Thwaites Glacier - And Drastic Sea Level Rise

Thwaites Glacier sometimes referred to as the Doomsday Glacier, is an unusually broad and vast Antarctic glacier flowing into Pine Island Bay, part of the Amundsen Sea, east of Mount Murphy, on the Walgreen Coast of Marie Byrd Land. Its surface speeds exceed 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) per year near its grounding line. Its fastest-flowing grounded ice is centered between 50 and 100 kilometers (31 and 62 mi) east of Mount Murphy. It was named by ACAN after Fredrik T. Thwaites, a glacial geologist, and geomorphologist.

Thwaites Glacier is closely watched for its potential to raise sea levels. Along with the Pine Island Glacier, it

has been described as part of the "weak underbelly" of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, due to its apparent vulnerability to significant retreat. This hypothesis is based on both theoretical studies of the stability of marine ice sheets and observations of large changes in these two glaciers. In recent years, the flow of both of these glaciers has accelerated, their surfaces have lowered, and their grounding lines have retreated.

Since the 1980s, the Thwaites glacier, nicknamed the "Doomsday glacier", has had a net loss of over 600 billion tons of ice, though pinning of the Thwaites Ice Shelf has served to slow the process. The Thwaites Ice Shelf has acted as a dam for the eastern portion of the glacier, bracing it and allowing for a slow melt rate, in contrast to the undefended western portion.

In 2021 the ice shelf was predicted to disintegrate in a decade, and as soon as 2026. This will accelerate the melting of Thwaites Glacier by about 25%, and increase its contribution to global sea-level rise from 4% to 5%.

Research

In 2011, using geophysical data collected from flights over Thwaites Glacier (data collected under NASA's IceBridge campaign), a study by scientists at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory showed a rock feature, a ridge 700 meters tall that helps anchor the glacier and helped slow the glacier's slide into the sea. The study also confirmed the importance of seafloor topography in predicting how the glacier will behave in the near future. However, the glacier has been considered to be the biggest threat on relevant time scales, for rising seas, current studies aim to better quantify retreat and possible impacts.

Extensive calving at the marine terminus of Thwaites Glacier is monitored by remote sensing and seismological observations, with the largest events being seismically detectable at ranges up to 1600 km.

Water drainage beneath the glacier - Swamp-like canal areas and streams underlie the glacier. The upstream swamp canals feed streams with dry areas between the streams which retard the flow of the glacier. Due to this friction, the glacier is considered stable in the short term.

Sea level rise

Tide gauge measurements show that the current global sea-level rise began at the start of the 20th century. Between 1900 and 2017, the globally averaged sea level rose by 16–21 cm (6+1⁄2–8+1⁄2 in). More precise data gathered from satellite radar measurements reveal an accelerating rise of 7.5 cm (3 in) from 1993 to 2017, for an average rate of 31 mm (1+1⁄4 in) per decade. This acceleration is due mostly to climate change, which includes heating of the ocean and melting of the land-based ice sheets and glaciers. Between 1993 and 2018, the thermal expansion of water contributed 42% to sea-level rise; melting of temperate glaciers, 21%; Greenland, 15%; and Antarctica, 8%. Climate scientists expect the rate to further accelerate during the 21st century, with the latest measurements saying the sea levels are currently rising by 3.6 mm per year.

Projecting future sea levels is challenging, due to the complexity of many aspects of the climate system and to time lags in sea level reactions to Earth temperature changes. As climate research into past and present

sea levels leads to improved computer models, projections have consistently increased. In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projected a high-end estimate of 60 cm (2 ft) through 2099, but their 2014 report raised the high-end estimate to about 90 cm (3 ft). In February 2021, a paper published in Ocean Science suggested that past projections for global sea-level rise by 2100 reported by the IPCC were likely conservative and that sea levels will rise more than previously expected.

The sea level will not rise uniformly everywhere on Earth, and it will even drop slightly in some locations, such as the Arctic. Local factors include tectonic effects and subsidence of the land, tides, currents, and storms. Sea level rises can affect human populations considerably in coastal and island regions. Widespread coastal flooding is expected with several degrees of warming sustained for millennia. Further effects are higher storm surges and more dangerous tsunamis, displacement of populations, loss, and degradation of agricultural land, and damage in cities. Natural environments like marine ecosystems are also affected, with fish, birds, and plants losing parts of their habitat.

