Climate Change

Due to climate change, glaciers and the polar ice cap are melting faster than scientists and computers predicted, and the coral reef is dying at an exponential rate.

David Arnold, a passionate photographer and world traveler, spoke to Lasell College Communications students this past Thursday about ‘I Can Prove There Is Climate Change- A Then and Now Look At Glaciers and Coral Reefs.’

Arnold said, “These forecasts have lowballed what’s coming. I’m not speculating, this is real time here.” The reality is that the polar ice cap is melting faster than the most dire computer program said it would. Based on this information, Arnold predicts that the polar ice cap will be gone by 2025. Global climate change has happened before, but never so fast.

The polar ice cap footprint is decreasing, yet it will not raise the sea level one bit. Arnold gave the comparison of putting ice in a glass of water and watching it melt. The water level will not rise. The melted ice will equal the amount of water displaced by the ice.

Arnold gained his interest from Bard Washburn, a famous explorer and aerial photographer who photographed Alaska and Switzerland. Arnold bought one of his photographs and started thinking “I wonder what this place looks like now.” After working at the Boston Globe for 25 years, Arnold left to begin his work on climate change.

Arnold was off to Alaska with 10 of Washburn’s photographs. Arnold went to the same village, Yakutat, as Washburn did in the 1930’s. Arnold said, “I thought I would be home in two weeks, but it rained and rained and rained for two weeks straight.”

Over the past 10 years, the water at Yakutat has warmed up six degrees. Due to this, the first surf shop has opened up in Alaska. Arnold said, “It is now colder to surf at Nauset Beach on Cape Cod than it is to surf in Yakutat, AK.”

Glaciers are rivers of ice. In the winter, snow packs up and slowly gets pushed down into the ocean at a very slow, glacial pace. When the glacier finally advances, it creates a mud flat, called a terminal moraine. (Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket are all terminal moraines.)

The glaciers in Alaska are receding at an exponential rate. Arnold said, “The Guyot glacier has receded 17 miles. The estimate water equivalent of ice loss would supply water use for New York City for 47 years.”

Arnold said the warming would start most dramatically in the upper latitudes around the North Pole. When ice is reflective, it reflects 90% of sunlight it receives. Dark surfaces absorb about 90% of the heat from the Sun. “This is called positive feedback, and is accelerating the whole thing,” said Arnold.

Also being affected by the climate change are the coral reefs. Arnold always enjoyed snorkeling as a kid and heard they were in trouble, but recently found photographs of the coral reefs and went back to photograph them.

Corals are animals that create a calcium carbonate shell as they grow. When warm water hits them, a bleaching event happens. This makes the coral shed the algae that is good for them. The algae give them color, so when they shed, the corals turns white and if the water temperature does not change, the corals die.

Arnold said, over fishing and pollution, as well as the climate change, is killing coral. Over fishing is happening at an unsustainable rate. Pollution and waste from charter boats goes right back into the water. “Coastal run-off, fertilizer, everything ends up in the ocean,” said Arnold.”

“So why do we care? So what, it is out of sight,” Arnold asked the students. Nudibranch is an animal that is indigenous to particular kinds of coral, and they are dying. Nudibranches are an important pharmaceutical asset and doctors are using them to create successful cancer drugs.

So how does one solve the problem of climate change? Arnold said that people’s behavior would change when it gets expensive, and that the volunteer system will just not work.

Arnold said, “The funny thing is, all the technology is there to get us off fossil fuel. But there are a lot of people that don’t want to change their lifestyles, and there are a lot of companies that don’t want to loose money. All we’re lacking is the will.”

“Just because we can abuse the environment to this degree, does that mean we should,” said Arnold.