This episode is a rerun. It first aired on September 12, 2023.
Megan Corridor: Welcome to Presumably, the place we tackle big issues like the way forward for our planet and break them down into small questions with surprising solutions. I’m Megan Corridor.
In the present day, we’ve a query from one in all our reporters, Kolya Shields. What do you might have for us, Kolya?
Kolya Shields: I hold seeing timelapse photographs exhibiting ice sheets shrinking sooner and sooner. That made me curious in regards to the impacts of this melting, and what we would be capable of do about it.
Megan Corridor: We had Janek Schaller from our Presumably staff assist Kolya look into it. Welcome, Janek and Kolya!
Janek Schaller: Hello, Megan!
Kolya Shields: Howdy!
Megan Corridor: So, initially, what are glaciers actually, and why ought to we be fearful about them melting?
Kolya Shields: Nicely, briefly, glaciers are giant formations of ice and snow that slowly circulate throughout land and keep frozen through the heat seasons.
Janek Schaller: To be taught extra, we spoke to Paul Mayewski.
Paul Mayewski: “I am the director of the Local weather Change Institute on the College of Maine”
Kolya Shields: Paul says formally, glaciers should be tall sufficient for ice to build up on the highest and “circulate” to the underside. Meaning they’re often at the least 30 toes thick. However…
Paul Mayewski: Glaciers are available all sizes and styles… the most important is clearly, the Antarctic ice sheet, which is one and a half instances the realm of america.
Megan Corridor: Wow! That’s quite a lot of ice!
Janek Schaller: Yeah, however they’re shrinking. Based on a current research, glaciers the world over are shedding about 267 gigatonnes of ice a yr.
Megan Corridor: Which implies?
Kolya Shields: To place that in perspective, only one gigaton is the same as about 10,000 fully loaded aircraft carriers.
Megan Corridor: I’m guessing that is occurring due to local weather change?
Janek Schaller: Sure, but it surely’s not simply that it’s getting hotter. As a result of it’s hotter the white snow that covers glaciers melts away, and divulges a darker ice floor, which absorbs extra warmth and hurries up the melting course of.
Megan Corridor: So that they’re melting sooner and sooner. However why are individuals so fearful about it?
Kolya Shields: Paul has some perception into that query:
Paul Mayewski: In case you have been to soften one thing just like the Greenland ice sheet, sea stage would in all probability rise near 20 or 30 feet. And naturally, the Antarctic ice sheet is so much bigger.
Kolya Shields: Thus far, about half of the ocean stage rise we’ve skilled is the results of melting glaciers, the remainder is from the growth of ocean water because it warms.
Megan Corridor: So – extra melting glaciers means extra coastal flooding?
Kolya Shields: Sure. They positively contribute to the rising waters throughout us.
Janek Schaller: And Paul says melting glaciers do greater than enhance sea ranges — in addition they have an effect on water provides for some communities.
Paul Mayewski: For the individuals who dwell in locations just like the Himalayas, the Andes, Europe for that matter, lack of glaciers is an amazing change.
Janek Schaller: And we’re not simply speaking about just a few communities. Melted glaciers meet the water wants of greater than 200 million individuals yearly.
Kolya Shields: Now, it’s unlikely we’ll lose all of those glaciers in our lifetimes, however scientists estimate that on the present fee of melting, as much as 80 p.c of the world’s glaciers will disappear by the top of the century.
Megan Corridor: That sounds fairly dangerous. Is there something we will do about this?
Kolya Shields: There are quite a lot of attention-grabbing concepts out there- like snow machines, or masking glaciers with white blankets so that they don’t soften as quick.
Janek Schaller: However in response to Matthias Huss, a glaciologist on the Swiss Federal Institute of Know-how in Zürich, these methods have their limits–
Matthias Huss: You possibly can theoretically make an affect, barely cut back the melting of glaciers. However as quickly as in the event you attempt to apply to larger areas, it will get extremely costly.
Janek Schaller: Matthias says we must always give attention to the actual solution—-
Matthias Huss: There’s just one method. We have to cut back CO2 emissions, which can finally stabilize local weather.
Kolya Shields: Briefly, the one sure-fire strategy to fight this downside is to dramatically cut back our greenhouse fuel emissions in a short time!
Megan Corridor: Bought it! Thanks, Kolya and Janek.
That’s it for immediately. You’ll find extra info, or ask a query about the way in which your selections have an effect on our planet, at ask presumably dot org. You can too subscribe to Presumably wherever you get your podcasts or observe us on social media at “ask presumably”
Presumably is a co-production of Brown College’s Institute for Setting and Society, Ocean State Media and WBRU.
