BBC: Antarctica loses three trillion tonnes of ice in 25 years
13 June 2018
Satellites monitoring the state of the White Continent indicate some 200 billion tonnes a year are now being lost to the ocean as a result of melting.
This is pushing up global sea levels by 0.6mm annually – a three-fold increase since 2012 when the last such assessment was undertaken.
Scientists report the new numbers in the journal Nature.
Governments will need to take account of the information and its accelerating trend as they plan future defences to protect low-lying coastal communities.
The researchers say the losses are occurring predominantly in the West of the continent, where warm waters are getting under and melting the fronts of glaciers that terminate in the ocean.
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Space agencies have been flying satellites over Antarctica since the early 1990s. Europe, in particular, has an unbroken observation record going back to 1992.
These spacecraft can tell how much ice is present by measuring changes in the height of the ice sheet and the speed at which it moves towards the sea. Specific missions also have the ability to weigh the ice sheet by sensing changes in the pull of gravity as they pass overhead.
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In total, Antarctica has shed some 2.7 trillion tonnes of ice since 1992, corresponding to an increase in global sea level of more than 7.5mm.
[…]
“At the moment, we have projections going through to 2100, which is sort of on a lifetime of what we can envisage, and actually the sea-level rise we will see is 50/60cm,” said Dr Whitehouse. “And that is not only going to impact people who live close to the coast, but actually when we have storms – the repeat time of major storms and flooding events is going to be exacerbated,” she told BBC News.
Archive
The Many Mendacities of Mr Bridges – National’s fair-weather “commitment” to a Climate Change Commission
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Current National Party Leader, Simon Bridges has been making ‘noises’ about his Party’s new-found revelation that climate change is a major environmental issue…
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from: Frank Macskasy <fmacskasy@gmail.com>
to: Dominion Post <letters@dompost.co.nz>
date: 24 June 2018
subject: Letter to the editor.
The editor
Dominion Post.
National leader Simon Bridges recently announced that his Party would “sign up” to a Climate Change Commission. However, his so-called commitment contained so many caveats as to make it meaningless.
On TVNZ’s Q+A, he said;
“But he can’t even say what exactly that means. My point to you, let me give it straight on, my point to you really is this – there is a difference in politics, there still is today. And it is around, on our side, us thinking we need to be practical, have sensible environmental solutions. We don’t want to see the disruptive damage to the economy quickly.
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And we don’t want to see real costs imposed on hard-working Kiwi households overnight.”
A day later on Radio NZ’s Morning Report, Bridges repeated the same carefully-rehearsed speech;
“You want to be considering not only the environmental impacts but the economic impacts.”
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We’re going to be practical, sensible, and solutions-oriented. We’re not going to veer to the extremes that mean really dramatic effects on our economy and huge costs on household, that disrupt quite quickly.”
Despite acknowledging that “Climate change is real”, he refused to commit to a Commission’s findings.
Mr Bridges has a long way to go.
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Frank Macskasy
[Address and phone number supplied]
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As if to underscore Mr Bridges’ double-think on this grave crisis confronting our civilisation;
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from: Frank Macskasy <fmacskasy@gmail.com>
to: NZ Herald <letters@herald.co.nz>
date: 24 June 2018
subject: Letter to the editor.
The Editor
NZ Herald.
How can current National Party leader, Simon Bridges, expect to be taken seriously on his so-called ‘signing up’ to a Climate Change Commission when;
(1) He will not undertake any meaningful change to reduce greenhouse gas emissions if it may “harm our economy” or “drive up costs” – both propositions being examples of hyperbolic fear-mongering to do nothing meaningful. (Or as little as possible.)
(2) He refused to undertake to commit to any findings from a proposed Commission despite acknowledging that “climate change is real” and solutions should “be science based”. If he doesn’t commit to science based solutions, what will he commit to?
(3) On 12 April, National launched a petition to “Stop this Ardern-Peters Govt from banning oil and gas exploration”. Two months later, Bridges was ascending the moral highground demanding that “National wants to take the politics out of climate change and work with other parties to create an independent climate change commission. Climate change is a major environmental issue”.
Interviewed on Radio NZ and TVNZ’s Q+A, Mr Bridges’s qualified his “commitment” to a Climate Change Commission with so many caveats, “ifs”, buts”, and “maybe in the future”, as to expose his supposed Road to Damascus conversion as politically expedient vote chasing.
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Frank Macskasy
[Address and phone number supplied]
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As an example of That was Then, This is now, nothing better illustrates National’s duplicity than their two recent posts of Twitter.
Then…
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Now…
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So much for “National want[ing] to take the politics out of climate change”.
