Rachel Hall
THE GUARDIAN
Sun, 21 January 2024
Photograph: Anna McMorrin
When Anna McMorrin MP visited the Antarctic as part of a government inquiry, she stumbled upon a report in the Rothera Research Station library that her father, a polar researcher, had written in 1962.
It described the Larsen ice shelf, a beautiful stretch of thousands of miles of thick, white, crystalline snow – which has now almost completely melted away.
Her shock at witnessing the change first-hand has reinforced for her the urgency of slowing climate breakdown in Antarctica to prevent a dangerous tipping point that could disrupt ocean currents and weather systems, with catastrophic implications for humanity.
She said: “[The Larsen ice shelf] has just completely melted away and disappeared into the sea. Ice that was there for thousands of years, and it’s gone in the last few decades.
“This was an important trip, because never has there been a more important time to look at the changing Antarctic and its impact on the rest of the world, the melting of the glaciers and the impact that’s having on ocean temperatures, the currents, biodiversity, weather systems. What happens in Antarctica does not stay in Antarctica.”
McMorrin, the Labour MP for Cardiff North, flew to the Falklands just before Christmas, where she was able to hitch a ride on a British Antarctic Survey ship, a science and research vessel named after Sir David Attenborough.
On arrival she found an “incredible continent that’s been totally isolated from the rest of the world”, with unique biodiversity, 24 hours of daylight during its summer and freezing winds that blow in wild storms at a moment’s notice.
Her expedition will feed into the recently launched UK and the Antarctic environment inquiry by the environmental audit sub-committee on polar research, which will look at how British scientific research and climate policy can slow climate breakdown in the Antarctic. The inquiry will soon hold a series of evidence sessions in parliament before publishing a report later in the year.
McMorrin found the trip particularly emotional because her father, Ian McMorrin, worked for the British Antarctic Survey. During his career, he surveyed and mapped the landscape, and he even has a glacier named after him.
Yet McMorrin – herself a former environmental campaigner and climate change adviser in the Welsh government – was as moved by what she did not see as what she did: “The changes that have taken place in those 60 years – it is stark. You are seeing glaciers retreat by huge amounts, hundreds of metres.”
She believes it is important to understand the mechanisms causing this, and the impact it could have on the world’s climate, from floods in the UK to changing weather patterns that have resulted in the Earth’s hottest-ever annual temperature and lethal forest fires around the globe.
A study published last week found that Greenland’s ice cap is losing an average of 30m tonnes of ice an hour due to the climate crisis, 20% more than was previously thought.
McMorrin said: “It’s accelerating, and the worrying thing is we don’t know where that tipping point is – where we can’t reverse it. The only way forward is to ensure we have those stark cuts to carbon emissions, that we’re on this track to net zero, we don’t veer off that, we invest in renewables, we come together globally, meet our carbon commitments.”
The message she wants the general public to receive is that this doesn’t have to be about sacrifice. “It can be a good change, it can lead to more jobs, a better future for everybody, a much more pleasant place to live and more money in your pockets, because it’s an investment in our economy,” she said.
She also wants the public to understand that if they care about slowing climate breakdown, voting for Labour in the next general election is the best way to achieve this.
McMorrin said: “Labour has a plan for this. We are absolutely determined to turn our industries around and invest in decarbonising them.
“I’m not sure it’s understood by the Conservatives, they have a battle on their hands. Rishi Sunak turned back the clock on net zero last September, he slowed things down in terms of targets. That’s not someone who sees hope in the future of net zero, that’s someone who sees it as a problem.”
Sun, 21 January 2024
Photograph: Anna McMorrin
When Anna McMorrin MP visited the Antarctic as part of a government inquiry, she stumbled upon a report in the Rothera Research Station library that her father, a polar researcher, had written in 1962.
It described the Larsen ice shelf, a beautiful stretch of thousands of miles of thick, white, crystalline snow – which has now almost completely melted away.
