‘Oh my God, what is that?’: how the maelstrom under Greenland’s glaciers could slow future sea level rise | Glaciers | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/sep/06/how-the-maelstrom-under-greenlands-glaciers-could-slow-future-sea-level-rise

current models do not take account of a big possible factor: the huge mounds of ground rock that some glaciers pile up in front of them, blocking their paths and insulating them from ever hotter oceans. These could function as “speed bumps”, effectively slowing the impact of global heating. But the role this plays is unknown because researchers had never been able to scrutinise the hellish zone where mighty glaciers, rock and ocean meet.

TERMINUS: Studying Greenland’s Underwater Glacial Walls
https://ig.utexas.edu/terminus-studying-greenlands-underwater-glacial-walls/

PALEONTOLOG: Pardonek

UVM Scientists Unearth Bad News for Our Climate Future Beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet | Seven Days Vermont
https://www.sevendaysvt.com/news/uvm-scientists-unearth-bad-news-for-our-climate-future-beneath-the-greenland-ice-sheet-39281796

TUHO: Ale safra, tohle je zajimavy taky, ale chtel jsem poslat toto:

The plan, called Project Iceworm, was ostensibly top secret, though an article published in Popular Science in the early 1960s disclosed the military's intention to build a "subway under the ice" that would shuttle as many as 600 ballistic missiles through a network of tunnels, making them less vulnerable to a Soviet first strike.

In 1959, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began building a military base, Camp Century, buried 150 feet below the surface of the Greenland ice cap. The base had chemistry labs, hot showers, a chapel, a movie theater and as many as 200 inhabitants who lived there year-round. The nuclear missiles were never deployed, but the entire base was powered by a portable nuclear reactor.

Part of the Army's interest in Camp Century, in addition to hiding nuclear missiles, was to study the feasibility of living and traveling in extreme environments in the event of conflict with the Soviet Union in the far north. By the 1950s, the military had documented the retreat of arctic sea ice. If the ice were to melt, the military needed to know how that would affect its ability to defend against a Soviet attack over the arctic circle.

TUHO:

Greenland fossils reveal increased risk of sea-level catastrophe
https://www.techexplorist.com/greenland-fossils-reveal-increased-risk-sea-level-catastrophe/87025/

ecosystem wars

Sea Shepherd founder and anti-whaling activist Paul Watson arrested in Greenland | Greenland | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/22/paul-watson-arrested-greenland-sea-shepherd-founder-and-anti-whaling-activist

L Simons

This is what the 30 million tonnes of ice that Greenland loses every hour looks like, if it were positioned next to the Eiffel tower before melting



Greenland losing 30m tonnes of ice an hour, study reveals | Ice | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/17/greenland-losing-30m-tonnes-of-ice-an-hour-study-reveals

helping hand

Von der Leyen heads to Greenland as EU seeks materials for green transition | Greenland | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/14/von-der-leyen-greenland-office-eu-green-transition

She said the minerals agreement is about “benefits on both sides”. Greenland needs bilateral cooperation to develop its mineral sector, she said, which requires significant capital and long-term investment.

“Development of mines, exports of minerals is of course an important issue for the diversification of the Greenlandic economy,” she said. While fishing, the current top source of income, is not expected to be overtaken for many years, the tourism and minerals sectors are important focuses for growth.

“If the western world wants sustainable diversified secure value chains, some of these minerals will need to come from countries that are smaller, like Greenland. We don’t have the economic muscles to invest ourselves in the mineral sector,” she said.

In order to enable the green transition, a “helping hand” from larger economies would be needed, she added.

New study reports that Greenland is a methane sink rather than a source – University of Copenhagen
https://science.ku.dk/english/press/news/2024/new-study-reports-that-greenland-is-a-methane-sink-rather-than-a-source/

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have concluded that the methane uptake in dry landscapes exceeds methane emissions from wet areas across the ice-free part of Greenland. The results of the new study contribute with important knowledge for climate models. The researchers are now investigating whether the same finding applies to other polar regions.

22DAEMON: postavene do perspektivy:

"The scale of climate change can be a bit mind-boggling at times.

For example, the Greenland ice sheet has lost over 6 trillion metric tons of ice since 1970 – or more than 700 tonnes lost per person for every person on the planet today"

The Greenland Ice Sheet lost 5,091 sq km (1930 sq miles) of area between 1985 and 2022, according to a study in the journal Nature published on Wednesday, the first full ice-sheet wide estimate of area loss on that scale.
https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/scientists-reveal-how-greenland-ice-sheet-has-shrunk-over-past-four-decades-2024-01-17/?taid=65a8782d7279e30001177725

Hey Capitalism, how it's going?

Greenland startup begins shipping glacier ice to cocktail bars in the UAE | Greenland | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/09/greenland-startup-shipping-glacier-ice-cocktail-bars-uae-arctic-ice

Jesus Christ...

J Pecho
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10220618107397482&id=1678732617


Dosiahli sme planetárne "Points of No Return"?