Some things do not seem to have changed much from May 2005, when a certain Member of Parliament dismissed climate change as a hoax;
“This is a complete and utter hoax, if I may say so. The impact of the Kyoto Protocol, even if one believes in global warming—and I am somewhat suspicious of it—is that we will see billions and billions of dollars poured into fixing something that we are not even sure is a problem. Even if it is a problem, it will be delayed for about 6 years. Then it will hit the world in 2096 instead of 2102, or something like that. It will not work.” – John Key, Debating Chamber, Parliament, 10 May 2005
Hat-tip: MickySavage, The Standard
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Green Party leader, James Shaw, took a more charitable view of Mr Bridges’ sudden change-of-heart;
“I think it is a genuine offer. National as the so-called party of business has been hearing from particularly the corporate end of town who have been saying that there really has to be a stable policy environment that has to survive multiple changes of Government.
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I think it is pretty unreasonable to ask them to support a piece of legislation that they haven’t seen yet and I think that engaging them in the process of drafting increases the chances that they will eventually vote for it.”
National may vote for it – but will they honour and abide by findings and recommendations from a Climate Change Commission? Especially when in 2012, National scrapped a crucial five-yearly State of the Environment Report.
Broken promises have also played a significant part in National’s climate change policies. In May 2007, John Key promised to bring farmers into the Emissions Trading Scheme;
“National will bring all Kiwis – industry, energy producers, farmers, mums and dads – closer to a shared and well-understood goal. We need to be united in our pursuit of a ’50 by 50′ target”
By 2012, National had reneged, passing legislation exempting agriculture indefinitely from the ETS.
It is unclear why anyone would believe National’s concession to a Climate Change Commission when their track record has been one of broken promises, back-tracking, prevaricating, and conflicting statements on addressing emissions.
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Meanwhile, Nature waits for no Man, Woman, or out-of-touch political careerists. For the last quarter of a century, an increase in greenhouse gas emissions and rising temperatures have quietly wrought it’s damage;
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For those with an aptitude for science, the raw date can be found on the Nature website. As well as orbiting satellite sensors, the Argo Ocean probes continue to feed continuous data on temperature, salinity, and velocity of the upper ocean. Real-time data is collected and made publicly available soon after collection.
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New Zealand’s own NIWA has been part of the Argo Project since the early 2000s. Dedicated crew and scientists from New Zealand’s research vessels Tangaroa and Kaharoa placed over a thousand Argo Floats between 2004 and 2011.
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(Images courtesy of NIWA)
From space; to the planet’s surface; and undersea, sensitive instruments are revealing a grim picture of humanity’s impact on the environment and on our climate.
It is against this backdrop that Simon Bridges is playing silly-buggers with the greatest existential threat to humanity since the Americans and Soviets confronted each other during the Cold War.
Small-minded politicians can play their games to win elections.
But it will be at our expense.
Addendum
A recent survey by Horizon Polling has revealed that the majority of respondents “support all parties in Parliament agreeing on plans to act on climate change”;
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Cross-Party support for action on climate gas emissions showed a majority in favour;
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- 41% of National voters support an all-party approach (31% are neutral, 21% oppose)
- 67% of Labour voters support, 17% are neutral, 6% oppose
- 93% of Green voters support, 3% are neutral and none oppose
- 47% of NZ First voters support, 30% are neutral and 21% oppose
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Simon Bridges’ luke-warm ‘support’ for a Climate Change Commission threatens to make him more irrelevant than he is already. At this rate he will have to run to catch up with the rest of the country.
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References
Radio NZ: Nats change tune on commission for climate change
Scoop media: Q+A – Simon Bridges interviewed by Corin Dann (transcipt)
Scoop media: Q+A – Simon Bridges interviewed by Corin Dann (video)
Radio NZ: Morning Report – Bridges offers to work with govt on tackling climate change
Twitter: National – Sign our Petition
Twitter: Simon Bridges – Climate Change Commission
Parliament: Climate Change Response Amendment Bill – First Reading
NZ Herald: Climate change minister James Shaw welcomes ‘genuine’ approach from Simon Bridges
NZ Herald: National scraps crucial environmental report
Scoop media: John Key Speech – Climate Change Target
Radio NZ: Farmers’ ETS exemption progresses
BBC: Antarctica loses three trillion tonnes of ice in 25 years
Nature: Mass balance of the Antarctic Ice Sheet from 1992 to 2017
Argo: What is Argo?
Argo: Argo Floats
NIWA: Argo Floats
Horizon Polling: Majority support all-party action on climate change
Additional
Fairfax media: Simon Bridges blows hot air into climate change debate
Parliament: Climate Change Response Amendment Bill – First Reading – John Key
Radio NZ: ‘The science is clear – climate change is real’ – National
Other Blogposts
No Right Turn: Climate Change: National’s forked tongue
The Daily Blog: National proclaiming they want to find climate change solutions is like the Tobacco industry proclaiming they want to find solutions to cancer
The Standard: Does National really want climate change to be a bipartisan issue?
