The position as asset manager overseeing the frozen world is now open. Application deadline: ASAP.
If someone told me our family would run out of money in 5 years with the current spending, inflation and mortgage rate, I would act immediately.
I would set everything aside and start looking at our costs and search for a better paid job.
In addition, I would make sure to have extra money for unplanned events. With three kids, a cash buffer is a necessity. Any responsible person with a basic sense of economic security would act. This is the advise you would get from your bank.
The responsible chief adviser on climate change is the IPCC. Their advise that came with the synthesis report this week cannot be mistaken.
I watched an episode of the BBC Frozen Planet II yesterday, and it hit me hard.
Frozen, then liquid
One example is the glaciers in Himalaya. One of the largest glaciers there provide fresh water to 10 of the biggest rivers in Asia, serving around 1 billion people. The 90,000 glaciers in Asia’s mountain ranges melt which lead to less fresh water in the future and sea level rise.
The glaciers have existed for tens and thousands of years and they are shrinking and disappearing.
Glaciologist Hamish Pritchard wanted to check Himalaya’s water savings. How much ice is there and for how long will it last? So, in 2019, his crew went up there with a low-frequency radar mounted on a helicopter to check the thickness of one of the largest glaciers. Pritchard measures it at 150 meter. It loses half a meter of ice every year, and melting is accelerating.
Pritchard found that with today’s thickness and melting pace, it will last for 200-300 more years. Which means Asia’s water savings are shrinking while consumption and population is increasing. It doesn’t add up. Each year offers less water than the year before. And it will have consequences beyond our generation’s imagination.
Where is the Conger Ice Shelf and what does its collapse mean?
Antarctica holds 90 percent of all fresh water on earth. The ice in the East is higher above the sea, is over one and a half kilometers thick and has been there for millions of years. The Western one, on the other hand, is partly below sea level. Changes in the sea temperature directly affects the ice.
Freezing to death
Doesn’t sound like a global warming issue, but this is what happens to the adelies penguins living in the high Antarctic. They have evolved in a dry, cold polar system. But with warmer temperatures comes rain. “They simply cannot tolerate being continuously wet,” scientist Bill Fraser says in the documentary. Wet fur takes away their ability to keep warm.
Polar bears at Wrangel island
The third example in the documentary is polar bears. They need ice to hunt seals. It’s that simple. When there is no ice, seals have no place to give birth. When the seals disappear, polar bears seek land for food. They are not afraid of swimming if they need to and distances of 640 kilometers have been recorded.
Polar bears seek food where people live, like in the Siberian city of Norilsk.
At Wrangel island, they team up. Researcher Eric Regehr counted several hundreds, but believes there are many more on Wrangel. Is there enough food? Judging from what they found on the bears checked, the answer is yes, but it is uncertain if that will last in the long run.
Like I said; the position as asset manager overseeing the frozen world is open. Application deadline: ASAP.
Featured image: Cross country skiing in the frozen woods surrounding Oslo, February 2023.
