There's No Need To Panic About That Gigantic Iceberg
Hey there. How's your week going? Remember a few days ago when New York Magazine published that big scary thing on climate change, and we all got really scared? By now you've probably heard that an iceberg, roughly the size of the state of Delaware, has broken off from Antarctica's Larsen C ice shelf.
Because you're a relatively smart person, you put two and two together and you think "hm, this is not good." And you would be forgiven for thinking this! It's good that you're seeing the news about some bonkers thing happening to our planet and suspecting that climate change is to blame. But you see, this iceberg? Nothing to worry about. Business as usual for our planet.
Don't believe it? BuzzFeed spoke with a climate researcher who reassured that this was very normal and fine:
"The calving event has the appearance of being a completely normal break of the ice shelf," Ted Scambos, lead scientist at the Colorado-based National Snow and Ice Data Center, wrote in an email to BuzzFeed News.
"The only unusual thing is that it leaves the shelf smaller than it has been in the 125 years since it was first mapped," Scambos said, adding that it has lost several icebergs in the past 30 years. "However, this kind of behavior is typical of ice shelves all across Antarctica."
[BuzzFeed]
Still worried? The internet's favorite meteorologist and climate writer, Eric Holthaus, assures us that there's nothing to be worried about… yet. A68, the name scientists have given to the massive new iceberg, was always expected to break away, and since it's fresh water, will only contribute some 0.1 mm of sea-level rise. The greatest hazard the iceberg will pose, Holthaus writes, is to the shipping lanes to the north. That said, Holthaus points out that researchers will be watching the Larsen C shelf closely, in the even that natural iceberg calving becomes unnatural:
A tiny part of the new iceberg, though, was connected to one of Larsen C's grounding anchors — meaning that Larsen C's parent glaciers will need to be monitored in the coming weeks and months for signs of acceleration, a foretaste of what could eventually be a complete collapse of the 10,000-year-old structure. If that happens, climate change would very likely play a role, and the birth of A68 may be viewed as one of the mix of natural and unnatural events which set the process in motion.
[Grist]
In a piece for The Conversation, three climate scientists — Chen Zhao, Christopher Watson and Matt King — reiterate Holthaus, assuring that a singular iceberg calving every once in awhile is normal, but we should only start to worry if that starts to accelerate:
The calving itself will simply be the birth of another big iceberg. But there is valid concern among scientists that the entire Larsen C ice shelf could become unstable, and eventually break up entirely, with knock-on effects that could take decades to play out.
Ice shelves essentially act as corks in a bottle. Glaciers flow from land towards the sea, and their ice is eventually absorbed into the ice shelf. Removal of the ice shelf causes glaciers to flow faster, increasing the rate at which ice moves from the land into the sea. This has a much larger effect on sea level than iceberg calving does.
So for now, chill out. Be awed by the fact that a piece of ice that weighs trillions of tons is now floating the open ocean. Delight in the Earth's ability to make you feel small with its near unfathomable power.