Contributions

The three main reasons warming causes global sea level to rise are: oceans expand, ice sheets lose ice

faster than it forms from snowfall, and glaciers at higher altitudes also melt. Sea level rise since the start of the 20th century has been dominated by the retreat of glaciers and expansion of the ocean, but the contributions of the two large ice sheets (Greenland and Antarctica) are expected to increase in the 21st century. The ice sheets store most of the land ice (∼99.5%), with a sea-level equivalent (SLE) of 7.4 m (24 ft 3 in) for Greenland and 58.3 m (191 ft 3 in) for Antarctica.

Each year about 8 mm (5⁄16 in) of precipitation (liquid equivalent) falls on the ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland, mostly as snow, which accumulates and over time forms glacial ice. Much of this precipitation began as water vapor evaporated from the ocean surface. Some of the snow is blown away by wind or disappears from the ice sheet by melt or by sublimation (directly changing into water vapor). The rest of the snow slowly changes into ice. This ice can flow to the edges of the ice sheet and return to the ocean by melting at the edge or in the form of icebergs. If precipitation, surface processes, and ice loss at the edge balance each other, sea levels remain the same. However, scientists have found that ice is being lost and at an accelerating rate.

Effects

Current and future sea-level rise is set to have a number of impacts, particularly on coastal systems. Such impacts include increased coastal erosion, higher storm-surge flooding, inhibition of primary production processes, more extensive coastal inundation, changes in surface water quality and

groundwater characteristics, increased loss of property and coastal habitats, increased flood risk and potential loss of life, loss of non-monetary cultural resources and values, impacts on agriculture and aquaculture through a decline in soil and water quality, and loss of tourism, recreation, and transportation functions. Many of these impacts are detrimental. Owing to the great diversity of coastal environments; regional and local differences in projected relative sea level and climate changes; and differences in the resilience and adaptive capacity of ecosystems, sectors, and countries, the impacts will be highly variable in time and space. River deltas in Africa and Asia and small island states are particularly vulnerable to sea-level rise.

In addition to rising sea levels, other effects of climate change can heavily impact the influence on populations. Coastal flooding is accelerated by deforestation and change or extremes in weather conditions. Regions that are already vulnerable to the rising sea level also struggle with coastal flooding washing away land and altering the landscape. People in these areas struggle increasingly because of these different effects of climate change. Climate change-influenced storms also create a greater frequency of coastal flooding.

A 2020 review of 33 publications found that "most global estimates are in the order of tens or hundreds of millions of people exposed to coastal inundation and coastal flooding for different timeframes and scenarios" due to sea-level rise.

Long-term sea-level rise - Projections

Both the Greenland ice sheet and Antarctica have tipping points for warming levels that could be reached before the end of the 21st century. Crossing such tipping points would mean that ice-sheet changes are

potentially irreversible: a decrease to pre-industrial temperatures may not stabilize the ice sheet once the tipping point has been crossed. Quantifying the exact temperature change for which this tipping point is crossed remains controversial. For Greenland, estimates roughly range between 1 and 4 °C (2 to 7 °F) above pre-industrial. As of 2020, the lower of these values has already been passed. A 2021 analysis of sub-glacial sediment at the bottom of a 1.4 km Greenland ice core finds that the Greenland ice sheet melted away at least once during the last million years, and therefore strongly suggests that its tipping point is below the 2.5 °C maximum positive temperature excursion over that period.

A 2013 study estimated that each degree of temperature rise translates to a 2.3 m (7 ft 7 in) commitment to sea-level rise within the next 2,000 years. More recent research, especially into Antarctica, indicates that this is probably a conservative estimate and true long-term sea-level rise might be higher. Warming beyond the 2 °C (3.6 °F) target potentially leads to rates of sea-level rise dominated by ice loss from Antarctica. Continued carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel sources could cause additional tens of meters of sea-level rise, over the next millennia, and the available fossil fuel on Earth is even enough to ultimately melt the entire Antarctic ice sheet, causing about 58 m (190 ft) of sea-level rise.

Biodiversity - Human Impacts

Biodiversity is the biological variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation

at the genetic, species, and ecosystem levels. Terrestrial biodiversity is usually greater near the equator, which is the result of the warm climate and high primary productivity. Biodiversity is not distributed evenly on Earth and is richer in the tropics. These tropical forest ecosystems cover less than ten percent of the earth's surface and contain about ninety percent of the world's species. Marine biodiversity is usually higher along coasts in the Western Pacific, where sea surface temperature is highest, and in the mid-latitudinal band in all oceans. There are latitudinal gradients in species diversity. Biodiversity generally tends to cluster in hotspots, and has been increasing through time, but will be likely to slow in the future as a primary result of deforestation. It encompasses the evolutionary, ecological, and cultural processes that sustain life.

