Chris Mooney

Line graph time series of 2025's daily Arctic sea ice extent compared to decadal averages from the 1980s to the 2010s. The decadal averages are shown with different colored lines with purple for the 1980s, blue for the 1990s, green for the 2000s, and white for the 2010s. Thin white lines are also shown for each year from 2000 to 2024. 2025 is shown with a thick gold line, which is currently a record low for the current date. There is a long-term decreasing trend in ice extent for every day of the year shown on this graph between October and January by looking at the decadal average line positions.

🚨 Monday ice update - #Arctic sea ice extent is currently the lowest on record (JAXA data)

• about 1,110,000 km² below the 2010s mean
• about 1,600,000 km² below the 2000s mean
• about 2,310,000 km² below the 1990s mean
• about 2,810,000 km² below the 1980s mean

More: zacklabe.com/arctic-sea-i...

Lowell Observatory slashes research funding in the midst of financial struggle Flagstaff’s Lowell Observatory plans to cut nearly all its research funding and reduce the number of paid science staff to just two positions next year.

Flagstaff’s Lowell Observatory plans to cut nearly all its research funding and reduce the number of paid science staff to just two positions next year.

Editors have a really hard job, and the good ones can make something unreadable readable, and the great ones can make something unreadable into something good. But they're basically invisible, until someone tries to write without one.

ReportEarth chart archive Since I began this Substack in March, I've been making lots of charts. Now they can all live in one place.

13. For an archive of more charts like these, see here
! /end reportearth.substack.com/p/reporteart...

Don't bet against physics Don't be surprised by short term fluctuations in Earth systems as the planet warms. In the long term, heat is hard to overcome.

12. Further explanation in my latest Substack story here reportearth.substack.com/p/dont-bet-a...

11. But the scientific expectation remains the same: Warming will continue. That means the Earth, in the long run, will keep losing ice.

Don’t bet against physics.

10. So what’s the upshot here?

Even with record global warmth, the planet’s ice regions do not necessarily march in lockstep. The whole system is very complex.

What's happening in Antarctica Is the massive southern continent really gaining ice? Or poised to lose massive amounts? Clearing up some stuff this week.

9. Increasing snowfall appears to be behind this, and the new sea ice configuration could be at play in the overall weather situation. reportearth.substack.com/p/whats-happ...

8. And this may be contributing to a surprising effect. Antarctic *grounded ice loss*, the kind that contributes to sea level rise, has also seemingly paused its decline, at least in the last few years.

7. Antarctic sea ice, in contrast, is clearly down lately, though this is a rather recent development.

Regime Shift in Arctic Ocean Sea‐Ice Extent A regime shift occurred in 2007 in the September Arctic sea-ice extent, from a downward trend (1979–2006) to no trend (2007–2024) The period of no trend is inconsistent with a linear model of dec...

6. What’s up with that? Well, recent scientific papers suggest an ice “regime shift” happened in 2007 and also that, well, natural variability can do this, even on a warming Earth.
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

5. In fact, there is really not a downtrend in September, the month of lowest ice annual concentrations, between 2007 and the present.

4. But this September, Arctic sea ice extent was merely the 11th lowest on record (when considered on a monthly average basis, rather than when looking at the single lowest daily extent).

This is a bit surprising.

3. Start with sea ice. We’ve just seen another September, the month when sea ice peaks in the Antarctic and reaches its lowest annual point in the Arctic.

2. But what is going on with the world's polar ice? It is a bit complicated.

1. We’re living through a very hot year (again). Right now, 2025 looks like it could come in as the 2nd or 3rd hottest year on record

The powerful connection between data and story Part one of a two part essay on realizing the full potential of data journalism.

"...a journalist looking at data in search of a story has many advantages." 
@chriscmooney.bsky.social, 2010 KSJ fellow and Pulitzer Prize-winning climate reporter, shares on his Substack how he digs through data to find narrative.

The powerful connection between data and story Part one of a two part essay on realizing the full potential of data journalism.

My latest at Substack: If you understand how to work with data, it actually strengthens, in myriad ways, your ability to find and tell compelling journalistic stories
reportearth.substack.com/p/the-deep-c...

A ship with a red hull used for icebreaking in the Arctic. Blue sea with icebergs, glaciers, and mountains.

US to retire its only icebreaker, stranding polar research - new article posted today by @cuboulder. The icebreaker is critical for researchers who study the changes on the edges of Antarctic glaciers and how they relate to climate change and sea level rise. buff.ly/oMAElHY #antarctica #glaciers

ReportEarth chart archive Since I began this Substack in March, I've been making lots of charts. Now they can all live in one place.

Next week, we’ll be learning about August 2025’s global temperatures. Stand by.

Again, all my charts are at the chart archive on Substack, here:
reportearth.substack.com/p/reporteart...

Here’s a chart that combines together newspaper jobs with other print publishing sectors, also now updated (though the most recent data are just a tiny stretch at the end)

And, newspaper jobs! Job levels are looking really flat in 2025. I continue to wonder if this will be the year where finally, we don’t see a significant loss. That would be unusual.

We also have new data on Arctic sea ice. It looks like August was the 7th lowest extent on record.

And here's the U.S., where the decline is not quite so sharp, and there was a recent uptick in July, likely tied to coverage of the Texas floods

The change in the UK is particularly striking.

First, what’s new: I took a look at climate change coverage around the world, and it shows an apparent downturn since the 2021 Glasgow COP in Western countries. Specifically, in Europe, North America, and Oceania. More discussion here
reportearth.substack.com/p/the-growin...

ReportEarth chart archive Since I began this Substack in March, I've been making lots of charts. Now they can all live in one place.

It’s the beginning of the month, so I’ve got lots of newly updated charts. As well as a few new ones. They're all at the Chart Archive here, but here's a quick runthrough...
reportearth.substack.com/p/reporteart...

The strange divide in how Americans experience summer temperatures | CNN Average temperatures elide a complex reality: The country’s experience of hotter summers — and thus one of the most visceral aspects of climate change itself — is fractured along geographic lines.

"It’s getting hotter, longer, more humid and more dangerous. Yet averages elide a complex reality: The country’s experience of hotter summers — and thus one of the most visceral aspects of climate change itself — is fractured along geographic lines."

More on the Central U.S. warming hole ⬇️

Is summer getting longer where you live? See how temperatures changed. The hottest stretch of the year is expanding beyond any calendar definition of summer. See what regions are experiencing the biggest change.

The hottest stretch of the year is expanding beyond any calendar definition of summer. See how much longer summer temperatures last where you live wapo.st/4mtyZmx

The strange divide in how Americans experience summer temperatures | CNN Average temperatures elide a complex reality: The country’s experience of hotter summers — and thus one of the most visceral aspects of climate change itself — is fractured along geographic lines.

On @cnn.com , Practitioner Fellow @chriscmooney.bsky.social writes about about the warming hole:
"Summer is behaving very erratically as the country warms, with large changes in some regions, especially the West, and very muted ones in the central and southeast US."
www.cnn.com/2025/08/19/c...