A World Without Ice

"Henry Pollack’s book is about the relationship between people and ice, Arctic and Antarctic exploration, and the development of climate science. It is also a chilling story about the consequences of losing this ice. Ice and humanity have always been close partners. Human cultures such as the Inuit have adapted to and rely on ice. In many parts of the world, seasonal melt of mountain snows is the major source of water for drinking, agriculture and industry. So much attests to the power of ice: fjords that provide safe harbour for ships, the very existence of Long Island and its prime real estate, and the rocky soils of New England that challenge farmers. Variations in land ice – ice sheets and glaciers – have led to dramatic changes in sea level in the past. It was the lower sea level during the last ice age that enabled the migration of people from Asia to North America across the Bering Land Bridge. Native Americans and members of the First Nations have ancestors who got to North America because of ice. Is it realistic to think that our planet’s ice will disappear? Of course, we have already lost some of it, and effects are already being experienced. Ice sheets and glaciers are shrinking and the resulting rise in sea level is starting to inundate low-lying parts of the planet. Across the American West, the winter snowpack – key to maintaining agriculture – is slowly shrinking. Permafrost, the perennially frozen ground that underlies Arctic lands, is warming and thawing, damaging infrastructure and transforming the landscape. The Arctic’s floating sea ice cover is shrinking in all seasons, most dramatically in summer, with effects on ecosystems spanning the entire food chain. “We are certain to lose more ice, and the effects on society may well be severe” We are certain to lose more ice, and the effects on society may well be severe. But for a long time there will still be lots of ice on our planet. Even if the rate of warming seen in the last few decades continues unabated, the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets will stick around for a long time. If they ever completely melted, sea level would be more than 200 feet, or 61 metres, higher than today. Ice in other forms will be quicker to respond to continued warming. Even in a warmer world, it will get cold and dark in the Arctic winter and sea ice will form – likely for centuries. But that winter ice will melt away during summer. Sea ice will be but a seasonal feature of the Arctic Ocean. For a long time, it will still snow, and with more moisture in the air, when it does snow, it may snow even harder than it used to, but as the climate warms, snowstorms will become less common. Maybe someday, there will indeed be a world without ice, but what we are really looking at over the coming century is a world with less ice, and we are already headed well down that path. It is in our power to turn it around and regain our long-standing partnership with ice. The question is whether we have the will to do it."