The period since the emergence of humans has displayed an ongoing biodiversity reduction and an accompanying loss of genetic diversity. Named the Holocene extinction, the reduction is caused primarily by human impacts, particularly habitat destruction. Conversely, biodiversity positively impacts human health in a number of ways, although a few negative effects are studied.

The United Nations designated 2011–2020 as the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity. and 2021–2030 as the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, According to a 2019 Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services by IPBES 25% of plant and animal species are threatened with extinction as the result of human activity. An October 2020 IPBES report found the same human actions which drive biodiversity loss have also resulted in an increase in pandemics.

Biodiversity Hotspot

A biodiversity hotspot is a region with a high level of endemic species that have experienced great habitat loss. The term hotspot was introduced in 1988 by Norman Myers. While hotspots are spread all over the world, the majority are forest areas and most are located in the tropics.

Brazil's Atlantic Forest is considered one such hotspot, containing roughly 20,000 plant species, 1,350

vertebrates, and millions of insects, about half of which occur nowhere else. The island

of Madagascar and India are also particularly notable. Colombia is characterized by high biodiversity, with the highest rate of species by area unit worldwide and it has the largest number of endemics (species that are not found naturally anywhere else) of any country. About 10% of the species of the Earth can be found in Colombia, including over 1,900 species of bird, more than in Europe and North America combined, Colombia has 10% of the world's mammals species, 14% of the amphibian species, and 18% of the bird species of the world. Madagascar's dry deciduous forests and lowland rainforests possess a high ratio of endemism. Since the island separated from mainland Africa 66 million years ago, many species and ecosystems have evolved independently. Indonesia's 17,000 islands cover 735,355 square miles (1,904,560 km²) and contain 10% of the world's flowering plants, 12% of mammals, and 17% of reptiles, amphibians, and birds—along with nearly 240 million people. Many regions of high biodiversity and/or endemism arise from specialized habitats that require unusual adaptations, for example, alpine environments in high mountains, or Northern European peat bogs.

Ecosystem services

The balance of evidence

"Ecosystem services are the suite of benefits that ecosystems provide to humanity." The natural species, or biota, are the caretakers of all ecosystems. It is as if the natural world is an enormous bank account of capital assets capable of paying life-sustaining dividends indefinitely, but only if the capital is maintained.

These services come in three flavors:

1. Provisioning services which involve the production of renewable resources (e.g.: food, wood, freshwater)
2. Regulating services which are those that lessen environmental change (e.g.: climate regulation, pest/disease control)
3. Cultural services represent human value and enjoyment (e.g.: landscape aesthetics, cultural heritage, outdoor recreation, and spiritual significance)

Human health

Biodiversity's relevance to human health is becoming an international political issue, as scientific evidence

builds on the global health implications of biodiversity loss. This issue is closely linked with the issue of climate change, as many of the anticipated health risks of climate change are associated with changes in biodiversity (e.g. changes in populations and distribution of disease vectors, scarcity of freshwater, impacts on agricultural biodiversity, and food resources, etc.).

The growing demand and lack of drinkable water on the planet presents an additional challenge to the future of human health. Partly, the problem lies in the success of water suppliers to increase supplies and the failure of groups promoting the preservation of water resources. While the distribution of clean water increases, in some parts of the world it remains unequal. According to the World Health Organisation (2018), only 71% of the global population used a safely managed drinking-water service.

Some of the health issues influenced by biodiversity include dietary health and nutrition security, infectious disease, medical science and medicinal resources, social and psychological health. Biodiversity is also known to have an important role in reducing disaster risk and in post-disaster relief and recovery efforts.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme a pathogen, like a virus, have more chances to meet resistance in a diverse population. Therefore, in a population genetically similar it expands more easily. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic had fewer chances to occur in a world with higher biodiversity.

Species loss rates

During the last century, decreases in biodiversity have been increasingly observed. In 2007, Almost all

scientists acknowledge that the rate of species loss is greater now than at any time in human history, with extinctions occurring at rates hundreds of times higher than background extinction rates. As of 2012, some studies suggest that 25% of all mammal species could be extinct in 20 years.

In absolute terms, the planet has lost 58% of its biodiversity since 1970 according to a 2016 study by the World Wildlife FundThe Living Planet Report 2014 claims that "the number of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish across the globe is, on average, about half the size it was 40 years ago". Of that number, 39% accounts for the terrestrial wildlife gone, 39% for the marine wildlife gone, and 76% for the freshwater wildlife gone. Biodiversity took the biggest hit in Latin America, plummeting 83 percent. High-income countries showed a 10% increase in biodiversity, which was canceled out by a loss in low-income countries. This is despite the fact that high-income countries use five times the ecological resources of low-income countries, which was explained as a result of a process whereby wealthy nations are outsourcing resource depletion to poorer nations, which are suffering the greatest ecosystem losses.

