Around the World Across the Globe
All around the Globe the World is in dire straits — climate crisis.
These folks at The Cryosphere talk scientist-ese, so I’ve clipped a few comments and will explain afterward.
“Ice retreat in this region appears to have happened rapidly in the centre of the incised trough, the palaeo-ice thickness at the calving front around the Last Glacial Maximum to have been at least 305 m to 320 m, based on the depth of iceberg ploughmarks. These findings are likely representative for other ice shelves in this region and provide essential boundary conditions for paleo ice-sheet models in this severely understudied region.” (Sheesh!)
The Cryosphere Discuss. [preprint], https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2021-305, in review, 2021. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Here’s what the New Yorker had to say, in readable English:
“We’re reaching the endgame on the climate crisis, as news from both poles made clear this week. In the Antarctic, researchers reported first data from uncrewed submarine trips beneath the crucial Thwaites Glacier: “Our observations show warm water impinging from all sides on pinning points critical to ice-shelf stability, a scenario that may lead to unpinning and retreat.” (Thwaites was already known as the “doomsday glacier” because its collapse could raise global sea levels by as much as three feet.)”
https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/no-more-halfsies-on-climate *and* https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abd7254
Apparently, the Thwaites Glacier and the Antarctic ice have been melting for the length of my adult life (a long time — I’m old now). They say the melting will continue for hundreds of years. I’ll just have to wait and see.
Here’s what Wikipedia has to say. They refer to this glacier, the Thwaites Glacier, and they also say it’s sometimes referred to as the Doomsday Glacier,[1]:
Here’s the deal. I’m an award-winning climate scientist, so I have a good idea of what I’m talking about.
I don’t want to increase the anxiety of people unnecessarily. Some predictions are wrong or never happen. But there is no doubt that there is extreme weather now in large parts of the world. Weather and climate are not the same things, but it seems reasonable to say that yes, the climate has changed and is now changing even faster than ever expected.
Could the warming be reversed? Absolutely yes, through terraforming or other engineering methods. But this will most likely never happen. I won’t explain, except to say that human nature stands in the way, and the collaboration of most countries in the world would be required. Since countries tend to be xenophobic, that’s why I say it’ll never happen. Still, natural events could occur that would cool down the planet.
I don’t have a take-away, but I do have a giveaway:
The world really is in dire straits, as I said in the titles of this story. My advice to people is to move — migrate — if you’re living in a place that is becoming inhospitable. There are places that are likely more stable. I have read that the area near Lake Superior is a possibility for climate refugees who wish to remain in the United States.
I live in Panamá and there’s no sign of global warming here. Costa Rica is likely the same: it’s right next door. Costa Rica is probably more friendly to migrating U.S. Americans than Panamá would be. On rare days it gets oppressively hot and steamy, which has always been the case, but generally, I’d call it ‘shorts and short sleeve weather here.
Please take action before the masses do in a hysterical way.
Panic hasn’t swept the globe . . . yet.
Take care and good luck.… Fred Ermlich
