Week ending Friday, October 1, 2021

 

Arctic Minimum

The sea ice surrounding the North Pole reached its lowest coverage of the year on Sept. 17. While not a record low this year, sea ice cover has dropped by about 50 percent since the 1980s, which scientists say has been a direct result of greenhouse gas emissions. This summer’s more stubborn ice forced Russia to use icebreakers to clear a path through its summertime Northern Sea Route after it remained blocked for the first time since 2008.

 

Eruptions

Many residents of Spain’s La Palma Island were told to seal doors and windows with tape and wet towels to protect against potentially toxic gases emitted by the eruption of...

Week ending Friday, October 8, 2021


Earth Dimming

Global heating during the past two decades has caused the planet to appear dimmer from space, scientists say. Less low-lying cloud cover over parts of the warming oceans is said to be the main cause of a 0.5 percent drop in the amount of light reflected by the planet. Most of the dimming observed by satellites was across the vast Pacific and during the last three years of the 1998-2017 study. Scientists at the Big Bear Solar Observatory in New Jersey write in Geophysical Research Letters that the changes in Earth’s reflectiveness did not match changes in the sun’s brightness during recent solar cycles.

 

Historic Eruption

The...

WASHINGTON, D. C. – Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez was at the White House along with tribal, state, and federal leaders, Oct. 8 as President Joe Biden signed a proclamation that restores the Bears Ears National Monument, located in southeastern Utah, to the boundaries established by President Obama in 2016. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and former Interior Secretary Sally Jewell were also present for the ceremony.

“The Navajo Nation, along with a coalition of tribes, wholeheartedly supports today’s action by the Biden-Harris Administration,” Nez said. “This historic signing of the proclamation and restoration of the Bears Ears National Monument is a victory...

An elite, tight-knit group of airmen compose the United States Air Force Honor Guard, among them Gallup’s own Wayne Lufkins. Lufkins is the son of recently elected Eleventh Judicial District Attorney Bernadine Martin.

“We’re all so proud of him,” Martin told the Sun. “Wayne comes from a long line of veterans. His grandfather served in the Korean War as a paratrooper.

“His grandpa George Willie was a Code Talker. He has numerous cousins and uncles that have served since World War II,” Martin said.

Lufkins is excited to continue this military legacy in the Honor Guard. The Honor Guard represents the United States Air Force in official ceremonial functions in...