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Friends of Gaia, in honor of Pakalolo, present news from our Polar Regions [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-01-23

Friends of Gaia, in honor of Pakalolo, present news from our Polar Regions

“We value empirical trash more and commit atrocities by consumer sociopathic preferencing.” >>>

Note: jamess has this brief but very informative update on Thwaites Glacier currently trending. I heartily recommend it. www.dailykos.com/…

…and this diary by Alan Kandel about the stark reality, that it’s now up to all of us as individuals to save Gaia in what’s left of her current state:

www.dailykos.com/… PLEASE both of these :-)

~~~

Although it might be wiser to hold off publishing this diary, as so many are focused on the current Olympics of shit dodging, such blinded bias is no longer permissible. Further deference of this kind constitutes participation in the out-dated sport of climate ‘can kicking’ — which, while still popular, becomes increasingly unaffordable as ‘game over’ looms.

~~~~~~~

And now without further ado, giving the news out of Washington a run for its money, let’s all jump into the icy waters of our unstable, geographically opposite, but otherwise conjoined ‘canaries’, singing more or less the same unheeded song.

~~~

The vast majority of mankind is abdicating the future through decision-making hijacked by greed. We are all more or less caught in a tangled web of desire and denial, which when mixed together create a bond stronger than epoxy. Few have the fortitude to break this, or perhaps more accurately, are ‘gifted’ with the curse of clarity, acting the whip, driving them to act.

Ironically, the pain of impending loss enslaves necessity to empower the will — providing motivation to jump the maze of apathetic complacency in which most wander aimlessly, navigated by false purpose.

Just as it is no longer within my power to give up, our overlords do not control their rapaciousness, which will continue unabated until the ‘temple’ comes crashing down around them.



The fossil fuel industry, corporations, the very wealthy and their political servants are locked in a frenzied dance which dictates their every action, while sustaining the illusion that they remain in control. They mistake their expansion of ‘fortune’ for omnipresence — but the environmental ‘Goliath’ approaching them won’t be brought down by the slingshot of denial.

Consequently, they are unable to stop or even moderate their behavior because it is the only way they know forward — hemmed in as it is by the tunnel they transverse through a mountain they are oblivious to. To compensate, their minds have become adept at dismissing a reality that they are already feeling the effects of and they turn disaster on its head to invert its consequences into opportunities.

The only survival that concerns them is their own, the substance of which is wealth and power, without which they would cease to exist. They care for no-one and nothing else.

Both sides of this ‘shitcoin’ of möbius-like self-indulgence, ‘masters’ and ‘slaves’ indulge in willful blindness, while the abdication of fundamental responsibilities has them chasing each other like lemmings as they rush toward the sea of ‘nihility’.

Indeed, environmental collapse is also providing opportunities — but of a reactive reductive kind. As one disaster follows another, their interconnectivity provides them the opportunity to foment and feast off the banquet of disruption and chaos they inflict on a collapsing world.

We have catalyzed the cataclysm.

Unfortunately, our polar regions are the maître d’s to this mayhem, and the news coming from north and south keeps closing in. Like Odysseus and his crew, we are in danger of being crushed.

~~~~~~~

Arctic news:

coolspring left this comment in the thread to MB’s recent diary Key architect of Project 2025 scheme to kneecap federal agencies could wreck next climate assessment

You could say he is at the ‘front-lines’ witnessing deeply troubling change first hand.

I’m presenting his account here just as he did posted it:

coolspring

“Yesterday, January 6, 2024 it was announced that the pipeline from the North Slope to Nikiski, Ak. is approved and pretty much funded for the LNG plant outside of Nikiski. About five miles from my house, yay/snark. When oil was discovered here, big oil destroyed the Democratic Party and Republican Party took over and started leading the oil patch people from the lower 48 around by the nose. The Democratic Party has had no interest or given any real funding to the Democratic Party in Ak. Through climate change the Cod, Salmon,polack, and king crab, snow crab dungy and shrimp fisheries are slowly destroyed.

The forests are being destroyed by beetle kill because winter is no longer cold enough to keep too many spruce bark beetle in check. Now the majority of beetles survive and thousands of acres of trees die. The wildfires are unbelievable each year, but no one hears about them because of lack of population.

The permafrost in the tundra, which is huge is thawing and releasing methane.

The next four years of Republican trumpshtagg is going to interesting and just because there is a amenmant that says eight years is enough for a sitting pres., that bunch is going to try to find a way to get trump another four years in 2028 to 2032. (my editing tweak)

