The Arctic as a region is defined in two ways, either as being north of the Arctic Circle ( at 66°30’ north latitude), or north of the 10°C summer isotherm (a line connecting all the points where there is an average annual temperature of 0°C in winter and an average temperature of 10°C in the hottest month of summer). The area is divided between a partially frozen ocean and diverse types of land including ice, arid land with sparse vegetation, tundra, a vast, open plain covered with short, continuous vegetation, wetlands and forests. Nearly 80% of this land is in the Russian Federation and Canada, 16% in Scandinavian countries and 4% in Alaska. An immense glacier several kilometers thick, covers Greenland (2,175,600 km²) and forms an ice cap or ice sheet . Ice covers a surface of between 7.5 and 15 million km2 and is on average three metres thick. The Arctic is inhabited by a limited number of well-known species, some of which are a...
23/05/2013
Russia plans urgent evacuation of Arctic post as ice melts
17/05/2013
Shrinking glaciers behind a third of sea-level rise: study
16/05/2013
Canada pushes development as it takes over Arctic Council
UNEP
Permafrost covering almost a quarter of the northern hemisphere contains 1,700 gigatonnes of carbon, twice that currently in the...
Designed to recognize grassroots environmental heroes, the Goldman Environmental Prize, founded by Richard and Rhoda Goldman in 1989 In San Francisco, is awarded annually to individuals from the six inhabited continental regions for sustained and significant efforts to...
Sheila Watt-Cloutier is a lawyer for the Inuit population of her Arctic birthplace, threatened by global...
National biodiversity index
