Climate Letter #1603

The first report of test results at Thwaites glacier adds to concerns about future sea level rise (New York University). “A team of scientists has observed, for the first time, the presence of warm water at a vital point underneath a glacier in Antarctica–an alarming discovery that points to the cause behind the gradual melting of this ice shelf while also raising concerns about sea-level rise around the globe…..suggests that it may be undergoing an unstoppable retreat that has huge implications for global sea level rise…..we observed not only the presence of warm water, but also its turbulence level and thus its efficiency to melt the ice shelf base…..an important result as this is the first time turbulent dissipation measurements have been made in the critical grounding zone of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.”

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Glacial recession throughout all of the mountains of South America has now been quantified, to great dismay (Yale e360).  “Across the Andes, glaciers have lost nearly 3 feet in thickness annually since 2000…..The overall trend, though, is abundantly clear. Andean glaciers — from the small icy regions of Colombia and Venezuela in the north all the way to Patagonia’s glaciated expanses in the south — are rapidly shrinking….. the researchers calculated that the area covered by glaciers in Peru shrank by nearly a third from 2000 to 2016…..Glaciers are vital resources for communities in and around the Andes, where meltwater is used for drinking, irrigation, and hydroelectric power…..No mountain region has lost more ice, relative to its size, than the Andes.”  https://e360.yale.edu/features/andes-meltdown-new-insights-into-rapidly-retreating-glaciers
–The full report contains images that show exactly where the losses are occurring, and their relative size.
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“5 Things You Should Know About the Earth’s Warming Ocean” (The Revelator).  This is a superb educational piece, based on interviews with several scientists who are deeply involved in the latest of relevant research publications.  Today’s oceans, while sequestering much of the heat energy they receive, are still able to promote many kinds of serious impacts.  Removal of all that heat will take a very long time, and there is much still to be learned about what the future implications may be.
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David Roberts investigates the prospects for “social tipping points,” that could halt the advance of climate change, breaking out in a surprisingly sudden way (Vox).  Based on recent studies, he describes six major courses of action that have made progress in a slow and incremental but sadly insufficient manner and must soon accelerate.  “The problem is, climate change isn’t much like same-sex marriage, or cigarettes, or the spread of Protestantism, or any of the historical precedents cited in the paper. It is more deeply rooted in economics, global, and irreversible in a way no previous problem has been. The hoped-for changes are faster, greater in scope, and sustained for longer than any coordinated solution in memory. History isn’t much of a guide.”  While predictions are therefore meaningless, a real awakening has clearly begun; now it needs all the help it can get.
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A new version of hydrogen fuel cell construction is said to both generate more power and lower production costs (NYU Tandon School of Engineering).  Several major automakers across the Pacific are still heavily engaged in fuel cell development even while being frustrated by several challenges.  This discovery may turn out to be just what they are looking for.
Carl

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