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Have you seen an owl in your yard lately? Arctic Snowy Owls are moving south into the lower 48 states in numbers never before witnessed. A leading researcher has called the numbers "unbelievable." Most of the birds are younger owls, and it is believed that the migration is being caused by a fundamental failure of food supplies in the rapidly changing Arctic. The birds feed on lemmings and other small rodents.

They are known to engage in southerly migrations like this when prey is scarce, but the scale of what is happening now is completely unprecedented. It suggests that there has been a basic failure of the food chain in the high Arctic, probably due to Arctic melt..
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Over the past 15 years, a mass of fresh water from ice melt has been building under the Arctic ice cap. The water is trapped under the Beaufort Gyre in the western Arctic, and presently represents about 10% of all the fresh water in the Arctic. It appears in the form of a bulge under the ice, and is kept in place by the permanent anti-cyclonic winds that blow around the gyre. The water is coming from melt-swollen Siberian rivers, and the bulge is growing by about six inches a year, meaning that billions of gallons of water are continuing to accumulate in it.
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The recession has been painful for most of us, but it’s been GOOD in one way: It’s cut down on greenhouse gas emissions, which means it’s reduced the threat of global warming.

Global carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels have surged to record levels following the 2008-09 global financial crisis, when a stagnant economy resulted in a temporary decline in emissions (NOTE: Subscribers can still listen to this show).
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