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arctic
'Grim News for the Planet' as Arctic Sea Ice Hits Record Low
"The environment does not care about politics. Keep spewing greenhouse gases and face the consequences."
Mar 06, 2025
European Union officials said the Copernicus Climate Change Service had issued its latest "stark reminder of why climate action is urgent" when the bloc's program announced that it observed less sea ice covering the Earth's oceans last month than at any other point in recorded history.
In the Arctic, sea ice reached its lowest monthly extent on record, at 8% below average, in early February, and it remained below the previous record for the rest of the month.
The oceans were missing an area of ice roughly the size of the United Kingdom last month, according to Copernicus (C3S), and the finding was not an anomaly in recent sea ice observations.
February marked the third consecutive month in which record low sea ice levels for the corresponding month were observed in the Arctic.
C3S reported that in the Antarctic, sea ice levels have rapidly declined in 2025 after appearing to recover to near-record levels in December 2024.
Last month, sea ice near the South Pole reached its fourth-lowest monthly extent, at 26% below average.
C3S said the daily sea ice extent in the Antarctic may have also reached its annual minimum toward the end of the month, which will be confirmed later in March; if confirmed, it would be the second-lowest annual minimum in the satellite record.
"February 2025 continues the streak of record or near-record temperatures observed throughout the last two years," said Samanatha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. "One of the consequences of a warmer world is melting sea ice, and the record or near-record low sea ice cover at both poles has pushed global sea ice cover to an all-time minimum."
The melting sea ice was recorded as global average temperatures rose 1.59°C (2.8°F) above the pre-industrial average last month, making it the third-warmest February on record.
In Europe, the temperatures that most exceeded averages were recorded last month in parts of Scandinavia, Iceland, and the Alps. Outside of Europe, "temperatures were most above average over large parts of the Arctic."
The low extent of sea ice will lead to "more solar heat absorbed by the darker oceans," and "faster warming," said Simon Oldridge, a climate campaigner.
The loss of sea ice can also lead to the collapse of ocean currents that are crucial for marine life to thrive.
C3S reported on the record-low sea ice levels as campaigners in the U.S. and around the world condemned recent anti-climate actions taken by U.S. President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, including the country's exit from the Paris climate agreement, the GOP's passing of a bill to end a federal program aimed at reducing planet-heating methane emissions, and Trump's push to fast-track fossil fuel projects—as scientists warn that new extractive projects have no place on a pathway to limiting planetary heating and avoiding its worst impacts.
"The environment does not care about politics," said public health expert Ali Khan. "Keep spewing greenhouse gases and face the consequences."
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Amid Trump Threat, Greenland Bans Foreign Political Donations Before March Elections
A parliamentary document says the legislation "must be seen in light of the geopolitical interests in Greenland and the current situation where representatives of an allied great power have expressed interest in taking over" the territory.
Feb 05, 2025
Faced with repeated threats from U.S. President Donald Trump, who wants to take over resource-rich Greenland, the Danish territory's parliament on Tuesday enacted a ban on foreign political donations, ahead of its March 11 elections.
The new measure—which also bars political parties in the self-governing territory from accepting domestic donations above 200,000 Danish kroner (about $27,700) or 20,000 kroner (about $2,770) from a single contributor—is intended to protect "Greenland's political integrity," The Associated Pressreported, citing a parliamentary document translated from Danish.
The document states that the legislation "must be seen in light of the geopolitical interests in Greenland and the current situation where representatives of an allied great power have expressed interest in taking over and controlling Greenland."
According to the AP:
A senior legal officer at Greenland's parliament, Kent Fridberg, told The Associated Press he did not know whether any foreign donors had contributed to Greenland's political parties and the idea for the bill was "basically a preventative measure."
Fridberg noted that some Russian politicians had voiced a similar interest—and that political parties in Greenland are generally funded by public means.
Even before returning to the White House last month, Trump revived his first-term interest in making Greenland part of the United States. In early January, he even refused to rule out using military force to seize both the autonomous island nation and the Panama Canal.
Danish and Greenlandic leaders have forcefully pushed back against Trump's remarks, and polling published last week by a pair of newspapers—Denmark's Berlingske and Greenland's Sermitsiaq—shows that 85% of Greenlanders oppose joining the U.S.
Public opinion polling conducted in Greenland in 2018 has also received fresh attention recently, including from Trump himself. Gustav Agneman, an associate professor of economics at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, was part of the team that conducted those older surveys, which he discussed in a Tuesday piece for The Conversation.
"Two-thirds of the participants thought that 'Greenland should become an independent country at some point in the future,'" he noted. "Opinions were more divergent regarding the timing of independence. When asked how they would vote in an independence referendum if it were held today, respondents who stated a preference were evenly split between 'yes' and 'no' to independence."
As Agneman detailed:
Each year, Denmark sends a block grant that covers approximately half of Greenland's budget. This supports a welfare system that is more extensive than what is available to most Americans. In addition, Denmark administers many costly public services, including national defense.
This backdrop presents a dilemma for many Greenlanders who aspire to independence, as they weigh welfare concerns against political sovereignty. This was also evident from my study, which revealed that economic considerations influence independence preferences.
For many Greenlanders, the island nation’s rich natural resources present a potential bridge between economic self-sufficiency and full sovereignty. Foreign investments and the associated tax revenues from resource extraction are seen as key to reducing economic dependence on Denmark. Presumably, these natural resources, which include rare earths and other strategic minerals, also help explain Trump's interest in Greenland.
