🚨 It’s official: 2026 had the lowest annual maximum Arctic sea ice extent on record - essentially tied with last year’s record low.

Climate change is reshaping the Arctic, and it's all throughout the year.

For more information from @nsidc.bsky.social: nsidc.org/news-analyse...

Arctic sea ice has reached its maximum extent for the year, at 14.29 million square kilometers (5.52 million square miles) on March 15, edging just below last year’s record and statistically tying for the lowest maximum in the 48-year satellite record. @cires.colorado.edu https://bit.ly/4sBUe95

The point of no return: New evidence shows Antarctic melting is already locked in Southern Florida could be underwater within centuries. A rare geological record from beneath the Ross Ice Shelf confirms the grim forecast.

The point of no return: New evidence shows Antarctic melting is already locked in

Warmer ocean is driving the Antarctic sea ice 'regime shift' 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

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

The last 11 years have been the hottest years ever recorded. Earth’s energy imbalance has reached its highest than at any time in observed history, with heat reaching deeper into the ocean. This is the Global #StateOfClimate 2025.

📰 Press release: https://bit.ly/4ds4r2V

#WorldMetDay

Thanks so much, Ella, for covering our study and explaining it so brilliantly! Much appreciated ☺️

Great summary of our new study about the tipping points of the Antarctic Ice Sheet and related sea-level impacts in this new video by @drgilbz.bsky.social! Give it a watch!

📄 Link to the paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#WorldGlaciersDay 🏔️🧊❄️

Glaciers and ice sheets cover approximately 10% of Earth's land area, yet their influence stretches far beyond their frozen borders, shaping life across the entire planet.

This #GlaciersDay, discover why glaciers matter for people and nature: https://ow.ly/qYuE50YwHhW

Adaptation planning must include 1.5°C overshoot scenarios 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...

New EU Scientific Advisory Board report calls on EU to prepare for 2.8–3.3°C of warming by 2100.

But this level of warming is not baked in.

New blog outlines why we also need to plan for lower warming, including #overshoot of the 1.5°C limit, in #adaptation planning.

🆕OCEAN ICE Publication: Mapping tipping risks from Antarctic ice basins under global warming.

Torsten Albrecht a WP6 Co-lead in OCEAN ICE, is Co-Author on this paper!

Read an article summarising the paper here: ocean-ice.eu/ocean-i...

Fig. 3: Critical temperature thresholds for Antarctic ice basins. Bottom panel: burning embers show—for each of the 18 Antarctic ice basins—the percentage of long-term (equilibrium) sea-level relevant ice volume loss compared with the respective initial ice volume, at different levels of global warming (in °C above pre-industrial temperature levels, interpolated between full degrees). White diamonds mark the one-degree temperature interval of the strongest decline (ice loss per degree of warming, see also Fig. 2). In some basins, two critical temperatures yielding peak volume loss are found—this can be interpreted as the respective basin having two tipping points. Top panel: sea-level potential for each basin, given by the initial modelled sea-level relevant ice volume in metres sea-level equivalent.

Mapping tipping risks from Antarctic ice basins under global warming
Winkelmann+
doi.org/10.1038/s415...

"A first threshold, potentially as low as 1–2 °C above pre-industrial levels, triggers the long-term collapse of ~40% of marine ice volume in West Antarctica"

The world is getting hotter faster — its pace nearly doubled in the past decade Earth is now warming at a rate of around 0.35 ºC per decade, fresh analysis finds.

The world is getting hotter faster — its pace nearly doubled in the past decade

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The world is getting hotter faster — its pace nearly doubled in the past decade Earth is now warming at a rate of around 0.35 ºC per decade, fresh analysis finds.

The world is getting hotter faster — its pace nearly doubled in the past decade

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Thirty years of glacier grounding line retreat in Antarctica | PNAS 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...

