Scientists have discovered warm water — about two degrees above freezing — beneath an Antarctic glacier named Thwaites. This glacier is believed to be melting irreversibly, which has also earned it the nickname ‘Doomsday Glacier’. The disappearance of this 74,000 square mile block of ice is expected to produce two changes: One, it will raise the water level of the world’s oceans by about 20 inches, and, two, it will pave the way for more Antarctic ice to slip down into the waters and melt. Such stark predictions have been growing with each passing year. And the world, too, is witnessing the effects of global warming at an unprecedented and alarming scale.
The bush fires in Australia are the most recent of examples. In the recent past, there was also global concern about forest fires in the Amazonian jungles deliberately set off land sharks and supported by the President Bolsonaro in Brazil. The man-made fires are in addition to natural phenomena such as the volcanic eruption at White Island in New Zealand. Returning to the study in Antarctica, one interesting fact is that the team of scientists has made the finding by digging about 2,000 feet into the ice to a point called the grounding line. It is a point where the glacier meets bedrock. It is the point from which the ice shelf begins. Changes at this point make the glacier unstable and it is bound to lead to further melting, which would be catastrophic. The Thwaites Glacier accounts for about 4 per cent of global sea level rise and the entire Antarctic ice sheet has been found to be melting about six times faster than what was happening about four decades back.
Against such a backdrop, it is important for every country to take care at least to mitigate impact of mishaps that can spew tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. India recently saw a situation of such nature in Dibrugarh, Assam. A central tank pump of one of Oil India Limited (OIL) suffered an instrument failure which made a valve on an oil pipeline carrying crude to close instantly. The closure of the valve created reverse pressure, which broke pipelines at two places and they began leaking oil. The leaking crude found its way to River Burhidihing nearby through a leader drain. This crude then caught fire and it burned for two days before the blaze, which was spread over 500 metres of the river, was extinguished late Monday. It is reported that the oil, about 1 per cent of the total quantity that leaked, could have been recovered from the water had the stretch of water not been on fire. Even if the fire may have been set off accidentally, the delay in controlling it cannot be acceptable. The authorities concerned have termed the damage as minimal. But even such minimal damage in terms of the quantum of spillage could have catastrophic impact on the local ecology. It is important that oil companies now also build the necessary infrastructure and processes to ensure that situations such as these are tackled more effectively and promptly. Every small action will go a long way in making the global fight to reverse or stall climate change more effective. The studies in Antarctica may draw global attention, but the smallest actions at the level of each individual will go a long way in making big change possible across the world. We cannot close our eyes to the impending doom.