U-M Prof in Antarctica-The Threat of Melting Ice

U-M Prof in Antarctica-The Threat of Melting Ice Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Global warming is real. You can’t argue with what you can see with your own eyes and measure with a yardstick. That’s the message from a Nobel Prize winning University of Michigan scientist. He just went on his annual trip to Antarctica. And Michigan Now’s Chris McCarus caught up with him back home in Ann Arbor.

To reach Antarctica you fly to Buenos Aires Argentina or Santiago Chile. Then you fly to a small town on the southern tip of South America. That’s in the Beagle Channel. 2 days later a ship will take you to Antarctica.

“It is summertime and the temperature is right around freezing unless the wind is blowing then it’s very very cold. The windchill factor is dramatic in the Antarctic.”

Henry Pollack is a retired geology professor from the University of Michigan. He’s ventured near the south pole every year for 20 years.

“The terrain is nearly all covered with ice and the sea is frequently cluttered with icebergs. There are rocks sticking out, mountains poke out through the ice at the top. Near the water there is often rock outcrops. But the big vista is one of ice. Big glaciers. Big icebergs. Beautiful blue colors. Just like green is the color of forests and brown and red are the color of deserts. Blue and white are the color of ice.”

In 2007, former Vice President Al Gore won half the Nobel Peace Prize. The other half was won by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Professor Pollack is part of that panel. And he shared the prize. Pollack’s new book is called, “A World Without Ice.”

“In the Antarctic Peninsula some of the more visible changes are that the glaciers are retreating everywhere. 90% are in retreat. How do you know that? By pictures from one year to the next and by aerial photography and satellite imagery.”

Temperatures in the Antarctic have risen 6 degrees fahrenheit in the last 50 years. Scientific stations all over the continent record this data. The winter temperatures are rising even faster. They’ve gone up11 degrees. Glaciers used to be able to keep water cold enough, like the Larsen B Ice shelf did up until 2002. And then….

“It went from an ice shelf that had been stable for 10,000 years or more, in 5 weeks it blasted a hole as big as Rhode Island.”

So why would ice melting near the south pole hurt us in the northern hemisphere?

“You may not care about the Antarctic. But you do care about rising sea level. And what happens in the Antarctic and Greenland, if it causes sea level to rise, we’ll feel it in Florida. We’ll feel it along the gulf coast. We’ll feel it along the Atlantic coastal plane. You’ll feel it in New York and Philadelphia harbor and in Baltimore. Sea level rise is an equal opportunity catastrophe. 100 million people around the world live within a meter of sea level.”

Pollack says Glacier National Park in Montana won’t have any glaciers left in 40 years. Mt. Kilimanjaro won’t in 10 years. Half of India’s water supply is dependent on the slow melt of glaciers in the Himalayas. That’s water for 500 million people. But if the ice melts too fast, the water source will be gone forever. Ok, this doesn’t matter to Michigan. We’re surrounded by the largest supply of fresh water in the world. Why should Michiganders care about melting ice?

“Grand Traverse Bay a century ago used to freeze over seven out of 10 years. Today it’s a big event if it ever freezes over for even a few days. And what that does is it makes the water available for evaporation year round.”

As that happens year after year, even Michiganders have less water for drinking, shipping and farming.