Endangered icebreakers: The future of Arctic research, exploration and rescue at risk

The United States' Icebreaker Fleet - operated by the U.S. Coast Guard - consists of just two ships that are used for everything from search and rescue to national security operations to scientific research. In our August cover story, EARTH Magazine examines the various roles icebreakers play, especially in Arctic research, and how insufficient funding is affecting the icebreakers' roles.

Icebreakers are becoming more important every year, as more commerce is conducted in Arctic regions as seasonal ice cover decreases. Yet over recent fiscal cycles, Congress has appropriated fewer and fewer dollars for the Coast Guard to maintain its already aging fleet - despite myriad government agencies calling for additional icebreakers to be built. Find out what the potential impacts of losing our icebreakers would be and learn what some members of Congress are doing to stop it in EARTH Magazine: http://www.earthmagazine.org/article/endangered-icebreakers-future-arctic-research-exploration-and-rescue-risk.

The August 2015 digital issue of EARTH Magazine, and the July/August 2015 print issue brings the geoscience community the science behind the headlines and includes a scientific comment on who should be concerned about space weather, a story on the role science is playing in giving two famous dinosaur species a makeover and a tale about how megafloods shaped the Icelandic landscape. For all this, and more, go to: http://www.earthmagazine.org.

Provided by American Geosciences Institute