The latest word on Thwaites Glacier's dangers

Per Grist, new papers show that the "cork in the bottle stopper" glacier of the Antarctic is being eroded in two different ways.

One is the "grounding line," where Antarctic glaciers move off land and to above the sea. That's being cut back, and also, metaphorically, lubricated better, so a warming glacier flows to sea faster.

The second is tidal pulsing. That's where tides lift the portion of a glacier over the ocean. But, this can also lift the portion back further, over land, and loosen it, and cause effects similar to that of grounding line changes.

And, Thwaites appears extra susceptible to this.

Scratch the Antarctic ‘protection’ treaty?

Well, if it’s
this compromised, even more than whaling treaties, maybe we should junk it.

Global warming update in Antarctica

Say goodbye to the Wilkins Ice Shelf, it appears.

This breakup is puzzling because it occurred in the Southern Hemispheric winter. It’s also behaving differently than previous breakups.

“The scale of rifting in the newly-removed areas seems larger, and the pieces are moving out as large bergs and not toppled, finely-divided ice melange,” said Ted Scambos from the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center.

What all this means, of course, remains to be seen. But, as the Antarctic Peninsula has seen a more rapid temperature rise than anywhere else on the continent, it can’t mean much good.

Environmental news round-up – wolf-baiting, ice-melting, elk-sickening

Government to look at claims of deliberate wolf-baiting

In a story High Country News reported last year, a Mogollon Rim ranch hand admitted deliberately baiting a Mexican gray wolf with cattle. His aim was to get the wolf to attack livestock, get its “third strike” on such attacks, and so be eligible for the euphemistic “elimination.”

Damn, even Idaho/Montana/Wyoming ranchers aren’t as bad with their reintroduced wolves as New Mexico/Arizona ones are with the reintroduced Mexican wolves.

Real brucellosis problem in Yellowstone

Is elk, not bison. Problem is, none of the Yellowstone-adjoining states have done much in the past to monitor elk populations. Problem No. 2 is that hunters don’t want the states culling elk, while they have no problem shooting a motionless bison from 20 yards.

West Antarctic ice melt speeds up

The West Antarctic ice sheet is calving more bergs and getting thinner. The Spiegel article is skeptical, in the good scientific sense, about tying this to global warming, mainly because the sheet has only been measured since the 1980s. Nonetheless, it certainly bears watching.