Eye on the Earth: Change in Antarctica causes change in the world

One hundred and seventy six years ago, the naval expedition led by Charles Wilkes pronounced the discovery of a new continent. Though it is still the most isolated and least populated continent, the climate shifts in Antarctica may have the greatest effect on the entire planet. According to the ASOC (Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition), if melted completely, the Antarctic ice sheet contains enough ice to raise world sea levels by roughly 196 feet.

Over the past century, the Global Mean Sea Level (GMSL) has risen by 4 to 8 inches (National Geographic). The fast advance of this rise can be attributed to thermal expansion (the expansion of water caused by heating); the melting of glaciers and polar ice caps; and ice loss from Greenland and West Antarctica. One recent study predicts a rise of 2.5 and 6.5 feet in the GMSL by 2100 while another estimates 23 feet if the Greenland ice sheet melts completely. The first prediction is enough to flood many cities on the U.S. East Coast while the second would submerge London.

Climate change is amplifying the severity of every ecological phenomena. Temperatures are altering, intensifying. According to the NWF (National Wildlife Foundation), urban areas will experience even greater influxes in poverty and pollution as coastal populations escape further inland. Storms will continue to devastate while droughts make current areas uninhabitable. Even respiratory allergies will intensify. Everything will change.

200 million years ago, Antarctica was part of the supercontinent Gondwana that also contained Australia, Africa, South America, India, and New Zealand. 40 million years ago, Antarctica had taken its present position and begun to cool. Modern humans migrated out of Africa only 60,000 years ago.

The earth is old and humans are young. The earth has witnessed innumerable changes while humans have experienced relatively few. Since the inception of life on earth 543 million years ago, there have been five mass extinctions, each of which wiped out a majority of all earth’s species and were caused by ecological changes. The sixth mass extinction is currently underway. The main difference in this extinction is that this is the only mass extinction caused largely by a single species. That species: humans.

Species have come and gone, but the earth is still here. It will continue to revolve as long as the sun burns above it, even after all of its life has blinked out. The earth will not stop, no matter what extinctions transpire on its surface. The harm that humans have inflicted on the other species of the earth will also lead to the premature downfall of the human race. If people cannot see the value in saving other living things, they might at least see the value in saving themselves. Death itself cannot be stalled. No matter how much one might long for its reversal, it will always occur. But it may be subdued to make time for those who come after.

What would Charles Wilkes have said when he witnessed the vast expanse of his “newly discovered” polar world looming over his ship if he knew that much of that ice might be gone in another few centuries and his world changed completely? Or if he’d known that world leaders would meet in the future to talk specifically about ways to fight climate change on a global scale. Today the facts have been presented. Now it is time to act.

As an old man, I am better suited to gathering moss than rolling, to tending my own garden rather than fixing the world's. I cannot go out and save the rainforests myself, but here are a few little things I try to do daily in my solitary life to help that you might try too:

1. Compost -- don’t waste your food scraps! Put them back into the earth and grow your garden.

2. Drive less -- take public transportation, bike, walk, carpool: usually these are cheaper and healthier options

3. Turn off lights

4. Use reusable tupperware containers and thermoses instead of plastic bags, wrap, and disposable cups -- how many cups do you use at Starbucks, Dunkin Doughnuts, and McDonald’s anyway?

5. Recycle. All this trash is just a waste!

6. Fly less. Can you take a bus or train? Better to see the scenery and time to read a nice book.

7. Use one water bottle instead of dozens of plastic ones. Cheaper and better for your ancestors

8. Fluorescent light bulbs

9. Use an electric or push lawn mower

10. Insulate your house

11. Use water sparingly. There's already a whole lot less of it in some parts of the world.