GNV News January 4, 2026

According to the “2025 Arctic Report Card” released by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on November 18, 2025, the period from October 2024 to September 2025 in the Arctic was the warmest on record, with temperatures warmer by 1.6°C compared to the 1991–2020 average. This new record has been updated continuously for ten years since 2016, and Arctic warming has exceeded the global average temperature rise for 12 consecutive years, with the rate of warming now more than twice as fast. The rise in temperatures has been especially notable in autumn and winter. In addition, because warming increases evaporation, precipitation, and the melting of snow and ice, the period from October 2024 to September 2025 recorded the greatest amount of precipitation ever observed in the Arctic.

Along with the temperature rise in the Arctic, in 2025 the Greenland ice sheet lost about 129 billion tons of ice. Glaciers in Alaska have thinned by about 38 m since the 1950s, and the maximum sea-ice extent in March 2025 was the smallest in 47 years of satellite observations. Melting glaciers have also led in recent years to glacial lake outburst floods, which have caused damage to residential areas directly downstream. Furthermore, thawing permafrost is releasing iron into rivers, and orange-colored “rusting rivers” are spreading across the Brooks Range in northern Alaska. Other metals such as copper and aluminum are also being released, raising concerns about toxicity to fish and biomagnification.

In addition, the intrusion of warm, salty Atlantic seawater into the Arctic Ocean near the North Pole—known as (Atlantification)—has been observed, and is believed to be causing sea-ice melt and shifts in the timing of phytoplankton blooms. Arctic warming is also thought to be advancing other changes, including northward shifts of southern species on land and at sea, increases in the area burned by wildfires, and the northward movement of typhoons.

Various feedback loops are cited as drivers of Arctic warming. On December 29, 2025, research by Pennsylvania State University revealed that updrafts form through cracks in the sea ice, lifting water vapor and exhaust from nearby oil fields into the upper air, which increases cloud formation. These clouds then trap heat emitted from the surface, causing warming and further glacier melt—thus creating a feedback loop.

In the Arctic, there is not only climate change but a triple environmental crisis consisting of biodiversity loss and pollution as well. Arctic warming, as the loss of the world’s “planetary refrigerator”, is expected to affect global sea-level rise, weather patterns, commercial fisheries, and many other aspects of life worldwide.

Learn more about Arctic wildfires → “‘An unprecedented abnormal situation’: Wildfires in the Arctic Circle”

Learn more about Indigenous peoples affected by Arctic warming → “The Indigenous Sámi of the Arctic Circle: A way of life under threat”

Shrinking and thinning Arctic sea ice (Photo: Valeria Drozdova / Pexels [Pexels License])