Greenhouse Gases, the Queen of England and Narwhals
Just last month, the International Maritime Organization, the United Nations agency tasked with regulating global shipping, celebrated its 70th anniversary at its headquarters in London, with a ceremony that included a d...
Greenhouse Gases, the Queen of England and Narwhals
Eight years ago, this month, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico, unleashing the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. That summer, BP oil killed hundreds of thousands of sea tur...
Good News for Alabama Sea Turtles and Dolphins!
President Trump and Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke are in a hurry to open Arctic waters to risky offshore drilling. Last week, they kicked off a planning process for a new oil and gas lease sale in the Beaufort Sea...
Rushing to Judgment in the Arctic
In the Arctic, starting in autumn, cold weather causes sea ice to form and grow throughout the winter. By March, sea ice has extended as far as it will for the year, also known as the sea ice maximum. When spring warmth...
When a Maximum is Minimum: What Low Sea Ice Extent Means for the Arctic
Nobody said it would be easy. Thank you for stepping up for our ocean! More than a year ago, we brought you some frightening news. The Trump administration had proposed a shocking $1 billion cut to NOAA, our nation’s pre...
The More You NOAA: Score One for Our Ocean
Some anniversaries are somber, not celebratory. That’s unquestionably the case as we approach the 29th anniversary of the disastrous Exxon Valdez oil spill. Just after midnight on March 24, 1989, the tanker Exxon Valdez...
Exxon Valdez: 29 Years Later
America’s fishermen are known across the country for their long and proud history of strong community ties. Nowhere is that tradition more striking than at the annual Fisherpoets gathering: a weekend of fishing-related m...
New Friends and Old: FisherPoets 2018
The ripples of President Trump’s decision to fire Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will undoubtedly impact U.S. policy initiatives around the globe. But there’s at least one place where continuity should prevail: the Arc...
A Changing State Department: Why Collaboration is Still Vital in the Arctic
A Bloomberg editorial described it as a “minor miracle” and Quartz magazine called it a “stunning victory” for global conservation in its 2017 retrospective. In December, 10 countries reached an agreement to prevent the...
Central Arctic Ocean: Next Steps on the Arctic’s Newest International Agreement
During winter in the high-latitude Arctic Ocean, sea ice reflects much of the sun’s energy until seasonal melting promotes a spectacular plankton bloom along floe edges and even beneath the ice. The annual explosion of A...