It’s Never Happened Before

Scientists have never seen the ice sheet immediately north of Greenland break up. Never in recorded history. Until 2018. Surprise, surprise. The Guardian U.K. (August 21^st) explains: “This phenomenon – which has never been recorded before – has occurred twice this year due to warm winds and a climate-change driven heatwave in the northern hemisphere.

“One meteorologist described the loss of ice as ‘scary.’ Others said it could force scientists to revise their theories about which part of the Arctic will withstand warming the longest… The sea off the north coast of Greenland is normally so frozen that it was referred to, until recently, as ‘the last ice area’ om the coast than at any time since satellite records began in the 1970s. because it was assumed that this would be the final northern holdout against the melting effects of a hotter planet.

“But abnormal temperature spikes in February and earlier this month have left it vulnerable to winds, which have pushed the ice further away from the coast than at any time since satellite records began in the 1970s… Ice to the north of Greenland is usually particularly compacted due to the Transpolar Drift Stream, one of two major weather patterns that push ice from Siberia across the Arctic to the coastline, where it packs.

“Walt Meier, a senior research scientist at the US National Snow and Ice Data Center, said: ‘The ice there has nowhere else to go so it piles up. On average, it’s over four metres thick and can be piled up into ridges 20 metres thick or more. This thick, compacted ice is generally not easily moved around… However, that was not the case this past winter (in February and March) and now. The ice is being pushed away from the coast by the winds.’…

“The latest readings by the Norwegian Ice Service show that Arctic ice cover in the Svalbard area this week is 40% below the average for this time of year since 1981. In the past month, at least 14 days in the past month have hit record lows in this region. Although thinner ice elsewhere in the Arctic means this is unlikely to be a record low year overall, they are in line with predictions that there will be no summer ice in the Arctic Ocean at some point between 2030 and 2050…

“As well as reducing ice cover, the ocean intrusion raises concerns of feedbacks, which could tip the Earth towards a hothouse state… Freakish Arctic temperatures have alarmed climate scientists since the beginning of the year. During the sunless winter, a heatwave raised concerns that the polar vortex may be eroding.”

As these new realities sink in, as flooding is slamming into the East Coast just as wildfires rage out of control in our West, as hurricanes continue to mount in intensity and coastal flooding and sea rise are the norm, as disease-carrying insects migrate with the rise in temperatures, the Trump administration remains committed to denying the existence of climate change. Instead, our government is proposing a new set of rules under our environmental laws to allow more greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.

In addition to trying to freeze automotive mileage/emissions required, the Trump administration is also going one additional step to promote the use of the most polluting form of industrial carbon – coal – like never before. “The new power plan would relieve the electricity industry — the second-largest producer of potent greenhouse gases nationwide — from aggressive goals for reducing its carbon footprint. Heavily polluting coal plants that would have been forced into retirement under the Obama-era guidelines get a new lease on life under the Trump blueprint, which allows them to continue operating with modest modification.

“In some cases, states may be permitted to ignore federal guidelines for certain plants altogether and pursue their own strategy…

“Climate-conscious states like California are already mobilizing to fight, arguing the administration’s approach violates the Clean Air Act. The Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that the law requires the federal government to take steps to combat air pollutants that are warming the global climate.

“Administration talking points leaked to the media say the replacement of the Clean Power Plan is a signal ‘to the nation that the war on coal is over and a new era of energy dominance is underway.’ A spokesman for the Environmental Protection Agency, which oversees emission regulations, declined to comment on the draft plan.” Los Angeles Times, August 20^th. The sheer ignorance, the lack of shame, the rejection of overwhelming scientific support, the human suffering and the trillions and trillions of dollars of damage all over the earth that this callous disregard for reality represents are simply staggering.

I’m Peter Dekom, and I wonder how history books of the future will depict this dark period in our human experience… if there still are history books being written.