David Stairs
Taking daily ice core samples on Antarctica. Courtesy BBC
Just this week the BBC reports that sea ice surrounding Antarctica is “mind-blowingly” low. This probably does not concern you too much. After all, you’ve never been to Antarctica, and likely have no plans to visit anytime soon.
But here’s the catch. Antarctica is the planet’s freezer. It’s whiteness reflects sunlight, the albedo effect. When more dark area is exposed the Earth takes up heat more quickly. As the southern hemisphere begins to exit its winter cycle, scientists are concerned that a volume of sea ice five times the area of the British Isles is missing.
Due to its land mass and location at polar south Antarctica generates its own weather patterns. Until recently, extreme weather events did not happen there. But in March of 2022 a heat wave drove Antarctic temperatures 40 degrees higher than normal. As more dark water is exposed, more and more ice melts, resulting in an accelerating feedback loop.
Scientists are not sure whether they are witnessing a “freak expression of natural variability” or the emergence of a radical change in Antarctic weather. Either way, Dr. Robbie Mallet of the University of Manitoba says, there are “very, very good reasons to be worried.”
Unless you wish to go sunbathing at polar South.
David Stairs is the founding editor of the Design-Altruism-Project.