During a January appearance on Fox News, Trump's national security adviser, Mike Waltz, made clear why the Republican has renewed interest in the takeover of the nearby territory, saying: "It's oil and gas. It's our national security. It's critical minerals."
One of the most outspoken critics of Trump's plan is leftist Greenlandic Prime Minister Múte Egede, who supports independence and has said: "Greenland is ours. We are not for sale and will never be for sale. We must not lose our long struggle for freedom."
Announcing the elections for Greenland's parliament, the Inatsisartut, Egede said on Facebook Tuesday that "we are facing an unprecedented and challenging time," and stressed the need "for cooperation and unity" among the island's roughly 60,000 residents.
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'Geoengineering Fails Again': Coalition Cheers End of Arctic Ice Project
One campaigner said the cancellation "marks another monumental victory for our planet and future generations, a victory where Indigenous peoples' resistance has been central."
Jan 30, 2025
Environmental and Indigenous activists declared Thursday that "geoengineering fails again," welcoming the shutdown of a project that aimed to use "a reflective material to protect and restore Arctic sea ice," which is rapidly disappearing as humanity's reliance on fossil fuels heats the planet.
Noting that "we committed to moving forward only if we could conclusively demonstrate both the safety and effectiveness of our approach," the Arctic Ice Project team confirmed in an online statement that it "will be concluding its research and winding down the organization."
"While our climate impact simulations have shown promising results (with a new scientific paper forthcoming), recent ecotoxicological tests have revealed potential risks to the Arctic food chain," the team said. "Our initial approach was to continue research aimed at addressing these concerns. Upon further reflection, however, the board decided that the combination of these new test results with broad skepticism toward geoengineering, resistance to introducing new materials into the Arctic Ocean, and the increasingly challenging funding environment (and paucity of federal research dollars), the most realistic path was to conclude our research."
"Nature is not a laboratory; it is a living entity we are in relationship with."
Responding in a Thursday statement, Hands Off Mother Earth Alliance global coordinator Coraina de la Plaza said that "the cancellation of the Arctic Ice Project marks another monumental victory for our planet and future generations, a victory where Indigenous peoples' resistance has been central. This outcome reflects the power of community advocacy, and while the fight against geoengineering is far from over, this is a significant step to continue protecting the Arctic against industry greed and vested interests."
Panganga Pungowiyi, climate geoengineering organizer at Indigenous Environmental Network, called the decision "long overdue."
"We are concerned for the community members in Utqiaġvik who were made to spread football fields of this material onto their frozen lake. For years, we stood in defense of Indigenous lands and the sacred ice that has sustained our communities for generations," Pungowiyi explained. "Our concerns about the reckless use of harmful materials were dismissed, yet we knew that the health of our ecosystems and the wisdom of our people must not be overlooked. We continually showed up in defense of free prior and informed consent, and made our presence known."
"We continue to state firmly that nature is not a laboratory; it is a living entity we are in relationship with," the organizer added. "While we find relief in this victory, we remain vigilant against other forms of geoengineering that threaten our sacred spaces. Together, we will continue to educate and empower our communities, standing with our lands, waters, and air for the generations to come."
Silvia Ribeiro, Latin America director at ETC Group, said that "today we celebrate the wisdom, experience, and work of Indigenous peoples and organizations in Alaska that stopped this project and stand in solidarity with their vigilance against similar experiments that are planned in Arctic regions."
Mary Church, geoengineering campaign manager at the Center for International Environmental Law, also framed the development as "a huge victory for the Indigenous communities at the forefront of resistance to the industries and vested interests that are polluting the planet and gambling with our collective future."
"Geoengineering approaches do nothing to address the root causes of the climate crisis and instead delay real solutions, offering a free pass to polluters," she stressed. "Following the recent reaffirmation of the global moratorium on geoengineering at the U.N. biodiversity summit in Colombia, governments need to act to prevent harmful outdoor experiments and the slippery slope to legitimizing deployment. Instead of betting on highly speculative techno-fixes, governments must prioritize an urgent and just transition away from fossil fuels to protect vital Arctic ecosystems."
Benjamin Day, a senior campaigner for climate and energy justice at Friends of the Earth U.S., also looked to the fight ahead.
"The decision to shut down the Arctic Ice Project completes the Geoengineering Hype Cycle that we now see so often: Entrepreneurs swoop into local communities claiming they have a solution to global warming, assuring everyone it's completely safe and ignoring the red flags raised by those with deep knowledge of local ecosystems," Day said. "After countless wasted dollars and press attention, it's revealed the community was right and geoengineering is not a safe or responsible way to address climate change."
"Collectively," he argued, "we must stop enabling this cycle and work towards rapidly and equitably transitioning our communities to sustainable energy and land-use practices."
The winding down of the Arctic Ice Project comes amid global fears about what the recent return of Republican U.S. President Donald Trump—who cozied up to Big Oil executives on the campaign trail and promised to "drill, baby, drill," despite the devastating impacts of fossil fuels—will mean for the future of a planet that last year saw record-shattering temperatures.
Already, Trump has
ditched the Paris climate agreement (again), lifted a freeze on new liquefied natural gas exports, declared a "national energy emergency," and named various fossil fuel allies to key positions. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy took their posts earlier this week, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum was confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate Thursday evening, and Chris Wright, Trump's pick for energy secretary, awaits confirmation.
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