photo by Patrick Kelley, U.S. Coast Guard; U.S. Geological Survey (source: Flickr Creative Commons)

Arctic temperatures have risen twice as fast in recent decades as temps in the rest of the world. Melting sea ice – considered part of a positive feedback loop – as well as wind, cloud and ocean current changes have been suspected of driving this rapid warming, known as Arctic amplification.

A positive feedback loop is a system where the cause and effect perpetuate one another, like a vicious circle.

A new study shows that Arctic warming from melting sea ice may be driving a positive feedback loop between rising temperatures and disappearing ice.

From an article in the Guardian:

The concept of Arctic sea ice having a tipping point is still hotly debated. Our results cannot prove whether we have passed a tipping point or not. What we can say is that the emergence of these strong ice-temperature feedbacks can only increase the likelihood of further rapid warming and sea ice loss.

–James Screen, study leader, University of Melbourne, Australia

The global melting of floating ice is also a concern as it threatens to significantly raise sea levels. Floating ice has been disappearing at a steady rate over the last 10 years, according to a groundbreaking study. The loss of floating ice has totaled more than ice loss on land from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.

From a Reuters report:

‘It’s a large number,’ said Professor Andrew Shepherd of the University of Leeds, lead author of the paper, estimating the net loss of floating sea ice and ice shelves in the last decade at 7,420 cubic kilometers.

Ironically, some scientists believe that the hole in the ozone over Antarctica – created by mankind’s now-banned use of CFCs – has slowed warming temperatures and ice melt there. However as the ozone hole closes, Antarctic temperatures could increase an average of 3C, causing sea levels to rise by 1.4 meters.

Colin Summerhayes, executive director of SCAR – the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research – was quoted in a Guardian article back in November of last year regarding the dangers of Antarctic ice melt:

It contains 90% of the world’s ice, 70% of the world’s fresh water and that is enough, if it melts, to raise sea levels by 63m.

by Graham Land

Additional resources:

NASA – Sea Ice Yearly Minimum with Graph Overlay 1979-2008

Yale Environment 360 – The Copenhagen Diagnosis: Sobering Update on the Science

Image Source: Flickr. By: Peat Bakke.

About 6 weeks ago, a group of researchers set out on a mission: to prove that Japan does not need to perform “lethal whale research” in order to obtain accurate and effective scientific information about the large marine mammals.

The mission was a success.

Australian, French and New Zealand scientists set out to Antarctic waters to perform their own nonlethal scientific research on the whales. Most of the whales studied were humpbacks; which the scientists took photos of and biopsy samples from 60 of them. They also attached satellite tracking devices to 30 of the whales in order to study their feeding and migration patterns.

They discovered that the humpback whales are recovering fairly well, but the blue whale population is down nearly 2%. The researchers also encountered a lot of minke whales—the main whale that Japan typically hunts—but unfortunately, ice and weather conditions made it impossible for those particular whales to be studied.

All in all, the scientists mainly wanted to focus on whale numbers, what they eat, how they move between areas of food and how they migrate to and from their breeding grounds. Nick Gales, leader of the expedition, claimed that “all of those questions can be and are being answered using nonlethal techniques”. He also added that although Japan does some “marvelous” nonlethal research, “the component of their work that results in the killing of the whales” is not required by the IWC.

Full results from the nonlethal research expedition will be reported to the IWC at the annual meeting in Morocco this June.

By Heidi Marshall

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons. By: Jacques.verron.

More pieces of ice are floating around the world and those pieces are getting bigger every year.

The Luxembourg-sized B9B iceberg collided with the floating Mertz Glacier, resulting in another large piece of ice breaking off the glacier. How large is it? The new iceberg is approximately 48 miles (78 km) long and 24 miles (39 km) wide. Oh, and it holds 1/5^th of the world’s total yearly water usage.

The 2 icebergs are now drifting somewhere between 60 and 95 miles off the eastern side of Antarctica. While they are pretty large in size, they are not record-breaking in size. Speaking of breaking, it took 18 years for the B9B to break such a large chunk of ice off the glacier. Apparently, the B9B broke off another piece of Antarctica in 1987 and found its way to the Mertz Glacier. It’s been there ever since—well, at least until it finally broke that large chunk off it.

Researcher Benoit Legresy said the dislodging “was a slow process”. He also adds that the B9B was “sitting there, it must have been pushed and pulled by the current every day and used as a hammer to bang on the other one by the ocean currents”. He believes the ice finally broke off because of the iceberg’s location plus the warmer Antarctic summer water, which resulted in less sea ice.

Unfortunately, scientists have bigger problems to worry about than another floating piece of ice. Apparently, the area of water around the glacier was kept clear because of its importance to ocean currents. Now that part of the glacier has broken away, the cleared area could fill with sea ice. This would interfere with the water’s sinking ability and it’s this very kind of sinking water that supplies oxygen to the world’s ocean currents.

