Yutian Wu, an atmospheric scientist seeking to understand how the rapid decline of Arctic sea ice will impact North American weather extremes, is the Center’s newest Fellow.

Scientists are collecting lake sediment, rock, water and plant samples to tease apart linkages between Arctic sea ice, atmospheric uptake, and changes in snowfall on the Greenland Ice Sheet.

A video reveals mature jellyfish under the Arctic sea ice, where they aren’t supposed to be.

A warming climate is not just melting the Arctic’s sea ice; it is stirring the remaining ice faster, increasing the odds that ice-rafted pollution will foul a neighboring country’s waters, says a new study.

When we venture into the Arctic for research for most of us there is the lingering hope that a polar bear will appear on our watch; at least as long as we are safely outside of its reach.

A recent study finds that West Antarctica’s ecosystem is highly correlated to its climate. As a result, climate change will have a negative impact on its ecological relationships, from plankton to penguins. Antarctica isn’t alone – climate change will also affect tropical ocean ecosystems by causing mass coral bleaching.

Tiny one-celled organisms called radiolaria are ubiquitous in the oceans, but various species prefer distinct habitats. Thus it aroused considerable intrigue in 2012 when protozoa specialist O. Roger Anderson and colleagues published a study showing that radiolaria normally found near the equator were suddenly floating around in arctic waters above Norway. Was this a sign that global climate change was bringing an invasion of warm-weather plankton?

Three scientific reports echo the message that climate change and its impacts are here and now, with more to come. So how to change the conversation to reach beyond the already informed and connect to a much larger population?

As the arctic region loses ice in a changing climate, the economic and social tradeoffs are unclear. How will we balance economic, social and environmental functions? The Center on Global Energy Policy and the Consulate General of Canada in New York will examine these questions in a discussion on March 26: “Understanding the Arctic Resource Challenge: Canada and U.S. Perspectives.”