In 2020 the World Wildlife Foundation published a report saying that "biodiversity is being destroyed at a rate unprecedented in human history". The report claims that 68% of the population of the examined species were destroyed in the years 1970 - 2016.

Threats

In 2006, many species were formally classified as rare or endangered, or threatened; moreover, scientists have estimated that millions more species are at risk which has not been formally recognized. About 40 percent of the 40,177 species assessed using the IUCN Red List criteria are now listed as threatened with extinction—a total of 16,119.

Habitat destruction

Habitat destruction has played a key role in extinctions, especially in relation to tropical forest destruction. Factors contributing to habitat loss include overconsumption, overpopulation, land-use change, deforestation, pollution (air pollution, water pollution, soil contamination), and global warming or climate change.

Habitat size and numbers of species are systematically related. Physically larger species and those living at lower latitudes or in forests or oceans are more sensitive to reduction in habitat area. Conversion to "trivial" standardized ecosystems (e.g., monoculture following deforestation) effectively destroys habitat for the more diverse species that preceded the conversion. Even the simplest forms of agriculture affect diversity – through clearing/draining the land, discouraging weeds and "pests", and encouraging just a limited set of domesticated plant and animal species. In some countries, property rights or lax law/regulatory enforcement are associated with deforestation and habitat loss.

Co-extinctions are a form of habitat destruction. Co-extinction occurs when the extinction or decline in one species accompanies similar processes in another, such as in plants and beetles.

A 2019 report has revealed that bees and other pollinating insects have been wiped out of almost a quarter of their habitats across the United Kingdom. The population crashes have been happening since the 1980s and are affecting biodiversity. The increase in industrial farming and pesticide use, combined with diseases, invasive species, and climate change is threatening the future of these insects and the agriculture they support.

In 2019, research was published showing that insects are destroyed by human activities like habitat destruction, pesticide poisoning, invasive species, and climate change at a rate that will cause the collapse of ecological systems in the next 50 years if it cannot be stopped.

Climate change

Global warming is a major threat to global biodiversity. For example, coral reefs – which are biodiversity hotspots – will be lost within the century if global warming continues at the current rate.

Climate change has proven to affect biodiversity and evidence supporting the altering effects is widespread. Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide certainly affects plant morphology and is acidifying oceans, and temperature affects species ranges, phenology, and weather, but, mercifully, the major impacts that have been predicted are still potential futures. We have not documented major extinctions yet, even as climate change drastically alters the biology of many species.

A recent study predicts that up to 35% of the world's terrestrial carnivores and ungulates will be at higher risk of extinction by 2050 because of the joint effects of predicted climate and land-use change under business-as-usual human development scenarios.

Climate change has advanced the time of evening when Brazilian free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis)

emerge to feed. This change is believed to be related to the drying of regions as temperatures rise. This earlier emergence exposes the bats to greater predation increased competition with other insectivores who feed in the twilight or daylight hours.

Human overpopulation

The world's population numbered nearly 7.6 billion as of mid-2017 (which is approximately one billion more inhabitants compared to 2005) and is forecast to reach 11.1 billion in 2100. Sir David King, the former chief scientific adviser to the UK government, told a parliamentary inquiry: "It is self-evident that the massive

growth in the human population through the 20th century has had more impact on biodiversity than any other single factor." At least until the middle of the 21st century, worldwide losses of pristine biodiverse land will probably depend much on the worldwide human birth rate.

Some top scientists have argued that population size and growth, along with overconsumption, are significant factors in biodiversity loss and soil degradation. The 2019 IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and biologists including Paul R. Ehrlich and Stuart Pimm have noted that human population growth and overconsumption are the main drivers of species decline. E. O. Wilson, who contends that human population growth has been devastating to the planet's biodiversity, stated that the "pattern of human population growth in the 20th century was more bacterial than primate." He added that when Homo sapiens reached a population of six billion their biomass exceeded that of any other large land-dwelling animal species that had ever existed by over 100 times, and that "we and the rest of life cannot afford another 100 years like that".

Activated carbon - Superb Adsorption

Activated carbon, also called activated charcoal, is a form of carbon processed to have small, low-

volume pores that increase the surface area available for adsorption or chemical reactions. Activated is sometimes replaced by active. Due to its high degree of microporosity, one gram of activated carbon has a surface area in excess of 3,000 m² (32,000 sq ft) as determined by gas adsorption. An activation level sufficient for useful application may be obtained solely from a high surface area. Further chemical treatment often enhances adsorption properties.