Between 1992-2025, large areas of the grounding line of #Antarctic glaciers have retreated. The largest changes have occurred in W. Antarctica, where grounding lines have retreated 10-40+ km, driven by incursions of warm water masses along deep bathymetric troughs

www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

❄️🧪🌊

This is figure 1, which shows a risk map of Antarctic ice catchment basins.

The results of a study in Nature Climate Change imply that the Antarctic Ice Sheet does not act as one single tipping element, but rather as several tipping systems interacting across drainage basins. go.nature.com/4rFXQ9q 🧪

Two researchers in colorful winter gear work on snow-covered Antarctic terrain next to a red twin-propeller aircraft under a clear blue sky. Footprints lead through the snow toward a small equipment stand in the foreground.

Job alert! @northumbriauni.bsky.social is hiring a researcher to investigate tipping points in Antarctica's ice sheets – funded by ESA's Climate Change Initiative 🧊🌍

📍 Newcastle, UK | 14-month position
📅 Apply by 13 March 2026
🔗 work4.northumbria.ac.uk#en/sites/CX_...

1️⃣ Over the last 30 years, #Antarctica has lost 12,820 square kilometres of grounded ice – larger than the area of Greater Sydney – a new study led by @ucirvine.bsky.social reports.

[animation of satellite images from @esa.int shows the evolution of cracks in the Pine Island Glacier during 2019]

PIK-Studie: Einige arktische Gletscher könnten ihre Kipppunkte schon überschritten haben - Celsius - der Blog von Scientists for Future Österreich 16.02.2026 – Potsdam Institut für Klimafolgenforschung. Der antarktische Eisschild verhält sich nicht als ein einzelnes Kippsystem, sondern als ein Gefüge miteinander interagierender Becken mit unters...

Einige #Gletscher in der #Antarktis könnten ihre #Kipppunkte schon bei einer Erwärmung von 1,3 Grad überschritten haben, zeigt eine neue Studie des @pik-potsdam.bsky.social Potsdam Institut für Klimafolgenforschung. 40% des westantarktischen Eises könnten schon zum Abschmelzen verurteilt sein.

This is figure 1, which shows a risk map of Antarctic ice catchment basins.

The results of a study in Nature Climate Change imply that the Antarctic Ice Sheet does not act as one single tipping element, but rather as several tipping systems interacting across drainage basins. go.nature.com/4rFXQ9q 🧪

🌊 New paper in @natclimate.nature.com: 'Mapping tipping risks from Antarctic ice basins under global warming', by @pik-potsdam.bsky.social

"Marine-based sectors in East Antarctica, representing ~5 m of potential sea-level rise, are at risk of losing stability at 2–5 °C."

▶️ rdcu.be/e5bQS

Global warming must peak below 2°C to limit tipping point risks Global warming must peak below 2°C then return under 1.5°C as quickly as possible to limit the risk of dangerous “tipping points”, experts say.   The new paper, by an international team of researchers...

"...the higher the peak temperature, the more difficult it is to reverse temperature below critical levels and the longer it’s likely that we’ll remain in ‘overshoot’.” - @njsteinert.bsky.social, @cicero.oslo.no

#ClimateEmergency

Mapping tipping risks from Antarctic ice basins under global warming - Nature Climate Change Climate change threatens the future of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Here the authors show that individual drainage basins have different thresholds and loss patterns, suggesting the need to consider the d...

⚠️"A first threshold, potentially as low as 1–2 °C above pre-industrial levels, triggers the long-term collapse of ~40% of marine ice volume in West Antarctica"

I.e. The Paris Agreement target locks in approximately 2.1 metres sea-level equivalent from WAIS alone.

🌊

Geopolitical posturing and resource-grabbing: Trump’s distraction from the real Greenland problem Geopolitical posturing and resource-grabbing: Trump is distracting from the real Greenland problem, as climate warming melts the ice, raising sea levels and disrupting ocean currents and weather pa…

Geopolitical posturing and resource-grabbing: Trump is distracting from the real Greenland problem, as climate warming melts the ice, raising sea levels and disrupting ocean currents and weather patterns across the globe.My new post:

iceblog.org/2026/02/21/g...

