Coverage levels fall a million square kilometres short of the long-term average, with global heating likely driving losses * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Antarctica’s winter sea ice has peaked at its third-lowest level on record, falling a million square kilometres – or almost 400,000 square miles – short of the long-term average, scientists have confirmed. Confirmation of the peak meant the four lowest years on record for the continent’s sea ice – a vital component of the planet’s climate and critical for marine life – had all occurred in the past four years. Continue reading...

Antarctic sea ice has recorded its third-smallest winter peak extent since satellite records began 48 years ago, new data reveals.

Ice shelves buttress the flow of the Antarctic ice sheet, but this stabilizing effect weakens as fractures form, reducing ice viscosity and acceler...

New research suggests that Antarctica and Greenland have lost more than 11 trillion tons of ice since the 1970s, and the main driver isn't surface melting.

As the latest UNEP reports we will blow past 1.5°C, we must prioritise solutions that work, rather than focusing on complex, unproven technologies

Since 2020, snowfall has largely counterbalanced the melting of the Antarctic ice sheet. The atmospheric effect that causes this has been identified — and it’s temporary.

Increasing instability of the ocean, ice and atmosphere threatens farming, finance and society. We all need to wake up to that fact.

24.06.2026 - A new science brief by the UN Secretary-General’s Scientific Advisory Board highlights Earth system tipping points as a unique global governance challenge. The brief, produced in partners...

A modelling study published in Communications Earth & Environment in June 2025 found that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet could begin an irreversible collapse at ocean temperatures between zero and 0.25°...

Exclusive A vast area of the Bellingshausen Sea should be covered by sea ice by now, with one expert calling the loss of ice ‘depressing’ * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Antarctica’s west coast is missing an area of winter sea ice the size of France, sparking concerns for threatened penguins other marine life and global sea levels. One expert said the loss of ice in the Bellingshausen Sea was “depressing” and the failure of ice to form could have intensified a heatwave over the continent’s peninsular last week that saw daytime temperatures peak at 15.4C which is more than 20C above average. Continue reading...

Permafrost carbon–climate feedback amplifies Earth system tipping risks, Steinert, Norman J, Munday, Gregory, Sandstad, Marit, Sanderson, Benjamin M, Wunderling, Nico

If all glaciers melt, sea level will rise by about 24cm. If the polar ice sheets melt, sea level will rise by more than 65m; almost 300 times more.

The AMOC is under threat from human-caused climate change, as warming seas, melting ice and increased rainfall upset the temperature and salt balance of the North Atlantic.

Southern Florida could be underwater within centuries. A rare geological record from beneath the Ross Ice Shelf confirms the grim forecast.

Since 2016, Antarctic sea ice extent has been declining sharply – now scientists are piecing together how strong winds and warm deep water have played a part in this abrupt transition

Adaptation planning should include the impacts that can be avoided by high mitigation ambition – including which impacts are reversible from overshooting the 1.5°C limit and which are irreversible. Th...

Earth is now warming at a rate of around 0.35 ºC per decade, fresh analysis finds.

Earth is now warming at a rate of around 0.35 ºC per decade, fresh analysis finds.

The Grounding Line (GL)—the transition from ice grounded on the continent and ice afloat in the ocean—is a sensitive indicator of glacier stability...