The future of a warming planet is reflected in Ice

Ice is key: everywhere

The cause and effect relationship between ice and global warming extends far beyond melting ice caps and shrinking polar bear habitat. From Greenland’s ice sheets to Siberian permafrost thaw to collapsing Alpine glaciers, there is virtually nowhere on the Earth the planet’s vast reserves of frozen water aren’t melting fast. For better or worse, the consequences of this phenomenon are not obvious on a global scale. This page covers several interrelated topics that don’t penetrate public awareness.

• Albedo reflectivity feedback
• Permafrost collapse \ methane feedback
• Glacier Lake Outburst Floods
• Melting ice “glue” causing Alpine rock falls
• The Third Pole and the threat to Asian fresh water supply 
• The affect of fresh water melt on the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC)

Polar Ice Formations

SEA ICE: Disappearing rapidly in the Arctic and more sporadically in the Antarctic since 2016 It does not raise sea levels when it melts but does affect weather patterns and the Albedo reflectivity feedback. ANTARCTICA: Rapid Antarctic sea ice decline contributes to ocean current destabilization, which in tern affects weather patterns.

LAND ICE: Trillions of tons of land ice on Greenland and the Antarctic continent contains enough fresh water to raise sea levels several meters if melted. 

SHELF ICE: Hybrid formations are critical to braking flow of land ice to the ocean.

Rapid “third pole” ice melt threatens water supplies for 2 billion humans

DISAPPEARING ICE IN HIMALAYAN GLACIERS IS ACCELERATING A MAMMOTH WATER CRISIS

The Himalayas store more frozen water than any other source except the Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets. High mountain glaciers feed rivers that sustain nearly one-fourth of the world’s population. Billions downstream have relied on a predictable seasonal release of glacial water into rivers but global warming has quickly changed the scenario.  With some glaciers losing ice mass at four times the normal rate, the region faces a convergence of environmental, health, and geopolitical crises.

TWO PRONGED CRISIS: Near term, accelerated melting can produce too much water too quickly—including devastating Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs). Longer term, continued glacier shrinkage means less dependable water during the dry season, when millions of people most need it.

Global consequences of rapid Permafrost thaw

The vast tundras of the north are thawing rapidly as the Arctic warms four times fast than the rest of the planet. While relatively few people think much about these unseen forces, the ramifications are global and powerful.

Methane Plumes: Melting permafrost is causing release of CO2 and CH4 trapped beneath once frozen surface. This is one cause for the rapid uptick in atmospheric methane. Siberian levels of CH4 emissions have double in ten years.

Infrastructure Collapse: Biblical savior Joshua ben Joseph recommended not building your house on sand, but he should have also mentioned permafrost. In Alaska, Siberia and northern Canada, buildings, highways and pipelines are falling down. Humans constructed these artifacts under the assumption that the land would stay solid, but it is NOT staying solid. As the ground sinks, buildings, roads and bridges are damaged, sometimes destroyed. The situation is worse in coastal communities as increased water temperatures reduce protective ice and allow waves to wreck permafrost bluffs and increase erosion. 

Megaslump craters and Thermokarst blasting out all over, transforming Arctic terrain. These unsettling and often very large craters (also known as thaw slumps) are formed as once trapped methane escapes the permafrost that once trapped it below. Megaslumps and the starkly strange thermokarst landscapes that accompany them are not new, but they are multiplying as the tundra transforms. Sometimes they begin with a small soil collapse, other times when  pressure grows too great there is a blowout. Arctic scientists now videotape footage of grassland wobbling as the substrata becomes less solid and scenes of lighting escaping methane as it escapes from once frozen ponds.

Greenland and Iceland: Unexpected forces at work

1. THE ADDITION OF MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF FRESH WATER INTO THE NORTH ATLANTIC IS SLOWING DOWN THE GULF STREAM (AMOC)

The Gulf Stream is the best known component of the global ocean current known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). This massive current is responsible for a major component of planetary weather and moderates Northern Europe’s climate (see middle column for more). 

2. THE LAND MASS OF BOTH ISLANDS IS RISING AS THEY SHED THE WEIGHT OF ICE CAPS

There is no question that the addition of two mile thick melting ice caps into the ocean is raising sea levels. There is a range of projections regarding how quickly this process is taking place, but there is no doubt that it is gaining speed. Sea level rise is about double as it was in 1993. 

But there is a less obvious effect as well. As the ice sheets melt and flow into the North Atlantic, the land beneath is lifting up. This paradoxical scenario, in that these two land masses will experience less net sea level rise that other coastal areas. Arctic islands land mass lifting