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| "The Doomsday Glacier" |
They may wonder that because the ocean is vast.
But, the Southern Ocean which surrounds Antarctica is a small portion of the global ocean.
Don't feel left out, because it was not too very long ago that I found out too ... I found out why I had to change my focus too ... so ... you are not alone.
When I found out "the reason" it surprised me too:
This is why we need this focus:(On Thermal Expansion & Thermal Contraction - 36, emphasis added). Another reason for such coverage can also be scary:
"The vast Southern Ocean, which surrounds Antarctica, plays a starring role in the future of climate change. The global oceans together absorb over 90 percent of the excess heat in the climate system and roughly three-quarters of that heat uptake occurs in the Southern Ocean. In addition, the global oceans absorb around 25 percent of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions and the Southern Ocean alone accounts for about half of the uptake of CO2.(Antarctica 2.0 - 3, quoting Climate Central). When the sea level is rising and the net result of thermal expansion / contraction totals is a minor player, [a small number], then melting tidewater glaciers and other melting ice in the Cryosphere quite obviously must be the major player.
Despite its critical role in our climate system, the Southern Ocean has gone almost completely unobserved. Scientists have struggled to gather precise measurements because of the harsh environment and extreme remoteness. The changing dynamics of the Southern Ocean will in turn drive key aspects of our future climate, including how sensitive the Earth will be to further warming and increases in carbon dioxide emissions. As a result, improved observations are crucial to helping scientists understand and predict how our climate will change."
"Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica is so remote that only 28 human beings have ever set foot on it.(The Doomsday Glacier, emphasis added). So, what does that have to do with sea ports and flat landers?
Knut Christianson, a 33-year-old glaciologist at the University of Washington, has been there twice.
A few years ago, Christianson and a team of seven scientists traveled more than 1,000 miles from McMurdo Station, the main research base in Antarctica, to spend six weeks on Thwaites ...
They were mapping a future global disaster. As the world warms, determining exactly how quickly ice melts and seas rise may be one of the most important questions of our time ... If there is going to be a climate catastrophe ... it's probably going to start at Thwaites. The trouble with Thwaites, which is one of the largest glaciers on the planet, is that ... instead of melting slowly like an ice cube on a summer day, it is more like a house of cards: It's stable until it is pushed too far, then it collapses... Seas will rise about 10 feet in many parts of the world; in New York and Boston, because of the way gravity pushes water around the planet, the waters will rise even higher, as much as 13 feet ... West Antarctica could do to the coastlines of the world what Hurricane Sandy did in a few hours to New York City," explains Richard Alley ... Except when the water comes in, it doesn't go away in a few hours – it stays."
Flat landers like to eat, drink, be merry, and pass it on to their progeny, but these habits have now become entwined with world sea ports:
"By volume, more than 95 percent of U.S. international trade moves through the nation's ports and harbors, with about 50 percent of these goods being hazardous materials."(NOAA PORTS, emphasis added; cf. Ports & Harbors). Dredd Blog has been pointing that out for a while (Will This Float Your Boat?, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14) because McTell News and the U.S. government is reluctant to do so (Blind Willie McTell News, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).
As Dredd Blog has pointed out, you flat landers (who think you will cheer when those "it can't happen here" elitists who live on the coast get their comeuppance) have no idea what will happen when civilization's sea ports go down (Why Sea Level Rise May Be The Greatest Threat To Civilization, 2, 3, 4, 5).
I will continue to watch the Southern Ocean (Antarctica 2.0, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 [& supplements A, B, C, D, E, F]) because You Are Here with me.
The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.
Anon. Twenty years? You seem to be where I was in 1975 and it only took me 5 years or so, not twenty. All anyone needs is a little objective detachment to clearly see just where this whole thing is heading.
ReplyDeleteYou mention an unwillingness to tell the truth. Please do yourself a favour and ask yourself just where your version of the "truth" comes from because I suspect to you it is self-evident. I can assure you that you would start a most amazing journey much more interesting than all this end of the world nonsense.
Deniers leave out one important thing: the evidence.
DeleteThe meaning of words matters. For example, the word "civilization." It helps to read the text so as to develop an understanding of the meaning of "civilization".
DeleteIn this Dredd Blog series, "civilization" means what the Encyclopedia Britannica described:
"In the Study Toynbee examined the rise and fall of 26 civilizations in the course of human history, and he concluded that they rose by responding successfully to challenges under the leadership of creative minorities composed of elite leaders. Civilizations declined when their leaders stopped responding creatively, and the civilizations then sank owing to the sins of nationalism, militarism, and the tyranny of a despotic minority." (Encyclopedia Britannica)
Toynbee had described what he discovered in his research as follows:
"In other words, a society does not ever die 'from natural causes', but always dies from suicide or murder --- and nearly always from the former, as this chapter has shown." (A Study of History, by Arnold J. Toynbee).
Those 26 civilizations did it without having enough nuclear weaponry to destroy all life on the planet 50 times over. Current civilization has that power.
To say "it can't happen here" without evidence is ludicrous.
It really only took me a week-end, a very wet one, in the autumn of 1970, to work out for my self that the Laws of Thermodynamics pointed to the collapse of the world economy within 40 years.
ReplyDeleteI had trained as a Structural Engineer but was encouraged by one of my lecturers to see the world as a series of structures- economic,social,political,etc. To someone training in steel and RC design it went way over my head at the time but like most stuff people tell me, and I can't make sense of, it stayed in my mind and now 50 years later stands out as the most usful advice I've ever had.
So my point is a simple one. If a 23 year old with a slide rule, a few books and a bit of interest can call the end of this current civilization using a pencil and a few sheets of foolscap it really can't be that hard can it?
What is hard for the vast majority of people to understand is the fact that the people who they have given their power to (via the ballot box)simply have no idea of the fundamental physical laws underpinning the last 270 years of this tiny little energy blip.
Why chronic floods are coming to New Jersey (link)
ReplyDeleteAnd D.C. (link)
ReplyDeleteAnd the home of the tea party (Here’s a look at how bad the flooding and wind are in Boston).
ReplyDelete