You may think, ‘well, the earth is covered with a lot of water, so this shouldn’t be a problem’, but it is. Even though a vast portion of this planet is under water, there are only a few places where this water sinking activity occurs. If one of their processes was slowed or stopped, it would mean less oxygen would be supplied to the deeper currents of the world.

To put things a bit more into perspective, chemical oceanographer, Mario Hoppema, stated:

“There may be regions of the world’s oceans that lose oxygen and then, of course, most of the life there will die.”

As for the pair of giant, migrating icebergs, scientists expect them to head west. However, they doubt you’ll see them as far north as Australia—at least not any time soon.

By Heidi Marshall

Last week it was reported that a group of researchers intended to investigate the Japanese whaling in the Antarctic seas. In particular, they wanted to see if the whales could be studied without killing them; which could be viewed as a challenge to Japan, since they claim they have to hunt and kill hundreds of whales per year, all for the sake of “scientific research”.

photo by gwoodford (image source: Flickr)

The researchers deployed from Wellington, New Zealand on Tuesday. Nearly 20 scientists from Australia, France and New Zealand are part of the 6 week expedition, where they will study the whales, their food, and how they interact with the environment. Captain Andrew Leachman, of the research vessel Tangaroa, expected the journey to the Ross Sea to take about seven and a half days. It is there that the scientists will begin their research and whale tracking.

Peter Garret, Australia’s Conservation Minister, explained that the research project (Southern Ocean Research Partnership) works to change the management of science within the IWC (International Whaling Commission). They are also making great efforts to end scientific whaling and develop global, cooperative whale conservation plans. Garrett also stated:

“It is the largest of its kind in the world that places a premium on scientific knowledge and says that we don’t have to kill whales to learn about them.”

Techniques the researchers intend to use on their 6 week voyage include: biopsy sampling via retrievable darts, photography, satellite tag tracking and more—none of which will cause any severe injury or death to the whales involved. Garret said he extended invitations to Japan and other countries to partake in the research. Quite a number of nations are already supporting the non-lethal research program, including: Australia, Brazil, Italy, Mexico, South Africa, and the United States.

You may have noticed that Japan is not on this list. The ICR (Institute of Cetacean Research) has no intention of taking part in a non-lethal research program. This would be the organization that the Japanese are currently doing their “scientific” whaling under, so it’s really no big surprise that they would refuse such a thing. ICR New Zealand spokesman, Glenn Inwood, claims:

“If you want to hunt whales … to eat them, then you are going to need data that can only be obtained through lethal research.”

A ridiculous statement, if I ever heard one. You don’t see people doing lethal research if they want to hunt a deer, fish for trout, or even catch other forms of sea life. Why should it be needed for whales? Granted, some have been found to contain levels of mercury and other such things. If that is a concern, maybe the whales shouldn’t be hunted at all or maybe people should take a harder look at what they’ve been dumping into the oceans, seas and other waterways all these years. Not to mention that the Japanese hunt and kill hundreds of whales in the Antarctic every year. Do they really need that many carcasses to obtain helpful scientific data? No. Inwood also claims that non-lethal whale research can’t provide age-related data or accurate data on individual whale birthing rates. And yet, scientists have been able to track individual whales and pods (or groups) of them for years, gaining a whole world of information on them, without using lethal methods.

Results from the expedition are to be presented at the IWC annual meeting in Morocco in June. Japan is expected to respond to the research once it is published.

By Heidi Marshall

Other Non-Lethal Whale Research Groups:
Center for Whale Research
Center for Cetacean Research and Conservation
The Foundation for the Center for Research of Whales
Whale Trust
Whale Acoustics

photo by Scootie (image source: Flickr)

Earlier this month, there was an incident involving the Ady Gil vessel (of the Sea Shepherd fleet) and the Shonan Maru No. 2 (which is with the Japanese whalers). To make a long explanation very short, the Shonan Maru No. 2 rammed the Ady Gil, causing irreparable damage to the vessel and now the Ady Gil is somewhere on the ocean floor. Both sides blame each other for the crash and some form of official intervention is needed.

Now that we are more or less up to speed on things, here is where the update on matters begins. Recently, the Steve Irwin had to dock in Western Australia to refuel. During their time in port, members of the Ady Gil crew met with New Zealand officials to discuss what happened. According to crew member, Laurens de Groot:

“I just came from the interview with the maritime safety authorities in New Zealand. They’re trying to get an objective view on the whole incident and they will come to their conclusions, but it’s pretty obvious to me who did this.” … “I think when you see the footage it kind of speaks for itself. The five of us were on top of the vessel. Our ship was idle; pretty much drifting. We were in no engagement whatsoever at that point. At that point they were absolutely the aggressor, trying to hit and overrun us. There’s no doubt in my head who did it.”