Her shock at witnessing the change first-hand has reinforced for her the urgency of slowing climate breakdown in Antarctica to prevent a dangerous tipping point that could disrupt ocean currents and weather systems, with catastrophic implications for humanity.
She said: “[The Larsen ice shelf] has just completely melted away and disappeared into the sea. Ice that was there for thousands of years, and it’s gone in the last few decades.
“This was an important trip, because never has there been a more important time to look at the changing Antarctic and its impact on the rest of the world, the melting of the glaciers and the impact that’s having on ocean temperatures, the currents, biodiversity, weather systems. What happens in Antarctica does not stay in Antarctica.”
McMorrin, the Labour MP for Cardiff North, flew to the Falklands just before Christmas, where she was able to hitch a ride on a British Antarctic Survey ship, a science and research vessel named after Sir David Attenborough.
On arrival she found an “incredible continent that’s been totally isolated from the rest of the world”, with unique biodiversity, 24 hours of daylight during its summer and freezing winds that blow in wild storms at a moment’s notice.
Her expedition will feed into the recently launched UK and the Antarctic environment inquiry by the environmental audit sub-committee on polar research, which will look at how British scientific research and climate policy can slow climate breakdown in the Antarctic. The inquiry will soon hold a series of evidence sessions in parliament before publishing a report later in the year.
McMorrin found the trip particularly emotional because her father, Ian McMorrin, worked for the British Antarctic Survey. During his career, he surveyed and mapped the landscape, and he even has a glacier named after him.
Yet McMorrin – herself a former environmental campaigner and climate change adviser in the Welsh government – was as moved by what she did not see as what she did: “The changes that have taken place in those 60 years – it is stark. You are seeing glaciers retreat by huge amounts, hundreds of metres.”
She believes it is important to understand the mechanisms causing this, and the impact it could have on the world’s climate, from floods in the UK to changing weather patterns that have resulted in the Earth’s hottest-ever annual temperature and lethal forest fires around the globe.
A study published last week found that Greenland’s ice cap is losing an average of 30m tonnes of ice an hour due to the climate crisis, 20% more than was previously thought.
McMorrin said: “It’s accelerating, and the worrying thing is we don’t know where that tipping point is – where we can’t reverse it. The only way forward is to ensure we have those stark cuts to carbon emissions, that we’re on this track to net zero, we don’t veer off that, we invest in renewables, we come together globally, meet our carbon commitments.”
The message she wants the general public to receive is that this doesn’t have to be about sacrifice. “It can be a good change, it can lead to more jobs, a better future for everybody, a much more pleasant place to live and more money in your pockets, because it’s an investment in our economy,” she said.
She also wants the public to understand that if they care about slowing climate breakdown, voting for Labour in the next general election is the best way to achieve this.
McMorrin said: “Labour has a plan for this. We are absolutely determined to turn our industries around and invest in decarbonising them.
“I’m not sure it’s understood by the Conservatives, they have a battle on their hands. Rishi Sunak turned back the clock on net zero last September, he slowed things down in terms of targets. That’s not someone who sees hope in the future of net zero, that’s someone who sees it as a problem.”
Australia not prepared for how Antarctic ice changes will pummel economy, scientist warns
Adam Morton
Adam Morton
GUARDIAN AUSTRALIA
Sun, 21 January 2024
Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
A leading Antarctic scientist has urged the Albanese government to pay closer attention to abrupt changes under way in the southern continent, warning they will affect Australians in ways that are little understood and research into them is drastically underfunded.
The head of the Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science, Prof Matt King, said he found it embarrassing how little was known about the local and global ramifications of changes including a historic drop in floating sea ice cover, the accelerating melting of giant ice sheets and the slowing of a deep ocean current known as the Southern Ocean overturning circulation.
King said they were likely to affect temperature and rainfall patterns across Australia in different ways – changes that could transform communities and affect the viability of some agricultural industries – and hasten sea level rise along the coast.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
He said Australia dedicated only tens of millions of dollars a year to work on the continent and much of that went to building and maintaining ships and stations, not research. An Antarctic cargo ship can cost more than $40m.
