Ice cores hold Antarctica’s climate secrets
An ice core platform in Antarctica. (Credit: Flickr user Esoteric)
Scientists are looking deep into the ice to reveal Antarctica’s hidden climate history. And they’re finding the future is unlike anything the continent has experienced over the past millennium.
Paul Mayewski: When many of us started working in the Antarctic twenty, thirty plus years ago, our understanding of the Antarctic was that it was a place that was literally unchangeable, because it was so massive. And the thought that you could see ice shelves disintegrating or large regions suddenly getting warmer was unheard of.
Paul Mayewski is the director of the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine. He’s spent the past two decades traversing Antarctica, collecting ice cores. Ice cores are natural archives of climate history. By studying them, scientists can learn how today’s climate compares to the past thousand years.
According to Mayewski, levels of pollutants found in the ice are much higher than they’ve been in the past thousand years, and greenhouse gases have increased one hundred times faster than at any other time seen in the ice core record. He said that these changes are already making an impact on the continent.
Paul Mayewski: Is it too late to maintain Antarctica exactly as it’s been for the past fifty to a hundred years? Yes, it probably is.
Our thanks today to NASA, in celebration of the International Polar Year.
Paul Mayewski on the fate of Antarctica
Listen to a 5 minute podcast with climate scientist Paul Mayewski
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Hi, friends
Aluminum is produced with anode made of carbon. It’s been
used for more than 100 years since the development of the
Hall-Haroult process for the Al production. And for a 100 years
is the carbon dioxide being emitted into the atmosphere by the
Al industry. It’s because carbon anode reacts with the oxygen evolved
at the anode. To say in simpler words, it burns like coal in a furnace,
because the temperature of the process is 960 degrees C, on average.
And a vessel where Al is produced is at least 30 meters long. So you
can imagine now the dimensions of carbon anodes and all the amounts
of CO2 emissions into our precious atmosphere for the last 100 years.
And the process of pollution doesn’t stop continuing day and night. It’s
making us closer to the end of our civilization. And all we are involved
into the process, especially, developed countries. Because all we use
planes to travel all round the world. And planes are made of Al.
So all we make our contribution to the Global Warming. And the
governments of different countries just refuse giving us the right
information about it. These bastards support the aluminum
manufactures who bring great money into their pockets. There
is enough aluminum produced in the world. We could just use
its scrap for the first time before an inert anode is invented and
adopted in the industry. And before that we must make our
filthy governors and Al manufactures stop all the Al smelters
in the world. If only we are going to survive as species in this
world. We’ve got no planets nearby to live on. And our rulers
give us an idea of life on other planets such as the Red one or
Europa just to deceive us and hand us that staff. Who of us
Could live on those planets if we would destroy our own one.
Nobody!!! That’s why we must take the following steps:
1). Completely refuse air travelling. Don’t use planes at all. It’s
difficult to imagine our hasty days without this transport but we
and our children could survive. It’s not too late yet…
Such actions can cause decreasing money left at the airports.
And this, in turn, in the long run, can make air companies
bankrupts. And the less air companies in the world, the less
new planes being produced all round the world for them.
And the less new planes, the less new aluminium and green
house gas emissions into our precious atmosphere. It’s not so
difficult to use trains while travelling in a continent. And
we’ve got everything for vacations in our own countries,
especially, in the States. These are severe measures, but
we are forced to do this by our changing climate being at
its tipping point.
2). Let’s all as one demand from our governors to take real
actions in cutting down CO2 emissions. While it’s not too
late… First of all they must stop the most part of Al smelters
all round the world, but not deceive us with their crazy ideas
about new technologies like feeding plankton in the ocean
to absorb CO2. It’s just folly and shit!!! We are fed up with it
and could have no time for this.
To be continued…