Questioning the crew is only one phase of the investigation. There may be a bit of good news for both the whales and the Sea Shepherd crew in the next phase. You see, commercial whaling was banned in 1986. However, the IWC (International Whaling Commission) allows the hunting of whales for scientific research. Right now, the Japanese are hunting whale in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. This area is supposed to be a protected place for whales and dolphins. Japan—who has been long known for their commercial whaling activities—is believed to be using the “scientific research” excuse as a cover-up for commercial whaling.

So, what exactly is this other phase I am talking about? Australia and New Zealand scientists are planning to head out on their own whale research expedition in the Antarctic. Their purpose is to disprove Japan’s argument that whales must be killed to be studied. The expedition is expected to take approximately 6 weeks. They will be initially setting out to the Ross Sea, located near Antarctica. Once there, the researchers will use darts to remove small amounts of tissue for biopsy sampling. They will also perform satellite tracking and acoustic surveys in order to collect data on whale movement, population genetics, and how the whales interact with the sea ice and ecosystem.

Nick Gates, chief scientist of the expedition and head of the Australian Antarctic Division’s Australian Marine Mammal Center explained that “you can always come up with some question that will require an animal to be killed for something or other, but the question is whether that is a critical issue for the management and conservation of whales”.

Tensions are definitely high between the Japanese, Sea Shepherd, and other parties involved with the situation. It still remains to be seen if any further actions will be taken or charges made. As for the expedition, whether or not it has positive results will most likely not change anyone’s feelings towards whaling. The Japanese will still try to find a way to continue whaling and fortunately, Sea Shepherd will still be there to stop them.

By Heidi Marshall

Image Source: Stock.Xchng

Ice. Oh, the many uses and happenings that involve ice. It keeps your drinks cold. It’s a pain to deal with in winter. It’s been known to put holes in ships and has quite the alarming melt factor as of late.

The biggest news happened down at Antarctica. Apparently, a chunk of ice bigger than the size of Rhode Island broke away from Antarctica and then shattered into even more pieces. If you don’t know your US states or geography, Rhode Island is the smallest state. Some people compare this to the size of Yosemite National Park.

The event was captured at the Ronne-Filchner Ice Shelf by NASA’s Aqua and Terra satellites. Read more…

By Heidi Marshall

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Two popular climate skeptic “facts” which are claimed to disprove anthropogenic global warming are:

1.  Surface ice melting on Antarctica is decreasing.

2.  Sea ice around Antarctica is increasing.

Despite what climate skeptics assert, neither of these arguments disprove global warming.  Actually, they highlight quite the contrary:  Antarctica is in fact losing mass (ice).  Even more, ice is melting and breaking away from the continent at an incredibly accelerating rate. 

This isn’t opinion, there is data to prove it.

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A recent article published by NASA thoroughly explains why these arguments are misleading.  The article also offers multiple streams of scientific data to show how alarming the rate of glacial retreat on Antarctica is.

Data from NASA’s Grace satellite shows that Antarctica is losing 100 cubic kilometers (24 cubic miles) of ice per year.  More alarming, still, is the increase in the rate of disintegration.  The article points out that ice can flow without melting, which illuminates how moot the skeptics’ first argument is, as well as clarifying the reason behind their second claim.

The majority of the melting of the Antarctic ice sheet is occurring in Western Antarctica.  Western Antarctica is a series of islands covered by ice, which NASA describes as a “frozen Hawai’i.”  According to data accumulated by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Western Antarctica’s largest ice stream, the Pine Island Glacier is retreating.  This year a British scientific group not only verified NASA’s data, but also showed that the retreat of the Pine Island Glacier quadrupled between 1995 and 2006.  If this glacier melts, scientists estimate it would raise sea levels by 1.6 to 2.3 feet.

A major reason for the accelerating retreat of Western Antarctica’s glaciers is the warming of the sea water surrounding Antarctica.  Warm water is highly problematic for ice shelves.  Ice shelves are the portion of a glacier that extends beyond land mass and out into the water.  As a result, their intrinsic icy structures are highly vulnerable to warm water–problem number one. 

Problem number two:  ice shelves act as a buffer wall which slows the flow of ice toward the water.  So, eliminating a glacier’s ice shelve is like removing the door from an over-stuffed closet–most of the contents spill out.  In the case of Western Antarctica this is a very scary prospect considering if the ice covering Western Antarctica melted, it would raise sea levels 16 to 23 feet.  Later this year, NASA will undertake an expedition to rigourously test if Antarctica’s warmer water is undermining its ice shelves.

But, don’t worry, “sea ice around Antarctica is growing,” exclaim climate skeptics.

Yes, because it is spilling forth from the mainland.

The growth of ice surrounding Antarctica reflects a scary global warming trend since it is a result of the Antarctic ice sheet losing mass.  And, as Isabella Velicogna of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of California, Irvine, says, “The important message is that it is not a linear trend. A linear trend means you have the same mass loss every year. The fact that it’s above linear, this is the important idea, that ice loss is increasing with time.”