The implications of overshooting 1.5 °C on Earth system tipping elements—a review The implications of overshooting 1.5 °C on Earth system tipping elements—a review, Ritchie, Paul D L, Steinert, Norman J, Abrams, Jesse F, Alkhayuon, Hassan, Arnscheidt, Constantin W, Bochow, Nils, Chapman, Ruth R, Clarke, Joseph, Dennis, Donovan P, Donges, Jonathan F, Flores, Bernardo M, Garbe, Julius, Högner, Annika, Huntingford, Chris, Lenton, Timothy M, Lohmann, Johannes, Lux-Gottschalk, Kerstin, Milkoreit, Manjana, Möller, Tessa, Pearce-Kelly, Paul, Pereira, Laura, Quinn, Courtney, Schleussner, Carl-Friedrich, Stuenzi, Simone M, Swingedouw, Didier, Van der Laan, Larissa N, Zickfeld, Kirsten, Wunderling, Nico

Review of how “minimising the magnitude and duration” of overshooting 1.5C could decrease the risk of surpassing climate tipping points

#climatecrisis
HT @carbonbrief.org
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...

Limiting warming to 2C is ‘crucial’ to protect pristine Antarctic Peninsula - Carbon Brief Keeping global warming to less than 2C above pre-industrial temperatures is “crucial” for limiting damage to the Antarctic Peninsula’s unique ecosystems

Limiting warming to 2C or below is crucial to protect pristine Antarctic Peninsula! ❄️🧪🌊

Summary of the paper by @carbonbrief.org :

www.carbonbrief.org/limiting-war...

Full paper:

www.frontiersin.org/journals/env...

The implications of overshooting 1.5 °C on Earth system tipping elements—a review The implications of overshooting 1.5 °C on Earth system tipping elements—a review, Ritchie, Paul D L, Steinert, Norman J, Abrams, Jesse F, Alkhayuon, Hassan, Arnscheidt, Constantin W, Bochow, Nils, Chapman, Ruth R, Clarke, Joseph, Dennis, Donovan P, Donges, Jonathan F, Flores, Bernardo M, Garbe, Julius, Högner, Annika, Huntingford, Chris, Lenton, Timothy M, Lohmann, Johannes, Lux-Gottschalk, Kerstin, Milkoreit, Manjana, Möller, Tessa, Pearce-Kelly, Paul, Pereira, Laura, Quinn, Courtney, Schleussner, Carl-Friedrich, Stuenzi, Simone M, Swingedouw, Didier, Van der Laan, Larissa N, Zickfeld, Kirsten, Wunderling, Nico

New review paper on "The implications of overshooting 1.5 °C on Earth system tipping elements"

Main points:
Overshooting 1.5°C raises risks of irreversible Earth-system tipping, which depends on peak warming and more so on how long critical thresholds are exceeded.

doi.org/10.1088/1748...

🆕 study: Global warming must stay below 2°C and return to 1.5°C as quickly as possible to reduce tipping point risks. In the long term, temperatures must cool to 1°C above pre-industrial levels, researchers from @exeter.ac.uk, @cicero.oslo.no and PIK find.
www.pik-potsdam.de/en/news/late...

Thanks, Ruth 😊

Mapping tipping risks from Antarctic ice basins under global warming - Nature Climate Change Climate change threatens the future of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Here the authors show that individual drainage basins have different thresholds and loss patterns, suggesting the need to consider the d...

Antarctica isn’t one big tipping point.

New research maps 18 separate ice basins, each with its own threshold. Some in West Antarctica may tip at just ~1–2C warming (i.e close to today’s levels).

Cross the line, and you commit to m’s of sea-level rise over centuries

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Thank you!