Surprising to scientists at the European agency and other research centers is the fact that the break-up is occurring in the Antarctic winter. One news headline read: “Even the Antarctic Winter Cannot Protect Wilkins Ice.” In addition, these first-ever recorded winter break-ups are different from earlier events this year. Ted Scambos of the National Snow and Ice Data Center noted that the pieces are moving out as large bergs and not as a divided mixture of ice.

 Recording a break-up during the dark Antarctic winter is possible because of an observation spacecraft called Envisat. It is the largest earth observation spacecraft ever built and carries optical and radar instruments to provide continuous observation and monitoring of land, atmosphere, oceans and ice caps. It can produce high-quality images even through clouds and darkness.

Scambos also points out that warm water may be reaching the underside of the Wilkins shelf and thinning it. Another researcher studying the images acquired by the observation spacecraft says the scientific community was “too conservative when it predicted the Wilkins Ice Shelf would be lost within 30 years. It is going more quickly.”

Wilkins Ice Shelf, a broad plate of floating ice on the Antarctic Peninsula, is connected to Charcot and Latady Islands. It began retreating in the 1990s with large sections breaking off rather than the calving ordinarily associated with glaciers. Now the ice sheet is being monitored daily.

The crater of the Okmok Volcano is about six miles wide and 1,600 feet deep. Seismologists maintain several monitoring stations on the crater, which last erupted in 1997 and was active for eight months. More than a dozen volcanic cones are contained in the crater, which was formed about 2,000 years ago Okmok is highly active, with about 16 eruptions occurring every 10 to 20 years since 1805. .

 The initial ash and gas cloud of the current eruption reached 50,000 feet above sea level and is drifting south over the North Pacific. It caused cancellations of some air travel.

In an Associated Press story, the rancher gives a firsthand account of being up-close when a volcano erupts. He, his family, and ranch workers were rescued by a fishing vessel. He describes a sound like huge rocks rolling and an ash cloud that shut out the daylight. A small Aleut village with about 40 people is located on the other side of Umnak Island and out of the southeasterly path of the ash cloud.

 You can keep up to date on Okmok activity at http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/Okmok.php with satellite pictures of the ash cloud and links to images of the volcano dating back to the 1940s.

Cortada made a similar art trek to the South Pole in January 2007 as a recipient of an Antarctic Artists and Writers Program residency from the National Science Foundation. There he used sea ice, glacier and sediment samples provided to him by scientists working in Antarctica to paint on paper. He also did a mixed media portrait of Sir Ernest Shackleton, which is on permanent exhibit in the U.S. Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.  For the Antarctica installation, Cortada planted 51 colored flags 10 meters apart, marking where the South Pole stood during each of the past 50 years, and placed 24 shoes in a circle around the Pole, each serving as a proxy for a person affected by global climate change. He also planted 24 flags around the South Pole to warn of the threat to Earth’s biodiversity. Using melted sea ice and acrylic paint, he wrote the scientific name of an endangered species on each flag, as well as the longitude of the habitat in which it struggles for survival. At the North Pole, Cortada will again do a series of paintings using melting ice. His installation will be a green flag to encourage the reforestation of native trees in the world.

The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, will host an exhibit of art related to the polar regions from June 28, 2008, through June 7, 2009. Cortada’s paintings and the works of 30 other North American artists, including Native Americans and Canadian Inuit, are presented in four thematic sections: ice, landscape, wildlife, and human interactions.

It is now generally agreed that Hansen’s presentation to the committee alerted other scientists, policymakers, and the general public to the reality of changes in global climate and the role humans played in it.

In June 2008, Hansen returned to Capitol Hill to testify to a House committee and also appeared at the National Press Club, two of several occasions commemorating the 20th anniversary of his first warning. Hansen was then and continues to serve as the director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and adjunct professor of earth and environmental sciences at Columbia University.

Time and the need for action were again emphasized, but the sense of urgency was greater. Hansen told lawmakers and journalists: “The difference is that now we have used up all slack in the schedule for actions needed to defuse the global warming time bomb. The next President and Congress must define a course next year in which the United States exerts leadership commensurate with our responsibility for the present dangerous situation.”

Using the analogy of a “perfect storm,“ Hansen listed warming events now pushing us toward the tipping point: “Climate can reach points such that amplifying feedbacks spur large rapid changes. Arctic sea ice is a current example. Global warming initiated sea ice melt, exposing darker ocean that absorbs more sunlight, melting more ice. As a result, without any additional greenhouse gases, the Arctic soon will be ice-free in the summer…West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are vulnerable to even small additional warming. These two-mile-thick behemoths respond slowly at first, but if disintegration gets well underway it will become unstoppable.”

He predicted hat the disintegration of the ice sheets will raise sea levels six feet in this century, creating hundreds of millions of refuges as well as unstable shore lines far into the future.

Noting the many other dire consequences of unchecked greenhouse gas emissions—extinction of species, expansion of subtropical climate zones, shortage of fresh water—Hansen said we have already gone too far, adding “We must draw down atmospheric carbon dioxide to preserve the planet we know.”