King said the allocation of funding was small in the context of the $680bn federal budget and did not reflect the continent’s importance.
“We need a champion in cabinet who can drive forward a multi-decadal agenda in the Antarctic. Perhaps one of the weaknesses is that Antarctica is seen as an environmental problem, but it is an all-of-government problem,” King said.
He added: “The Australian economy, and the global economy, is set up on Antarctica being as it has been. We’re moving to a phase where Antarctica won’t be like that any more.”
The changes in the Antarctic region have raised serious concerns about its immediate health and coincided with evidence that longer-term transformations linked to the climate crisis have started sooner than had been assumed was likely.
Sea ice cover in the ocean surrounding the continent crashed for six months straight to a level far below anything on the satellite record. One example of its impact: a peer-reviewed paper found an earlier decline in 2022 was likely to have caused a “catastrophic breeding failure” that killed thousands of emperor penguin chicks.
Related: Red alert in Antarctica: the year rapid, dramatic change hit climate scientists like a ‘punch in the guts’
Separate papers found the Southern Ocean overturning circulation had slowed by about 30% since the 1990s and could drop off much further by mid-century due to meltwater from the continent’s ice sheets if greenhouse gas emissions were not significantly reduced. Scientists said this could generate a cascade of impacts to push up sea levels, alter weather patterns and starve marine life of a vital source of nutrients. Past changes in ocean circulations have happened over more than 1,000 years. The paper said in this case it could happen within decades, with relatively abrupt consequences for lives and livelihoods.
Other research last year suggested accelerated melting of ice shelves extended over the Amundsen Sea in west Antarctica was locked in and beyond human control for the rest of this century, even if emissions were significantly reduced.
King said scientists studying these changes and their consequences were relying on scientific models that were incomplete for parts of west Antarctica “and even more so for the rest of the continent”.
“There is so much we don’t know … We don’t know the shape of the bedrock under the ice that governs how the ice retreats and what impact the retreat has,” he said. “We have almost no data on the continental shelf.”
How little is known about the Southern Ocean seabed was illustrated last week when the Australian Antarctic Division announced expeditioners on a resupply voyage had mapped a 2km deep, 46km long canyon extending from the Adams glacier near Casey station when wild weather had forced a delay in unloading goods.
Ben Galton-Fenzi, a glaciologist with the Australian Antarctic Division, said the discovery was noteworthy but there were more important seabed areas scientists could have studied if there was support for a dedicated research trip.
King said while Australia now had access to the RSV Nuyina, an ice-breaking research and supply ship, the country would need multiple icebreakers or autonomous robotic ships if it were to undertake the long-term research needed.
He said a research trip to the marginal ice zone, the transitional area between open sea and floating ice, had been cancelled when the Nuyina was not ready on time and was yet to be rescheduled.
Related: Greenland losing 30m tonnes of ice an hour, study reveals
King said there was some evidence of the impact of sea ice loss on Australian weather patterns – one study suggested it could have a drying effect in New South Wales and be linked to increased rainfall in northern Western Australia. But scientists could not yet say what the changes would mean for rainfall patterns over the next decade.
He said the impact of melting glaciers and a potential decline in the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by the Southern Ocean also posed substantial risks that were not receiving the attention they needed. Research led by King found Antarctic glaciers have been losing on average about 150bn tonnes of ice a year – about 17m tonnes an hour – over the past two decades.
There is a similar issue in the northern hemisphere. Research published last week found the Greenland ice cap was losing an average of 30m tonnes of ice a hour, 20% more than previously thought.
Sun, 21 January 2024
Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
A leading Antarctic scientist has urged the Albanese government to pay closer attention to abrupt changes under way in the southern continent, warning they will affect Australians in ways that are little understood and research into them is drastically underfunded.
The head of the Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science, Prof Matt King, said he found it embarrassing how little was known about the local and global ramifications of changes including a historic drop in floating sea ice cover, the accelerating melting of giant ice sheets and the slowing of a deep ocean current known as the Southern Ocean overturning circulation.
