Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
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Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
It is now late autumn in Antarctica. The polar night, when the sun disappears below the horizon until spring, will soon extend over most of the continent. Yet there is still hardly any sea ice in the southern Bellingshausen Sea (lower left in the regional map below).
Sea ice concentration maps are from the Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen, Germany - https://seaice.uni-bremen.de/sea-ice-concentration/amsre-amsr2/
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Recent results indicate that its too late to save Thwaites Glacier, the Antarctic glacier that's losing ice most quickly. Its fate is now baked in, although further research is still needed to establish the timeframe over which it will be lost. Technofixes ("geoengineering") intended to slow its ice loss are not a viable option to combat sea-level rise though. They would be phenomenally expensive (of the order of the GDP of a medium-sized country), might have limited effect in slowing ice loss, would be impractical to implement at scale and maintain in this very remote and hostile setting, and would have adverse environmental consequences. For these reasons there is zero chance their implementation would receive the consensus required for approval under the Antarctic Treaty. Moreover, even if implementation of such ludicrously expensive and risky schemes was attempted and succeeded to some extent in reducing ice loss, global sea-level rise will continue. Ice loss from Greenland and from mountain glaciers and icecaps elsewhere will continue, and thermal expansion of the oceans will continue for as long as the world keeps getting warmer. There is no alternative to adaptation to committed sea-level rise and the only genuine solution to stop the committed rise growing even larger, which will simultaneously limit a range of other climate harms, is rapid decarbonisation.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
So Artemis II achieved a record-breaking maximum distance of 252,756 miles (406,771 km) from Earth. This compares to
248,665 miles (400,171 km) attained by Apollo 13. With the benefit of more than 50 years of technological advancement that's an increase of just 1.65%. Can we stop hearing about this as one of the stand-out achievements now please?
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
I'm as fascinated by the Artemis II mission as many other people, but as scientist I'm frustrated that experts interviewed about it in the media are rarely asked to justify the truly astronomical cost. So far the program is reported to have cost $93Bn, with the direct costs of this mission alone amounting to more than $4Bn. I'm perhaps particularly sensitive to this because I'm frequently asked to justify funding three orders of magnitude smaller that we have used to improve knowledge of how the Antarctic ice sheet will respond to climate change and contribute to future sea-level rise.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
The feeling right now of every scientist trying to communicate the seriousness of ongoing global warming and the urgency of reducing emissions.
Excerpt from a cartoon by the late Jon Kudelka.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.
Polar marine scientist. Made in Wolverhampton. Enhanced at universities of Durham, Aberdeen and Birmingham. UK science lead in Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Views are my own.