He referred to a paper he has written with climate experts that puts the safe level of atmospheric carbon dioxide at no more than 350 parts per million (ppm). Already the amount is 385 ppm and rising by 2 ppm per year.

With no time to waste, Hansen urges us to phase out of coal use except where the carbon is captured and stored below ground. Because we are running out of oil used in vehicles and eventually must find other sources, Hansen tells us to move promptly to carbon-free energy.

Putting little hope in politicians or CEOs of fossil-energy companies to lead, Hansen says citizens must demand a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants. “We must block fossil fuel interests who aim to squeeze every last drop of oil from public lands, off-shore, and wilderness areas. Those last drops are no solution. They yield continued exorbitant profits for a short-sighted self-serving industry, but no alleviation of our addiction or long-term energy source.”

Using greenhouse gas emissions from China and India as excuses for doing nothing to cut emissions in the United States is dismissed as demagoguery by Hansen. He points out that we have produced most of the excess carbon in the air today. Other countries will follow because they too have much to lose from climate change.

Since the scientist’s first warning about greenhouse gases, little has been done to cut emissions in the United States although climate change has become a “global cause,” according to an article in the Washington Post on the day of Hansen’s testimony, June 23, 2008. The paper reported: “In the two decades since Hansen’s testimony, Congress has not passed any law mandating major cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions. In that interval, 21 new coal-fired generating units have been built at power plants around the United States. The country’s total emissions of carbon dioxide have climbed by about 18 percent, according to the latest statistics.”

 The NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which Hansen heads, is a laboratory of the Earth Sciences Division of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and a unit of the Columbia University Earth Institute. Research at GISS emphasizes a broad study of global climate change.

 In his statement, National Intelligence Council Chairman Thomas Fingar said, “We judge climate change will have wide-ranging implications for U.S. national security interests over the next 20 years,” including security concerns arising from humanitarian crises overseas and stress on weak governments. The chairman explained that the security analysts used the findings of many climate research groups to prepare their report but did not evaluate the science of climate change.  

After detailing how regions around the globe might be affected, Fingar concluded that “most developed nations and countries with rapidly emerging economies are likely to fare better than those in the poorer, developing world, largely because of a greater coping capacity.” Among the events the United States might have to cope with, according to Fingar’s statement to the committee, are: “thawing in and around Alaska, water shortages in the Southwest, and storm surges on the East and Gulf Coasts . . . . wildfires throughout the longer summer…. and two dozen nuclear facilities and numerous refineries along U.S. coastlines are at risk and may be severely impacted by storms.”

 In other remarks at the hearing, Kent Hughes Butts, with the Army War College. saw hope for more cooperation as the world powers see their common interests in maintaining stability in unstable regions. But, he also noted the dangers in regions ravaged by the consequences of global warming:  “Scarcities of resources, lack of safe water, reduced agricultural capacity; widespread disease and poverty create underlying conditions that terrorists seek to exploit.” The House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming was formed to increase the visibility and priority given to America’s oil dependence and global warming challenges. It is chaired by Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-MA).

In this spirit, we’d like to share with you a new type of reflection: a digital story. If you aren’t familiar with the term, a digital story is a short movie comprised of narration, images, and a soundtrack. This particular story was the result of a three-day intensive workshop at Ohio State University’s Digital Union. In the story, Jessica Fries-Gaither describes her own journey to a better understanding of the regions and why we should all brave this “wilderness.”

If you are unable to view the embedded video below, you can also view it directly on YouTube or Teacher Tube.

Digital stories are a new medium for us and one that we hope to utilize in the future! As always, your comments and suggestions are much appreciated.

From their tents on the ice sheet, the investigators and the media team will send daily dispatches and photo essays to the Polar Discovery web site. Scientists and journalists use satellite phones and computers powered by solar energy to share their findings and experiences. About half way into the expedition, they will hold live talks with audiences at eight major science museums across the United States.

Museums that have scheduled live talks include the Field Museum in Chicago, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Maryland, Boston Museum of Science, Pittsburg’s Carnegie Museum, Houston Museum of Science, and Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Most are open to the general public with a few held for students. Each presentation will feature a knowledgeable moderator – often a scientist – who will present a short summary about the research before the live question-and-answer session. The Live Talk schedule at the WHOI web site gives dates, times, and locations within the institutions.

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In this issue:

Read about current news from polar researchers.

Read how a surprising discovery led to a better understanding of Earth’s climate 5,000 years ago.

Of course, there’s much more to explore. Check out Issue 4 of Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears today!

To help viewers create their 1- to 3-minute videos, ABC staff will provide scenarios based on predictions of conditions in different parts of the world in the years 2015, 2050, 2070, and 2100. Find instructions for participating in Earth 2100 at http://earth2100.tv/game.

Some experts say that if we continue on the current path to 2015, it may be impossible to avert climate change that cannot be managed. ABC says the story viewers tell for the year 2015 will dictate the scenario the producers create for the year 2050 and the following two dates.