Activated charcoal, also known as activated carbon is commonly produced from high carbon sources materials such as wood or coconut husk. It is made by treating the source material with either a combination of heat and pressure or with a strong acid or base followed by carbonization to make it highly porous. This gives it a very large surface area for its volume, up to 3000 square meters per gram. It has a large number of industrial uses including methane and hydrogen storage, air purification, decaffeination, gold purification, metal extraction, water purification, medicine, sewage treatment, and air filters in gas masks and respirators.

Activated carbon is usually derived from charcoal. When derived from coal it is referred to as activated coal. Activated coke is derived from coke.

Properties

A gram of activated carbon can have a surface area in excess of 500 m² (5,400 sq ft), with 3,000 m² (32,000 sq ft) being readily achievable.

Under an electron microscope, the high surface-area structures of activated carbon are revealed. Individual particles are intensely convoluted and display various kinds of porosity; there may be

many areas where flat surfaces of graphite-like material run parallel to each other, separated by only a few nanometers or so. These micropores provide superb conditions for adsorption to occur, since adsorbing material can interact with many surfaces simultaneously. Tests of adsorption behavior are usually done with nitrogen gas at 77 K under high vacuum, but in everyday terms activated carbon is perfectly capable of producing the equivalent, by adsorption from its environment, liquid water from steam at 100 °C (212 °F) and pressure of 1/10,000 of an atmosphere. Activated carbon can be used as a substrate for the application of various chemicals to improve the adsorptive capacity for some inorganic (and problematic organic) compounds such as hydrogen sulfide (H₂S), ammonia (NH₃), formaldehyde (HCOH), mercury (Hg) and radioactive iodine-131(¹³¹I). This property is known as chemisorption.

Production

Activated carbon is carbon produced from carbonaceous source materials such as bamboo, coconut husk, willow peat, wood, coir, lignite, coal, and petroleum pitch. It can be produced by one of the following processes:

1. Physical activation: The source material is developed into activated carbon using hot gases. Air is then introduced to burn out the gasses, creating a graded, screened, and de-dusted form of activated carbon. This is generally done by using one or more of the following processes:
   • Carbonization: Material with carbon content is pyrolyzed at temperatures in the range of 600–900 °C, usually in an inert atmosphere with gases like argon or nitrogen
   • Activation/Oxidation: Raw material or carbonized material is exposed to oxidizing atmospheres (oxygen or steam) at temperatures above 250 °C, usually in the temperature range of 600–1200 °C.
2. Chemical activation: The carbon material is impregnated with certain chemicals. The chemical is typically an acid, strong base, or a salt (phosphoric acid 25%, potassium hydroxide 5%, sodium hydroxide 5%, calcium chloride 25%, and zinc chloride 25% ). The carbon is then subjected to higher temperatures (250–600  °C). It is believed that the temperature activates the carbon at this stage by forcing the material to open up and have more microscopic pores. Chemical activation is preferred to physical activation owing to the lower temperatures, better quality consistency, and shorter time needed for activating the material.

Mitigate Climate change and Save a life

Environmental

Carbon adsorption has numerous applications in removing pollutants from air or water streams both in the field and in industrial processes such as:

• Spill cleanup
• Groundwater remediation
• Drinking water filtration
• Air purification
• Volatile organic compounds capture from painting, dry cleaning, gasoline dispensing operations, and other processes
• Volatile organic compounds recovery (solvent recovery systems, SRU) from flexible packaging, converting, coating, and other processes.

We have seen activated carbon can be the very best environmental solution for purification and cleaning up

air from toxic and unwanted residue. It works to adsorption the air was very efficient. Some companies made a shift by new innovation with saving environment mindset to design a new and modern product, to mitigate climate change, without using any electric power and only as standalone modern with new design product, can change the air from bad to better. It has been tested and effective to eliminate the covid19 variant in the air.

Agricultural

Activated carbon (charcoal) is an allowed substance used by organic farmers in livestock production. In livestock production, it is used as a pesticide, animal feed additive, processing aid, nonagricultural ingredient, and disinfectant. 

Medical use

Activated charcoal is used to detoxify people, but only in life-threatening medical emergencies such

as overdoses or poisonings. As it is indigestible it will only work on poisons or medications still present in the stomach and intestines. Once these have been absorbed by the body the charcoal will no longer be able to adsorb them so early intervention is desirable. Charcoal is not an effective treatment for alcohol, metals, or elemental poisons such as lithium or arsenic as it will only absorb certain chemicals and molecules. It is usually administered by a nasogastric tube into the stomach as the thick slurry required for maximum adsorption is very difficult to swallow.