NewsCloud.com Antarctica News

Last-Ditch Resort: Move Polar Bears to Antarctica?

In April, I offered this idea as an April Fools Joke. I knew it wouldn't be too long before it entered mainstream debate. I didn't expect it to arise this quickly.

McCain Supportive of Polar Bear Relocation

The Polar Bear Conservancy will begin relocation of the first Arctic polar bears to Antarctica on Earth Day, April 22. The relocation will be the initial step in a planned five-year program to migrate 3,000 polar bears from the Northern Arctic to the southern continent of Antarctica. Scientists say polar bears face near-certain extinction by 2020 as global climate change accelerates melting of their habitat in the Northern Arctic. Antarctica, in contrast, can be a viable home for the bears. Republican presidential candidate John McCain voiced support yesterday for the program. Meanwhile, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has indicated that relocating polar bears would be much less expensive than listing them under the Endangered Species Act.

Ice shelf on verge of collapse

A vast ice shelf hanging on by a thin strip looks to be the next chunk to break off from the Antarctic Peninsula, the latest sign of global warming’s impact on Earth's southernmost continent.

Australia builds Antarctic ice runway

The A319-115LR (the 'LR' stands for Long Range) can fly 7,500 miles, sufficient to go from Hobart to the Wilkins Runway and back a total distance of 4,965 miles without refueling. The flight each way takes about 4.5 hours, depending on the winds. The twin-engine jet is configured so that it can transport up to 40 passengers and 6.5 tons of cargo. After landing, it spends two to three hours on the ground before returning to Australia.

Escalating ice loss in Antarctica

Climatic changes appear to be destabilizing vast ice sheets of western Antarctica that had previously seemed relatively protected from global warming, researchers reported yesterday, raising the prospect of faster sea-level rise than current estimates.

The bugs that came in from the cold

Locked in ice for millions of years, Antarctic bacteria are thawing and they're alive. So will a prehistoric plague be swimming in a sea near you?

Analysis Finds Large Antarctic Area Has Melted

Now, a new satellite analysis shows that at least once in the last several years, masses of unusually warm air pushed to within 310 miles of the South Pole and remained long enough to melt surface snow across a California-size expanse.

Big lakes detected under Antarctica

The satellite detected dips in the surface that moved around as the hidden lakes drained and filled beneath the surface glaciers, which are moving rivers of ice. "The parts that are changing are changing so rapidly that they can't be anything else but (sub-surface) water," she said. "It's such a quick thing."

Japan's Blue Whale and Minke Whale Hunt Ends

The Japanese say they take only Minke Whales but Blue have been taken too: The country admitted yesterday that this year's hunt - due to kill 945 whales by mid-March - will probably have to be abandoned as a result of a fire that has crippled its fleet's mother ship, the Nisshin Maru, and raised fears of an oil spill into the area's pristine waters

Powerful Quake Hits Near Antarctica

A 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck Sunday in the Scotia Sea between South America and Antarctica, Japanese and U.S. officials said. No tsunami alert was issued by the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, said Dale Grant, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center.

Crater Could be Linked to "Great Dying"

Ralph von Frese, professor of geological sciences at Ohio State University, led a research team that uncovered a crater-like circular ridge buried under more than a mile of Antarctic ice that he believes may be linked to the mass extinction of the Permian-Triassic period, also known as "The Great Dying".

Vast Plumbing Network Discovered Beneath Antarctica

Using ultra-precise radar measurements taken with the European Space Agency's ERS-2 satellite, researchers discovered an intricate network of channels beneath Antarctica's ice sheets that may allow water, and possibly life, to shuttle from one underground lake to another.

Antarctica Losing Ice, Contrary to Expectations

Joining the growing list of places on this planet that are melting, Antarctica, which holds 90 percent of Earth s ice and 70 percent of the total fresh water on the planet, is losing some 36 cubic miles of ice every year. For comparison, Los Angeles consumes roughly 1 cubic mile of fresh water a year.