King said they were likely to affect temperature and rainfall patterns across Australia in different ways – changes that could transform communities and affect the viability of some agricultural industries – and hasten sea level rise along the coast.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
He said Australia dedicated only tens of millions of dollars a year to work on the continent and much of that went to building and maintaining ships and stations, not research. An Antarctic cargo ship can cost more than $40m.
King said the allocation of funding was small in the context of the $680bn federal budget and did not reflect the continent’s importance.
“We need a champion in cabinet who can drive forward a multi-decadal agenda in the Antarctic. Perhaps one of the weaknesses is that Antarctica is seen as an environmental problem, but it is an all-of-government problem,” King said.
He added: “The Australian economy, and the global economy, is set up on Antarctica being as it has been. We’re moving to a phase where Antarctica won’t be like that any more.”
The changes in the Antarctic region have raised serious concerns about its immediate health and coincided with evidence that longer-term transformations linked to the climate crisis have started sooner than had been assumed was likely.
Sea ice cover in the ocean surrounding the continent crashed for six months straight to a level far below anything on the satellite record. One example of its impact: a peer-reviewed paper found an earlier decline in 2022 was likely to have caused a “catastrophic breeding failure” that killed thousands of emperor penguin chicks.
Related: Red alert in Antarctica: the year rapid, dramatic change hit climate scientists like a ‘punch in the guts’
Separate papers found the Southern Ocean overturning circulation had slowed by about 30% since the 1990s and could drop off much further by mid-century due to meltwater from the continent’s ice sheets if greenhouse gas emissions were not significantly reduced. Scientists said this could generate a cascade of impacts to push up sea levels, alter weather patterns and starve marine life of a vital source of nutrients. Past changes in ocean circulations have happened over more than 1,000 years. The paper said in this case it could happen within decades, with relatively abrupt consequences for lives and livelihoods.
Other research last year suggested accelerated melting of ice shelves extended over the Amundsen Sea in west Antarctica was locked in and beyond human control for the rest of this century, even if emissions were significantly reduced.
King said scientists studying these changes and their consequences were relying on scientific models that were incomplete for parts of west Antarctica “and even more so for the rest of the continent”.
“There is so much we don’t know … We don’t know the shape of the bedrock under the ice that governs how the ice retreats and what impact the retreat has,” he said. “We have almost no data on the continental shelf.”
How little is known about the Southern Ocean seabed was illustrated last week when the Australian Antarctic Division announced expeditioners on a resupply voyage had mapped a 2km deep, 46km long canyon extending from the Adams glacier near Casey station when wild weather had forced a delay in unloading goods.
Ben Galton-Fenzi, a glaciologist with the Australian Antarctic Division, said the discovery was noteworthy but there were more important seabed areas scientists could have studied if there was support for a dedicated research trip.
King said while Australia now had access to the RSV Nuyina, an ice-breaking research and supply ship, the country would need multiple icebreakers or autonomous robotic ships if it were to undertake the long-term research needed.
He said a research trip to the marginal ice zone, the transitional area between open sea and floating ice, had been cancelled when the Nuyina was not ready on time and was yet to be rescheduled.
Related: Greenland losing 30m tonnes of ice an hour, study reveals
King said there was some evidence of the impact of sea ice loss on Australian weather patterns – one study suggested it could have a drying effect in New South Wales and be linked to increased rainfall in northern Western Australia. But scientists could not yet say what the changes would mean for rainfall patterns over the next decade.
He said the impact of melting glaciers and a potential decline in the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by the Southern Ocean also posed substantial risks that were not receiving the attention they needed. Research led by King found Antarctic glaciers have been losing on average about 150bn tonnes of ice a year – about 17m tonnes an hour – over the past two decades.
There is a similar issue in the northern hemisphere. Research published last week found the Greenland ice cap was losing an average of 30m tonnes of ice a hour, 20% more than previously thought.
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