Latest from Cooper Island

Black Guillemot Breeding Pairs

Don’t Look North!

…if you want to ignore how fast the climate is changing

This is the 2021 Cooper Island Annual Update from March 15, 2022. It includes an overview of George Divoky’s 50 years on Cooper Island documenting a melting Arctic via a study of the Black Guillemot seabird, and his experiences informing the public, government and media of the magnitude and immediacy of climate change in the region. Science educator Katie Morrison and expeditionary artist Maria Coryell-Martin, who both visited Cooper Island in 2019, join him to discuss and share lesson plans and art they created to inform students and the public about Arctic change.

Arctic Sea Ice Concentration

0% 1975
0% 1985
0% 1995
0% 2005 Onwards

Sea ice concentration = ratio of sea ice to water

<30% sea ice concentration = ships can travel here.
>90% = solid ice.

Arctic Cod is a high protein food source that Black Guillemots feed their chicks. Arctic cod only live under sea ice packs.

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In September 2020, the US National Snow and Ice Data Center reported that the Arctic sea ice in 2020 had melted to an area of 3.74 million km2, its second-smallest area since records began in 1979.

How It’s All Connected

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