Five years ago, on this day, December 26th, 2019,
On December 26, 2019, Erin Pettit trudged across a plain of glaring snow and ice, dragging an ice-penetrating radar unit the size of a large suitcase on a red plastic sled behind her. The brittle snow crunched like cornflakes underneath her boots—evidence that it had recently melted and refrozen following a series of warm summer days. Pettit was surveying a part of Antarctica where, until several days before, no other human had ever stepped. A row of red and green nylon flags, flapping in the wind on bamboo poles, extended into the distance, marking a safe route free of hidden, deadly crevasses. The Thwaites Ice Shelf appeared healthy on the surface. But if that were the case, Pettit wouldn’t have been there. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/antarcticas-collapse-could-begin-even-sooner-than-anticipated/
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 412ppm. As of 2024 it is 425ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was
We are forever doing impact science, while the production science kills us all. So it goes.
What I think we can learn from this
Brave people have gathered the data. Lazy and scared people (including myself) don’t make the data matter.
What happened next
The emissions kept climbing, obvs.