Pred niekoľkými dňami vyšla veľmi zásadná správa - Globálne body zvratu (Global Tipping Points ---> Points of No Return; Global Systems Institute - GSI, University of Exeter). Podľa správy je 5 planetárnych systémov na pokraji veľmi rýchlych zmien, ktoré by sa dali nazvať tiež termínom "kolaps" (pre našu spoločnosť rozhodne nič pozitívne). Správa hodnotí celkovo 25 planetárnych systémov, ktoré môžu niekedy v budúcnosti dosiahnuť body zvratu.

Planetárne systémy blízko bodu zvratu:
👉kontinentálny ľadovec v Grónsku
👉kontinentálny ľadovec v západnej Antarktíde
👉hynutie tropických koralov (koralových útesov)
👉stabilita morskej cirkulácie v sev. Atlantiku (SGC)
👉topenie a rozpad permafrostu
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Čo je bod zvratu? Ide o zmenu, po ktorej sa celý systém dostane do nového stabilného stavu. Príklad ---> ak sa budete húpať na stoličke, dlho zostane celý systém stabilný a vždy sa vráti do základnej stabilnej, počiatočnej pozície. Ak však húpanie „preženiete“, celý systém sa vychýli z rovnováhy a nový stabilný stav sa doslova "presunie" na podlahu ---> čo samozrejme pocítite ako dosť bolestivý pád.
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⚠️10 najdôležitejších záverov správy:
1️⃣zmena klímy rýchlo posúva prírodné systémy k bodom zvratu - 5 planetárnych systémov je blízko tohto stavu
2️⃣ľudstvo stojí pre bodmi zvratu, s ktorými sa nikdy nestretlo
3️⃣dopady bodov zvratu budú mať pre súčasnú globalizovanú spoločnosť krajne negatívne účinky = nestabilita, vojnové konflikty, atď.
4️⃣zastaviť a zvrátiť zmeny, resp. minimalizovať pravdepodobnosť bodov zvratu, je možné, no vyžaduje by si to rýchle a globálne koordinované úsilie
5️⃣aj napriek globálnemu koordinovanému úsiliu sú niektoré body zvratu už nezvratné (a ich spustenie je len otázkou času)
6️⃣existujú aj tzv. pozitívne body zvratu, ktoré nám môžu pomôcť na ceste k udržateľnosti a stabilizácii globálneho klimatického systému
7️⃣jeden pozitívny bod zvratu môže pritom aktivizovať ďalší, čo môže urýchliť cestu a návrat k stabilite
8️⃣aby sme dosiahli pozitívne body zvratu, potrebujeme globálne koordinované úsilie, ktoré však bude rešpektovať globálnu rovnosť a spravodlivosť („equity & justice“)
9️⃣je treba však súčasne vyvinúť intenzívnejšie úsilie na to, aby sme globálnym bodom zvratu lepšie porozumeli, súčasne však už vieme dosť na to, aby sme dokázali adekvátne reagovať a začali pracovať na zmene
🔟dosiahnutie pozitívnych bodov zvratu bude predstavovať zmysluplnú a systémovú reakciu (a riešenie) na negatívne dopady kriticky nepriaznivých bodov zvratu
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✅️6 základných odporúčaní, ktoré správa uvádza:
1️⃣okamžité ukončenie spaľovania (využívania) fosílnych palív ako hlavnej príčiny akcelerujúcej zmeny klímy
2️⃣posilniť možnosti adaptácie a intenzívne podporovať fond Loss & damage (práve o ňom sa jedná na #COP28)
3️⃣doplniť planetárne body zvratov do plánov NDC (Nationally Determined Contribution = národné plány ako znižovať emisie skleníkových plynov a adaptovať sa na negatívne dopady zmena klímy)
4️⃣globálne koordinovať konkrétne aktivity, ktoré povedú k dosiahnutiu pozitívnych bodov zvratu (napr. rýchle ukončenie využívania fosílnych zdrojov)
5️⃣usporiadať globálnu konferenciu o planetárnych bodoch zvratu
6️⃣prehĺbiť naše znalosti o planetárnych bodoch zvratu (a ich potenciálnych dopadoch a ľudskú spoločnosť)
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⚠️Najdôležitejšie posolstvo správy ---> Ničnerobenie nás bude stáť veľmi veľa. Dilema, pred ktorou stojíme nie je o tom, či byť aktívni alebo pokračovať ako sme zvyknutí. Stojíme skôr pred voľbou, či urobiť maximum pre odvrátenie "kolapsu", alebo žiť v oveľa horšom a nebezpečnejšom svete, než poznáme dnes.
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Zdroj: https://global-tipping-points.org/summary-report/narrative-summary/ [Spracované: Fakty o zmene klímy, CZ]

Pekne vysvetlené ---> https://grist.org/climate-tipping-points-amazon-greenland-boreal-forest/

Zaujímavá diskusia k tejto téme ---> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFYE4CfeIj0&ab_channel=NewYorkTimesEvents

rockstrom

What the Latest Health Check Tells Us About the State of Our Planet | TIME
https://time.com/collection/time100-voices/6315766/planetary-health-check-johan-rockstrom/

We are so close to failing on avoiding climate disaster that we do not only need speed and scale. We also need concerted efforts on all fronts. It is a major mistake in the current climate action debates, when big actors with interests in the oil, gas, and coal industry, use investments in nature based solutions or technologies for carbon dioxide removal (CDR), as “offsets” for the inability to phase out fossil-fuels. This will not work. Science is clear on this point – we need to phase out fossil-fuels AND restore nature to secure carbon sinks in soils and forests, AND to invest in CDR technologies. Additionality is the word of the day, not substitution.