Previous related blogposts
The many mendacities of Mr Bridges – a few volts short of an EV
Simon burns his Teal Coalition Bridges
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This blogpost was first published on The Daily Blog on 28 June 2018.
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“There’s always an issue of money but we can find money for the right projects” – John Key
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There are two issues involved with the above story.
Firstly…
The Government spends $26 million on climate research every year. The Prime Minister says that will increase.
“There’s always an issue of money but we can find money for the right projects.”
Climate research is a fine endeavour, and this blogger has no problem with that.
What this blogger has a real problem with is when National’s quango’s come up with nasty suggestions like this,
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Or, National point-blank refuses to fund life-saving medication in instances like this,
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There seems to be a multitude of “worthy causes” for National in invest our tax dollars in; subsidies for film makers such as Warner Bros; subsidies for the rugby world cup; loans for media companies (which they initially lied about); grants to businesses; advisors; consultants; staff bonuses; MPs travel expenses, and of course, salary rises for members of Parliament.
But when it comes to grommet operations for our children and medication for sick New Zealanders, the response is not quite as generous, as Tony Ryall ‘explained’ to me on 22 November last year,
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And then explained on 5 December, explained how he had pulled a neat little trick to fund National’s promised extension for Herception treatment, outside of PHARMAC rules,
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(Note: in all fairness, Tony Ryall is perhaps the only Minister who has the balls to actually respond to my queries. The rest are either evasive, or like Bill English do not reply at all.)
Secondly…
In the above article at the top, TV3 reporter, Samantha Hayes, wrote,
It’s that variability New Zealand scientists want to investigate, using funds from a joint public and private venture – the newly formed Antarctic Research Institute.
See: Key faces questions over extra Antarctica funding
Pardon?
Why is the Antarctic Research Institute a “joint public and private venture”?
What does the private sector hope to gain from research by the Antarctic Research Institute?
On 21 August 2012, the NZ Herald reported,
The New Zealand Antarctic Research Institute was launched by Prime Minister John Key last night at Premier House.
It will operate as a public-private partnership.
The institute will be closely aligned to the crown entity Antarctic New Zealand and its chairman, Rob Fenwick, will chair the institute as well.
See: $5.3m gift sets up Antarctic research unit
About Mr Fenwick,
Rob Fenwick is an experienced businessman and company director with interests closely aligned to promoting sustainable development. He has had a long association with Antarctica: for nine years until 2007 he was a director and later chairman of Landcare Research, one of several CRIs involved in Antarctic research, and is a former chairman of the Antarctic Heritage Trust. In 2005 the New Zealand Geographic Society named the Fenwick Ice Piedmont in the Ross Sea for his work in Antarctica.
He is a co-founder and director of Living Earth Ltd, New Zealand’s principal organic waste management business and is active in policy development around waste minimisation and climate change, and has been a member of several Government working groups in these areas. He is a special advisor to the Department of Conservation and was conferred with the degree of Doctor of Natural Resources, honoris causa, by Lincoln University this year.
See: antarcticanz.govt.nz/rob-fenwick
The Herald article goes on,
The institute’s director will be Professor Gary Wilson of Otago University, who said the goal was to strengthen Antarctic research capacity in New Zealand through international collaboration on research projects.
“Antarctica and the Southern Ocean hold the solutions to many of the key questions scientists and policymakers need to answer in order to manage the threats of climate change and global resource depletion.”
“Global resource depletion”…
One has to wonder what was so important that our Dear Leader, John Key, had to make the eight hour long flight – after collapsing at a Christchurch restaurant?! Surely not to return three bottles of whiskey to Shackleton’s hut??
Why is the private sector involved in a joint public and private venture with the newly formed Antarctic Research Institute? PPPs are usually formed where there is the potential for profit by the private investor.
Or is it that Gareth Morgan has a point when he sez on his blog,
Taking care of Antarctica requires a constant diplomatic effort. John Key’s visit may look like the usual smile and wave routine, but the symbolism is much stronger. His presence is simultaneously reasserting our claim, bolstering our position at the negotiation table, and recognising the wonderful contribution the Scott Base installation has made for so long. Declaring to the world that Antarctica is important to us and we want it managed well is central to Mr Key’s visit. New Zealand has a long history of leadership in Antarctica.
See: Key Antarctica trip more than waving at penguins
Methinks there is more to this story than we’ve been told.
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Other blogs
Gareth Morgan: Key Antarctica trip more than waving at penguins
References
Previous related blogposts
Children’s Health: not a high priority for Health Minister Tony Ryall
Health Minister circumvents law to fulfill 2008 election bribe?
Terminal disease sufferer appeals to John Key – Update & more questions
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