Background Articles

Waking to the smell of a wet ashtray (which, as a Child of the Seventies, I can still remember), I knew the wind had shifted. Wildfire smoke hung in the neighborhood.

The small Swedish town of Fagersta, Västmanland County, has been at the epicentre of the recent outbreak of African swine fever.All activities in an area of forest around 1000 square kilometers in the counties of Västmanland and Dalarna have been off limits since Friday following the discovery of dead wild boar.

According to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), the presence of red tide on the upper coast was first confirmed at a red tide monitoring station near Freeport about 3 weeks ago. 

Twenty-two sea lions have been found dead on beaches in California, with many more found sick.

Fred Sangris said there isn't a big population of wolves in the area of Yellowknife, Ndilǫ and Dettah — but sightings are happening more often because they're hungry and venturing near communities in search of food.

An official with the Giant Mine remediation project and a local researcher aren't worried the low water in Yellowknife Bay is exposing people to more arsenic in areas along the shore line. 

Cases of TBE have fallen slightly, but in Kustavi on the west coast, the number has been growing steadily.

Northern territories ‘will become arable farmland in 20-to-30 years', and will have to adapt - fast. ‘Every such region understands what's coming to it in 20, 30 years. It’ll stop being northern (climate-wise), or it will suddenly turn into a clearly agricultural’, Alexander Kozlov said in an interview to Russian business news outlet RBC.

The United Nations panel on climate change told the world on Monday that global warming was dangerously close to being out of control — and that humans were “unequivocally” to blame. Already, greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere are high enough to guarantee climate disruption for decades if not centuries.

During the summer of 2006, Fairbanks Alaska experienced its first two known cases of fatal anaphylaxis as a result of Hymenoptera stings, presumably from yellowjackets. Statistically significant increases in patients seeking medical care for insect bite and sting related events are observed throughout the state, with 5 of the 6 regions experiencing at least a 6 degree Fahrenheit increase in winter temperature since 1950.

In June 2010, researchers discovered Didemnum vexillum — also known as “rock vomit” — in Whiting Harbor near Sitka. This species, which can cover large areas of the seafloor, is an aggressive invader and a potential threat to shellfish farms, groundfish fisheries, fish spawning and other resources. The council is also concerned about the European green crab which can potentially travel in the ballast water of oil tankers and be released into Prince William Sound.

Unusual weather patterns in Sweden’s arctic region seem to be jeopardising the migrating animals’ traditional grazing grounds, as rainfall during the winter has led to thick layers of snowy ice that block access to food.

For the past five years or so, former state Sen. Randall Hardy has watched a few dozen turkey vultures roost in a tree next to his garage. He can tell when the migratory birds return to his central Salina neighborhood each spring as the colors begin to change.

Task Force Iqaluit is making plans to move its water purification operation indoors, after a winter storm knocked down the tent housing its purifying system. Meanwhile, city staff are being redeployed due to the crisis, leading to some cuts to recreation services.

This summer, for the first time on record, rain fell on Greenland’s frozen summit. The Northern Hemisphere experienced warmer-than-usual summer temperatures this year, and even the coldest environments are being impacted.

Employees of the Kronotsky Reserve have published the results of a large-scale summer expedition to collect and classify garbage on the coast of the South Kamchatka Federal Reserve. The main pollutants that threaten the lives of marine and coastal animals are identified.

Researchers are predicting low fish runs in the Norton Sound and Northern Bering Sea region again next year, according to research biologist Jim Murphy.

CLIMATE CHANGECLIMATE CHANGECLIMATE CHANGEAnchorage Daily News When a

Lake Superior is warming faster than any of the Great Lakes, with impacts on ice fishing, wildlife and Indigenous ways of life

Researchers from the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and their collaborators published a high-accuracy and high-resolution permafrost map over the Northern Hemisphere.