...

We are losing Earth resilience. Terrestrial ecosystems on land are increasingly shifting from sink to source, due to water scarcity, deforestation, disease, land degradation and fires. The Ocean continues to absorb 90 % of heat and 25 % of CO2 from human emissions, but there are increasingly signs of massive stress on marine systems. When we need a strong planet more than ever – to buffer the stress caused by fossil-fuel burning and land use change, we are in an all-time-low in terms of Earth’s capacity to buffer our climate debt.

...

The first global stocktake has now been delivered for climate, but must be carried out for all Planetary Boundaries. We have budgets for safe levels of freshwater, natural land, biosphere integrity, pollutants. They are finite and equally important for the outcome of human development. In short, the world needs to measure and manage the entire planet, a true “planetary stewardship” to have a chance of positive human development, anywhere in the world.

3. A global reform in governance is required, where all nations develop and adopt principles of how to collectively manage all the global commons that regulate the stability of the climate system and the Earth system as a whole. Today only four global commons are considered in the legal or institutional framing, namely, the high-seas, Antarctica, outer Space and to some extent the atmosphere. These are considered global commons, primarily because they are located outside of national jurisdiction, i.e., they are owned by nobody, and thereby by everybody. This premise, based on how to deal with collective use of common pool resources, must now be widened, to include the biophysical systems that we all depend on for the stability of the planet. My suggestion is to start with the climate tipping elements, e.g., the heat circulation in the ocean, the large rainforest systems, and the Greenland ice sheet.

...

In the midst of all the Earth risks, and the need to comply with science aligned targets, we have ample and rising evidence that sustainability is the only window still open, to achieve prosperity and equity for all now and in the future. In many economic sectors, sustainable innovations and solutions provide more competitive and cost-efficient offers to people. We are at the beginning of the end of the fossil-fuel driven global economy. In fact, our challenge is not whether we will be phasing out fossil-fuels, it is whether we are going to be too late. Sustainability is no longer an environmental issue only. And it is certainly not about sacrifice and trade-offs. It is the path towards a modernity2.0. Time to put in a high-gear and start delivering.

Rising methane could be a sign that Earth's climate is part-way through a 'termination-level transition'
https://theconversation.com/rising-methane-could-be-a-sign-that-earths-climate-is-part-way-through-a-termination-level-transition-211211

In the past few million years, Earth’s climate has flipped repeatedly between long, cold glacial periods, with ice sheets covering northern Europe and Canada, and shorter warm inter-glacials.

When each ice age ended, Earth’s surface warmed by as much as several degrees centigrade over a few millennia. Recorded in air bubbles in ice cores, sharply rising methane concentrations are the bellwethers of these great climate-warming events. With each flip from a glacial to an interglacial climate there have been sudden, sharp rises in atmospheric methane, likely from expanding tropical wetlands.

These great climate flips that ended each ice age are known as terminations. Each has a Roman numeral, ranging from Termination IX which happened about 800,000 years ago to Termination IA which initiated the modern climate less than 12,000 years ago. For example, around 131,000 years ago during Termination II, the British climate suddenly flipped from glaciers in the Cotswolds to hippopotami wallowing in what is now Trafalgar Square.

Full terminations take several thousands of years to complete, but many include a creeping onset of warming, then a very abrupt phase of extremely rapid climate change that can take a century or less, followed by a longer, slower period during which the great ice caps finally melt. In the abrupt phase of the great change that brought about the modern climate, Greenland’s temperature rose by around 10°C within a few decades. During these abrupt phases, methane climbs very steeply indeed.

...

Methane fluctuated widely in pre-industrial times. But its increasingly rapid growth since 2006 is comparable with records of methane from the early years of abrupt phases of past termination events, like the one that warmed Greenland so dramatically less than 12,000 years ago.

There is already lots of evidence that the climate is shifting. Atlantic ocean currents are slowing, tropical weather regions are expanding, the far north and south are warming fast, ocean heat is breaking records and extreme weather is becoming routine.

In glacial terminations, the entire climate system reorganises. In the past, this took Earth out of stable ice age climates and into warm inter-glacials. But we are already in a warm interglacial. What comes next is hard to imagine: loss of sea ice in the Arctic in summer, thinning or partial collapse of the ice caps in Greenland and West Antarctica, reorganisation of the Atlantic’s ocean currents and the poleward expansion of tropical weather circulation patterns. The consequences, both for the biosphere in general and food production in south and east Asia and parts of Africa in particular, would be very significant