Fate of 'doomsday glacier' is warning light for climate change, says author
Jeff Goodell says what happens to the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica should push climate change action
Climate author Jeff Goodell says people should be paying close attention to the fate of a glacier in Antarctica, and what happens there should push policy change because of the potential impact on sea levels.
"This is one of these what scientists call tipping points in the climate system that can really change our lives and how we think about our world and the world we live in in a very fundamental way," Jeff Goodell told Matt Galloway on The Current.
According to a group of scientists who study the Thwaites Glacier, a large glacier the size of Florida in Antarctica, its collapse could be sooner than anticipated, and that collapse could dramatically raise sea levels.
Peter Washam said we could see the floating portion of the glacier crumble into the ocean in the next 10 years. Washam is a research associate at Cornell University and is part of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration, a group of scientists investigating the glacier.
The Thwaites Glacier sits in western Antarctica, and while other glaciers there sit above sea level on the Antarctic ice sheet, Thwaites has water underneath it, making it prone to warming waters and melting from below.
"All signs point to an accelerated disintegration," said Washam.
"It's basically like you're adding mass to the ocean, you're adding cubes of ice to a glass of water, and that ice will then melt and... the fact that you're adding these things to the glass is just going to raise the water."
Jeff Goodell has been to the glacier, and written about its impacts for Rolling Stone as well as in the book The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World. He's the one who first described Thwaites as the doomsday glacier.
Goodell said it's easy for people to underestimate the danger of this melting glacier, as it is out of sight and mind for most people.
"I think most of us … think of ice melting the way a Popsicle melts on a summer sidewalk," said Goodell. "It's melted to a puddle and the puddle runs off into the street."
Action now
Goodell says the fate of the Thwaites Glacier isn't sealed, but for its damage to be stopped or slowed, change needs to happen now.
"Scientists say we still have a very, very narrow window of time to slow or stop this before it begins to happen," said Goodell.
"That's why cutting carbon emissions right now, today, tomorrow, this decade is so important."
If we don't, Goodell says the world we know will dramatically change, and cities that are on the coast will be threatened. He said cities should already be thinking about building walls, who needs to be relocated, and how the rise in sea level could affect fresh water drinking systems.
"You have to pass policy that basically gets us off fossil fuels as quickly as possible and understand that the benefits of clean energy are enormous," said Goodell.
"I think the message is getting through. It's just not happening fast enough. And the Thwaites [Glacier] is like a big flashing light saying move faster, move faster."
And Washam says it's not just about the Thwaites Glacier. It's also about looking ahead at other melts, and preventing those from melting before they get to the point that Thwaites is at today.
"Now is our chance to see that something's happening, and to react to it on the immediate scale, in hopes that on a decade-long to hundreds-of-years-long time scale, there might be a potential reversal to what we've seen," said Washam.
Written by Philip Drost. Produced by Lindsay Rempel.
