QUESTION:

What is more important in Antarctica, calving or basal melting of the ice shelves (glaciology, ice sheets, Antarctica, earth science)?

ANSWER:

What climate science has learned after years of goofy “Antarctica melting” fearmongering and goofy “Doomsday Glacier” fear mongering is that it is more important in Antarctica is to pay attention to the data in the current interglacial and to the geological features of that continent and not be swayed by a yearning for what had happened in the Eemian interglacial more than 120,000 years ago. What climate science has finally figured out from the data is that their doomsday yearning in Antarctica is a no show. There aint no doomsday in the data and no doomsday glacier no matter how much they need that doomsday glacier to be there to sell their climate agenda.

FOR DETAILS PLEASE SEE:

LINK: https://tambonthongchai.com/2021/07/08/climate-fearology-scraping-by/

EXCERPT:: The Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica, nicknamed the “Doomsday Glacier” by climate science, is moving closer to this threshold and could contribute nearly 3 feet to sea level rise in the event of a complete collapse. At 74,000 square miles, it’s roughly the size of Florida, and is particularly susceptible to climate and ocean changes. THE OCEAN IS ALWAYS THERE, SORT OF TICKLING THE ICE IN A VERY COMPLEX WAY, AND WE’VE ONLY KNOWN FOR A DECADE OR TWO JUST HOW IMPORTANT IT IS. Researchers also found that icebergs that crack and fall away from the main glacier. This kind of iceberg calving may actually stave off, rather than contribute to, catastrophic collapse as previously thought. If the ice chunks get stuck on outcroppings in the ocean floor, they can exert back pressure on the glacier to help stabilize it. While it’s clear that Thwaites and other glaciers are melting but predicting the retreat of glaciers is a mind-bendingly complex business, as they’re affected by the interplay of myriad factors—the stress and strain of billions of tons of shifting ice, changing air and water temperatures, and the effects of flowing liquid water on ice, to name just a few. As a result, the predictions for the collapse of the Thwaites Glacier range from a few decades to many centuries.

TRANSLATION:

THOUGH WE PRETENDED TO KNOW HOW GLACIERS BEHAVE IN INTERGLACIAL WARMING CYCLES AND PREDICTED THE IMMINENT DEMISE OF THE THWAITES GLACIER TO THE POINT OF NICKNAMING IT THE DOOMSDAY GLACIER, THE REALITY IS THAT WE DON’T REALLY UNDERSTAND GLACIAL DYNAMICS AT THESE TIME SCALES ALTHOUGH WE THOUGHT THAT SINCE IT HAD HAPPENED IN THE EEMIAN INTERGLACIAL MAYBE IT WAS A GOOD BET FOR A CATASTROPHE THAT WOULD HELP US SELL OUR CLIMATE ACTION AGENDA. IT TURNS OUT WE WERE WRONG. SORRY.