Skiing, hiking and dogsledding will never be the same in Svalbard, Norway, which has warmed more than twice as quickly as the rest of the Arctic. The islands may be isolated, but the changes aren’t.
The Svalbard Islands, part of Norway, are warming seven times faster than the global average. Aerial pictures from the 1930s are helping researchers understand what that means for the region’s ice.
To visitors, the Norwegian archipelago can seem both ethereal and eternal. But climate change all but guarantees an eventual collapse of its vulnerable ecosystem.
Rapid habitat changes are already affecting polar bear behavior; with the sea ice retreating quickly, some of the bears now have to swim long distances in order to find places to den.
