For decades now we’ve read reports about Antarctica’s ice sheets melting. What’s the big deal? It’s way down there at the bottom of the world, home mostly to penguins. How could this possibly affect my leisurely life in middle America?
According to a Feb. 24 article in The Guardian, scientists say the last 3 years have had the lowest level of sea ice since 1979 when records began to be kept. That’s not even counting the land ice. Yes, Antarctica is land, unlike the northern pole, the Arctic Ocean, which is all water and also melting. Antarctica is about 5.5 million square miles — bigger than the contiguous 48 United States. It’s covered by ice that is over a mile thick on average. The ice on and around Antarctica comprises about 61% of the Earth’s fresh water.
Climatologists’ theories vary wildly about how high our planet’s sea level will rise if and when Antarctica melts. A common computer model projects it will be at least 10 feet higher than it is now, but it could be much more. Even a 10 foot rise is plenty to drown many coastal cities all over the world. Beach hotels will become fish bowls. New York City’s Wall Street will go under, but the stock market goes down sometimes anyway. The main thing is Kansas will be safe, so no big whoop.
Well, if it’s such a terrible scary problem, maybe we could try some radical approaches. We could stop burning coal to power our homes and gasoline to run our cars. That pollution warms the world and poisons the air as well. Instead, we could use the limitless energy of that big yellow ball of fire in the sky. How about letting the wind turn some turbines and blow our troubles away? Ocean waves could provide power, if we’re bold enough to use them. And all these alternatives will soon benefit from the coming tremendous improvements in battery technology to store the energy for when it’s dark or not breezy.
On March 27, The Economist, not exactly an ecological outlet, called Antarctica the Earth’s largest refrigerator, whose collapsing ice shelves, made more fragile from below by warming waters and jostled by turbulent seas, have hurried things along. Ya think maybe this problem is bad for bizness?
Simple and sustainable solutions are available if we, as a species, care to connect them. Let’s take a hint from a great old Beatles song – “Here Comes The Sun.” And also an old Bob Dylan song is apt – “The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind. The answer is blowin’ in the wind.”
Frank Lingo, based in Lawrence, Kansas, is a former columnist for the Kansas City Star and author of the novel “Earth Vote.” Email: lingofrank@gmail.com. See his website: Greenbeat.world
From The Progressive Populist, July 1-15, 2024
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