may be coming faster than with “any other water body on Earth.

Like this story? Subscribe to The Energy Mix and never miss an edition of our free e-digest.

SUBSCRIBE

“And such changes are happening in a place that remains significantly mysterious, writes CP. “Who knows what else is down there?” asked lead scientist Andrea Niemi, a marine systems biologist with Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans. According to the assessment, only about 40% of species in the Canada Basin region of the Arctic Ocean have yet been identified.

Some changes, however, are evident—like the chemistry of the water. “It’s 33% less salty than in 2003 and about 30% more acidic—enough to dissolve the shells of some small mollusks,” reports CP. Then there is the fact that the Beaufort Gyre, “a vast circular current that has alternated direction every decade,” has not reversed in 19 years, a stagnation that means the “nutrient-rich water from the Pacific Ocean isn’t getting mixed in as it used to, which affects the plankton blooms that anchor the Arctic food web.”

Also apparent: warming water, and sea ice that is both thinning and shrinking. Together, these trends have impacts that are reverberating throughout the food chain, all the way up to the Inuit communities that depend on that chain for their survival.

“Shorelines are on the move. Erosion has more than doubled in the last few decades,” writes CP. The mix of sea life within the ocean is changing, as well, as marine mammals and fish species migrate with rising water temperatures,

Despite the serious findings, the report does not offer conclusions, as the scientists involved are “hamstrung by a lack of long-term data all over the North.” Acknowledging the urgent desire of resident Inuit communities to gain a “holistic view” of what is happening in their polar homeland, Niemi told CP the dearth of baseline knowledge is leaving everyone “just handcuffed sometimes to provide the mechanisms behind the changes.”

 

TagsCanada Net Zero - Climate ImpactsDrive to 1.5Drive to 1.5 Failure Is Not An OptionUS Election 2020 - Global Crisis Local Impacts
Share:
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  Print This Story

Find more stories about
Arctic & AntarcticaBiodiversity & HabitatCanadaDrive to 1.5First PeoplesFood SecurityIce Loss & Sea Level RiseOceans

    Leave a reply Cancel reply

    Recent Posts

    • Alberta Calls for $30-Billion Carbon Capture Subsidy in Upcoming Federal Budget
      Alberta Calls for $30-Billion Carbon Capture Subsidy in Upcoming Federal Budget
      March 10, 2021
    • Panicky Messaging on Line 5 Closure Threat Masks Real Issues with Pipeline, Oil by Rail
      Panicky Messaging on Line 5 Closure Threat Masks Real Issues with Pipeline, Oil by Rail
      March 10, 2021
    • Experts Brace for Disaster as Canada, U.S. Increase Oil-by-Rail Shipments
      Experts Brace for Disaster as Canada, U.S. Increase Oil-by-Rail Shipments
      March 10, 2021
    • Quebec LNG Megaproject Will Drive Up Power Rates with $310M Revenue Hit, Analysis Finds
      Quebec LNG Megaproject Will Drive Up Power Rates with $310M Revenue Hit, Analysis Finds
      March 10, 2021
    • Sketchy Carbon Accounting Turns Net-Zero Targets into ‘Weapons-Grade Greenwash’, Scientist Warns
      Sketchy Carbon Accounting Turns Net-Zero Targets into ‘Weapons-Grade Greenwash’, Scientist Warns
      March 10, 2021

    News Feed

    Top News

    • Study Probes Northern Permafrost Loss at 1.5°, 2.0°C Average Warming
      March 9, 2021
    • China Plans Online Carbon Trading Market by Mid-Year
      March 9, 2021

    Read More

    Carbon-Free Transition

    • Electric Motorbikes Fuel Carbon-Free Future for East Africa
      March 9, 2021
    • Volatile Market, Competing Automakers Drive Down Tesla’s Share Price
      March 9, 2021

    Read More

    Canada

    • Yukon Energy Turns to First Nation as Site for Territory’s Biggest Grid Battery
      March 9, 2021
    • Northeastern B.C. First Nation Gets Oilfield Services Training
      March 9, 2021

    Read More

    U.S.

    • Second-Biggest U.S. Coal Mine Heads Toward Closure
      March 9, 2021
    • U.S. Legislator to Target Big Oil for Oversight
      March 9, 2021

    Read More

    International

    • China Plans Online Carbon Trading Market by Mid-Year
      March 9, 2021
    • Pacific Islands Unveil Faster Shift to Renewables
      March 9, 2021

    Read More

    • About the Energy Mix
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy and Copyright
    Copyright 2020 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.