On November 24th, scientists from the Bristish Antarctic Survey (BAS) were astonished to observe an iceberg measuring around 4,000 square kilometers (more than twice the size of Greater London) drifting away from the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. The iceberg is not only massive in its area but also has a thickness of 400 m (about 1312.34 ft), which is higher than the London Shard – the tallest skyscraper in Europe with a height of 310m (about 1017.06 ft). 

The iceberg is named ‘A23a’ and was first dislodged in 1986 from the Filchner Ice Shelf, after which it has remained grounded on the Weddell Sea floor. Now, after 35 years it has begun its meandering journey driven by ocean winds and currents towards the Southern Atlantic Ocean with a probability of grounding again at South Georgia Island. If the iceberg finds a home in the South Georgia Island, it could block feeding routes for millions of seals, penguins, and seabirds that live on the island, thus disrupting the island’s wildlife and ecosystems. 

All icebergs go through a cycle of freezing, formation to withering away and melting over time. However, climate change, which warms ocean waters, has accelerated this process, causing large chunks of ice to float away and melt faster than usual, further increasing the global sea level. So even though it might have been time for A23a to melt away, it is a warning that we might have much larger iceberg calving events in the polar regions in the future, bringing devastating floods worldwide and sinking many coastal populations. If the Antarctic sheet ice melts, it could displace over 230 million people who currently live within three feet of the high tide line. 

Climate change has indeed woken up the Antarctic ice giants, and we must be prepared. 

Find out more about the global risks of Polar warming HERE.  

Photo credit: European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-1 imagery  

On November 17th, global temperatures reached 2.07°C above pre-industrial levels for the first time on record.  

Preliminary data revealing the temperature spike was shared on X by Dr. Samantha Burgess, Deputy Director of the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. Provisional data for November 18th showed temperatures at 2.06°C above the pre-industrial levels. 

These record-breaking global average temperatures are not indicative of permanent warming above 2°C – temperatures would need to consistently surpass this threshold for extended periods before scientists considered it breached. However, this is a clear signal of an increasingly warmer planet that is moving steadily to a future where reversing the impacts of climate change will be difficult, if not impossible.  

“Mother Nature has sent yet another worrying message that the Earth is unwell. While this is a short-term breach, the path we are on is a clear sign that we must act quickly and boldly to slash carbon emissions if we are to avert this level of warming becoming the norm, which we can already see is causing more costly and deadly extreme weather, accelerated sea-level rise through faster ice melt, and disrupted ecosystems,” said Dr. Jennifer Francis, a Senior Scientist at Woodwell Climate Research Center and a member of Arctic Basecamp’s Science & Global Risks Advisory Team.  

“The science is clear: if it were not for human activities, mainly burning fossil fuels and deforestation, the Earth would now be cooling, not warming. The longer we wait to act, the more diseased is the planet we leave for our children,” she warned.  

The Arctic acts as the Earth’s cooling mechanism, but loss of ice and snow amplifies the risk of global heatwaves, meaning more intense heat stress in parts of the world that are already hot.  

Find out more about the global risks of Arctic warming HERE.  

Alarm bells ringing as rapid disintegration and weakening of ice shelves in North Greenland is observed!

Glaciers in North Greenland have, until now, been considered relatively stable. This stability has been important, as 2.1m of potential sea level rise is held within this part of the island—a sizable percentage of the estimated 7.4m held within the entire ice sheet.

However, new research, released on 7 November 2023 in Nature Communications authored by scientists from the CNRS as well as their Danish and American colleagues, casts a dark shadow. The ice in this part of Greenland is supported, or buttressed, by smaller glaciers, which in the past 45 years have lost 35% of their volume. The majority of this thinning is due to the rise in surrounding ocean temperatures, which causes the glaciers’ floating extensions to melt. These ice shelves play an essential role in regulating the amount of ice discharged into the ocean by acting as huge frozen “dams.”

Although Greenland has already contributed to over 17% of the current rise in sea levels from 2006 and 2018, any weakening of these barriers may have even more dramatic consequences for the stability of Greenlandic glaciers. This could lead to an increase in the amount of ice released, further accelerating sea level rise and associated global risks.

Figure 3(e) from this publication (attached above) shows cumulative Greenland ice sheet ice mass loss changes related to glacial basal melting, glacial calving and glacial SMB (Surface Mass Balance – calculated by subtracting ice sheet surface ice losses from snowfall gains) for the five remaining Greenland ice shelves. They are all in decline.

Source article is available HERE.