“Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier Ice Shelf Could Collapse within Five Years

 

Paris Zhang

Mr.Ippolito

Core Chemistry-Current Event 8 (Review)

2022/Jan/3

Gramling, Carolyn. “Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier Ice Shelf Could Collapse within Five Years.” Science News, 14 Dec. 2021, https://www.sciencenews.org/article/antarctica-thwaites-glacier-ice-shelf-collapse-climate-5-years. 

In the article “Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier ice shelf could collapse within five years” by Carolyn Gramling, it discusses the danger we are facing as this giant glacier in Antarctica may collapse in a few years.  The Thwaites Glacier is able to raise the sea level by 65 centimeters, and it would seriously bring countless issues to our living environment.  Experts claim that the reason for this potential collapse is because that its grip on the seafloor is weakening.  Another significant reason is that the glacier is supported by an ice shelf which is supported by an underwater mountain.  However, the rising temperature of ocean water is melting the ice, and the ice shelf is moving away from the mountain.  Without these support in its structure, the ice shelf can quickly collapse into the water, unavoidably causing sea levels to rise which can hugely impact humans in the future.  More importantly, this glacier can also affect other glaciers and further damage the surroundings.  Scientists also suggested that these giant glaciers might form ice cliffs on the edge of the ocean, and they have developed a hypothesis, marine ice cliff instability, which suggests that ice cliffs with such great weight can collapse due to their own weight.  At the end, this article concludes a quote that points out that climate change is causing this problem and humans are harming the environment in a very quick pace.  

This article’s effect on society is noting a possible issue that could negatively affect all of us.  A sea level rise of 65 centimeters could harm many homes and families living near coastal areas.  The collapse of the Thwaites Glacier will not only make us lose the chance to see such a fascinating view in nature, but it would also mean that we’d have to make numerous adaptations and it would threaten the well-being of us.  In addition, the second half of this article highlights the science occurring in nature behind the surface.  It explains how the floating ice shelf could break very soon, how it is retreating inland, and how it is already leading to other observations, such as “the first observations of ocean and melting conditions right at a glacier’s grounding zone” (Glamling).  Most importantly, this article is also connecting this phenomenon to global warming and alarming the society that our carelessness could do violence to ourselves in return.  

The strengths of this article are that it includes a large amount of data and discoveries and different aspects of every possibility.  It reasonably predicts the situation with the glacier with a lot of evidence.  It has also done a great job of sparking the reader’s interest with a straightforward and eye-catching title.  The only weakness I can think of is that this article didn’t mention what other important effects would this bring to humans besides sea level rise.  There must be other environmental damage that collapsing glaciers will cause and sea level rising will further cause.  But overall, this was a great article and it sparked my interest right away.