Arctic Stories

Every five years, the US determines where oil and gas companies can purchase leases for offshore drilling. The most recent plan excluded the Arctic, but the Trump administration wants to change that.

New footage shows how narwhals use their tusks to hunt and stun fish before eating them.

Most of the Arctic’s federal waters are off limits to new drilling for oil and gas thanks to action protections put in place in 2016. But the Trump administration wants to reverse the ban and allow fossil fuel companies to begin bidding for a chance to drill. 

The receding sea ice at the North Pole threatens arctic species

What climate change and receding sea ices mean for the people, wildlife, economy, and politics of the far North.

In what has become the new normal over the past 10 years, residents of the Inupiat village of Point Lay on the coast of the Chukchi Sea in Alaska have had new neighbors each fall.

An endangered population of freshwater seals in Finland recently received a lifeline from volunteers in the form of human-made snowbanks.

The Polar Bear Conservation Management Plan, which focuses on actions for the two U.S. subpopulations in Alaska, stresses the importance of climate change mitigation in curbing the loss of the polar bear’s sea ice habitat.

Just one week after scientists warned of unprecedented change brought on by warming in the Arctic, President Obama announced permanent protection for 115 million acres of federal waters in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. Including previous presidential withdrawals, today's action protects nearly 125 million acres in the offshore Arctic from future oil and gas activity.

The Arctic is seeing unprecedented declines in sea ice and snow cover triggered by abnormally warm temperatures, according to a new report, the Arctic Report Card, released by the US government.

As the planet warms, we’re seeing a startling loss of Arctic sea ice. This is a major concern when it comes to wildlife conservation—particularly for polar bears. Dr. Klenzendorf shares her experience observing polar bears in Churchill.

The past year has shown us that when we work together, we can challenge the threats to nature and help ensure its ability to provide—for the sake of every living thing. Take a look at 2016 in review.

America’s Arctic will be free of new offshore oil and gas drilling, at least for the next five years, and that’s good news for people and wildlife. WWF and 225,000 of our activists opposed drilling in the Arctic’s Beaufort and Chuckchi seas due to the tremendous risk to indigenous communities, wildlife, and their environment.

Who doesn't love the big, burly white bears of the north? Polar bears—at the top of the food chain and vital to the health of the Arctic marine environment—are important to the cultures and economies of Arctic peoples. 

 

The Arctic—home to diverse wildlife and many cultures—is changing faster than any other part of the planet in the face of climate change. But there’s still time left to help the Arctic and the impacts of climate change. Experts agreed on five important ways we can take action.

The Arctic’s summer sea ice appears to have hit its lowest extent of the year, putting pressure on the region’s diverse wildlife. Ice covered only 1.6 million square miles on Sept. 10, and 2016 is now tied with 2007 for the second-lowest sea ice extent on record, according to the US National Snow and Ice Data Center.

WWF has teamed up with global design company IDEO to brainstorm an innovative solution to more effectively gather information about polar bears.

American and Russian scientists have now teamed up, with some help from WWF, to develop the region’s first comprehensive and reliable population estimates of ringed and bearded seals and polar bears.

After a record-breaking warm Arctic winter, sea ice hit a record low for the largest area it covers during the winter months. The ice covered only 5.60 million square miles on March 24— surpassing last year’s record low of 5.61 million square miles.

The Arctic Ocean is about 5.4 million square miles—about 1.5 times as big as the US—but it is the world’s smallest ocean. Learn more about the Arctic and what WWF is doing to help protect it.

Alaska's Lake Iliamna is home to a population of around 400 harbor seals, which feast on fish and bask on the rocky islands at the lake’s northeastern end. They are under threat from Pebble Mine, the enormous open-pit gold and copper mine proposed for headwaters just 17 miles northwest of the seals’ haul-out sites

The pressures driving desires to develop the Arctic are not unfamiliar to us. We see them in these other magnificent places. Expedited transportation routes. New fossil fuel reserves. Robust new fisheries. But we need to ensure that the push to exploit these resources does not overrun efforts to conserve them. We need to keep in mind some guiding principles.