''Imminent'' Collapse of the Antarctic Ice Shelf and a ''New Era'' in the Arctic

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''Imminent'' Collapse of the Antarctic Ice Shelf and a ''New Era'' in the Arctic

Monday, 01 June 2015 00:00
By Dahr Jamail, Truthout | Report


Recently, two friends and I attempted to climb Washington State's beautiful, glacier-clad Mount Baker. Roped up while climbing up a glacier, roughly 1,500 feet below the summit, our route reached an impasse.

Given that it was technically early in the climbing season, and that we were on the standard route, we were dismayed to find a snow bridge spanning a 10-foot wide crevasse about to collapse. Finding no other way around the gaping void, we agreed to turn back and return another day.

After breaking down our camp and hiking out, we stopped off for a bite to eat in the nearby small town of Glacier, Washington. Our waitress told us of a friend of hers who worked in the Forest Service there, who told her that the area had, in the past year, "received the least amount of precipitation (that) it had for over 100 years."

While planning our next trip to Mount Baker, one of my climbing partners spoke with a local guide who informed him that, despite the fact that it was only mid-May, "climbing conditions are already equivalent to what they usually are in mid- to late July ... crevasses are opening up, and snow bridges are already melting out like it's late season."

.....(snip).....

Changes in the Arctic Ocean have now become so profound that the region is entering what Norwegian scientists are calling "a new era." They warn of "far-reaching implications" due to the switch from a permanent cover of thick ice to a new state in which thinner ice vanishes in the summer. ..................(more)

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/31089-imminent-collapse-of-the-antarctic-ice-shelf-and-a-new-era-in-the-arctic