Thank you, Meteor Blades”

~~~

A caring friend to all of us, sent these links to me on 12/15/24:

One of world's largest glacier floods triggered in Greenland

From the article:

“For the first time, scientists have observed the release of a massive glacial lake outburst in East Greenland, where more than 3,000 billion liters of meltwater were unleashed in just weeks. This rare, natural flooding event, witnessed by University of Copenhagen researchers, provides new insight into the immense and potentially hazardous forces that meltwater can unleash.”

Another example would be the effect that glacier runoff from the East Coast of Greenland is having on the Gulf Stream, which I have covered in a separate diary. www.dailykos.com/...

…and more:

“The outburst flood in East Greenland occurred because meltwater from Catalina Lake had been accumulating over the past twenty years. The lake is situated in a valley blocked by the massive Edward Bailey Glacier. As the lake filled, the water began to lift the glacier, carving a 25-kilometer-long tunnel beneath the ice, through which the water eventually burst into the world's largest fjord, Scoresby Sound.”

The article goes on to state that 15 million people worldwide are directly threatened by such events. This grossly understates what will actually amount to the total loss of humanity, if we don’t heed their warning.

This next link provides a variety of information on the current environmental state of the Arctic, and rather than attempt a synopsis, I recommend reading it to those who feel the time will be well spent:

The Arctic has seen worrying, rapid changes in just a couple of decades, 2024 report shows | PBS News

Provided by the same source with the same level of caring, comes this:

Wildfire Emissions Offset More Permafrost Ecosystem Carbon Sink in the 21st Century - Zhu - 2024 - Earth's Future - Wiley Online Library

While coolspring offers this related link:

https://www.sciencealert.com/arctic-tundra-now-a-carbon-source-2024-report-shows-stark-changes-in-just-decades carbon from tundra / science alert 12/12/24

From coolspring as well comes this Arctic news, sent to me on 12/27/24:

“As I have repeatedly stressed the changes in the climate on the Kenai Peninsula, I have found a rarely mentioned article of ocean warming causing the death of half the common Murre (which have) died recently because of heat. The Common Murre makes up 25% of (all )seabirds in the world”. https://www.yahoo.com/news/record-heat-wave-killed-half-153746127.html

@

CNN

This event should concern us all to the same degree that the collapse of Thwaites Glacier does, for while it harbingers collapse of a different kind, it is no less terrifying.

… as does this link he provided as well, of yet another ‘collapse’ joining the us at the craps table:

https://www.sciencealert.com/first-ice-free-day-in-arctic-ocean-could-arrive-this-decade-study-finds 12/5/24 ice free arctic ocean coming soon

…meanwhile, sawing through the leg of that table, is this Alaskan ‘buzz’:

Alaska's Juneau Icefield Is Melting at an 'Incredibly Worrying' 50,000 Gallons per Second, Researchers Find | Smithsonian (smithsonianmag.com)

~~~~~

Antartica news:

Irontortoise 12/4/24 offered us this Antarctica information in a comment he left to my previous Polar diary: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/12/3/2289925/-To-honor-Pakalolo-Friends-of-Gaia-present-News-from-our-Polar-Regions?utm_campaign=recent#comment_90257138

I provide it here verbatim”

“Not sure how many people here have been following the saga of A23a, reputed to be one of the largest icebergs ever spawned by Antarctica, but the Irish Star has an interesting writeup on its history and current trajectory:

The iceberg - different than the one that hit a Carnival Cruise - first broke away from the Filchner Ice Shelf in Antarctica's southern Weddell Sea in 1986, but it quickly became lodged in the sea bed sediment - similar to the 'ghost forests' - held in place by a 350-metre-deep ice keel anchor.

It remained there for over three decades. By 2020, it had melted enough to re-float and continue its journey…

However, scientists are currently unsure of where A23a will end up. Satellite measurements have shown that the iceberg has an average thickness of just over 900 ft and weighs just under a trillion tonnes, making it twice the size of Greater London.”

@

Antarctic Iceberg A23a

After freeing itself from the Weddell Sea, A23a moved slowly at first before being swept north by currents and winds towards warmer climates. It is now following a route known as "Iceberg Alley", which leads to the British overseas territory of South Georgia.

The BBC has described it as on a "path of destruction" , as the iceberg will break apart and dissolve. The decay is already visible in satellite images and close-up photographs from ships nearby, reports the Express US.

@

Path of A23a

Daily, massive pieces break away into the ocean, some as large as football fields, others as big as trucks. A post by British Antarctic Survey shows its journey.

In December 2023, the iceberg reached the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, meeting a mix of swift water currents circling the continent clockwise. At this juncture, its future path was unpredictable due to prevailing westerly winds.

By April, the iceberg was seen near the 60th Parallel, not far from the South Orkney Islands, roughly 430 miles northeast of the Antarctic Peninsula's tip. Many scientists anticipated that it would continue into warmer waters, where it would disintegrate and melt.

Yet, come August, it was discovered that A23a had been spinning in place for months instead of flowing with the planet's strongest ocean current. Researchers think it's caught atop a vast swirling body of water known as a Taylor Column, potentially trapping it for years.

"Usually you think of icebergs as being transient things; they fragment and melt away. But not this one," noted polar expert Prof Mark Brandon.

"A23a is the iceberg that just refuses to die," an Open University researcher remarked to BBC News. Scientists are now keeping a close eye on the iceberg's next moves.”

~~~~~

Next I offer as a boon to dismay, this story from the North Sea regarding the cost to the environment of world conflicts — a topic rarely covered in War reporting, either here or elsewhere, I might add.

https://phys.org/news/2025-01-destroyed-nord-stream-pipelines-methane.html

… and as a savory condiment:

https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/antarctica/warm-water-from-deep-sea-flowing-towards-one-of-antarcticas-largest-ice-shelves

(…yet another threatened Antarctica glacier.)

Finally — something a bit more positive from DK GNR Newsroom 12/30/24

https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=739&v=-yEj9JVRhjA&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailykos.com%2F&source_ve_path=MjM4NTE

(News regarding the melting of the underside of Thwaites.)

…and this marvel and lesson to all who still dont accept the power of individuals to wrought change:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=w4FB9Omjn94 northern Canadian beaver dam can be seen from space.

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