Focusing on Arctic Sea Ice Loss Is Important, But Doing It Isn’t a Walk in the Park
As shown here, as time passes, global warming means successively less sea ice in the Arctic.
Since this ice is (was) floating, its melting makes no change in the sea level, unlike when even a far tinier amount melts off of a land mass like Greenland or the Antarctic. So what’s the big deal? Consider the following six items:
• Lowering the Earth’s albedo, meaning its capacity to reflect the incoming radiant energy from the sun back into space, rather than having it absorbed into the Earth’s oceans and atmosphere, further accelerating the warming process.
• Releasing methane, a greenhouse gas far more powerful than CO2, that had been trapped beneath the Earth’s surface for millions of years.
• Releasing pathogens with which human beings have had no experience, and thus could not possibly have specific immunity to.
• Increasing the content of water vapor in the atmosphere, which is itself a very powerful greenhouse gas.
• Warming rivers as snow cover disappears and the region absorbs more heat, causing dramatic change to the surrounding ecosphere.
• Loss of biodiversity, the most famous and touching example of which is probably the polar bear.
Unfortunately, we live in a world of distractions. I’m not anxious to make excuses for our ignoring our horrific environmental challenges, but consider the events of the last week or so, where we’ve learned to our horror that:
• Russians are paying the Taliban to kill American soldiers.
• The U.S. pandemic response is a miserable failure by any standards, and our schools may be reopening in an extremely unsafe environment for students, teachers, and anyone else connected with them.
• The U.S. military is using tear gas and wooden batons to attack our citizens who are peacefully exercising their rights under the Constitution.
• Jeffrey Epstein’s right-hand person seems poised to expose some of the world’s most powerful people, including the U.S. president. We’re not talking about sexual indiscretion here, either; we’re talking about rape.
• Relations between the U.S. and China seem to be breaking down, which have huge economic and military consequences.
• Russia’s interfering with the 2020 election is becoming more obvious.
• Trump’s poll numbers continue to slip, now falling off a cliff, pushing a deranged man with nuclear weapons at his command ever closer to the prospect of an election defeat and the criminal prosecution that is almost certain to ensue.
Maintaining focus on preventing long-term environmental damage is critically important, but it’s not a piece of cake.
