This episode is a rerun. It first aired on September 12, 2023.<\/p>\n
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I\u2019m Megan Hall.<\/p>\n
Today, we have a question from one of our reporters, Kolya Shields. What do you have for us, Kolya?<\/p>\n
Kolya Shields: I keep seeing timelapse photos showing ice sheets shrinking faster and faster. That made me curious about the impacts of this melting, and what we might be able to do about it.<\/p>\n
Megan Hall: We had Janek Schaller from our Possibly team help Kolya look into it. Welcome, Janek and Kolya!<\/p>\n
Janek Schaller: Hi, Megan!<\/p>\n
Kolya Shields: Hello!<\/p>\n
Megan Hall: So, first of all, what are glaciers really, and why should we be worried about them melting?<\/p>\n
Kolya Shields: Well, in short, glaciers are large formations of ice and snow that slowly flow across land and stay frozen during the warm seasons<\/a>.<\/p>\n Janek Schaller: To learn more, we spoke to Paul Mayewski.<\/p>\n Paul Mayewski: \u201cI’m the director of the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine\u201d<\/p>\n Kolya Shields: Paul says officially, glaciers have to be tall enough for ice to accumulate on the top and \u201cflow\u201d to the bottom. That means they\u2019re usually at least 30 feet thick. But\u2026<\/p>\n Paul Mayewski: Glaciers come in all shapes and sizes\u2026 the largest is obviously, the Antarctic ice sheet, which is one and a half times the area of the United States.<\/p>\n Megan Hall: Wow! That\u2019s a lot of ice!<\/p>\n Janek Schaller: Yeah, but they\u2019re shrinking. According to a recent study, glaciers across the world are losing about 267 gigatonnes<\/a> of ice a year.<\/p>\n Megan Hall: Which means?<\/p>\n Kolya Shields: To put that in perspective, just one gigaton is equal to about 10,000 fully loaded aircraft carriers<\/a>.<\/p>\n Megan Hall: I\u2019m guessing this is happening because of climate change?<\/p>\n Janek Schaller: Yes, but it\u2019s not just that it\u2019s getting warmer. Because it\u2019s warmer the white snow that covers glaciers melts away, and reveals a darker ice surface, which absorbs more heat and speeds up the melting process.<\/p>\n Megan Hall: So they\u2019re melting faster and faster. But why are people so worried about it?<\/p>\n Kolya Shields: Paul has some insight into that question:<\/p>\n Paul Mayewski: If you were to melt something like the Greenland ice sheet, sea level would probably rise close to 20 or 30 feet<\/a>. And of course, the Antarctic ice sheet is a lot larger.<\/p>\n Kolya Shields: So far, about half of the sea level rise we\u2019ve experienced is the result of melting glaciers, the rest is from the expansion of ocean water as it warms.<\/p>\n Megan Hall: So – more melting glaciers means more coastal flooding?<\/p>\n Kolya Shields: Yes. They definitely contribute to the rising waters all around us.<\/p>\n Janek Schaller: And Paul says melting glaciers do more than increase sea levels \u2014 they also affect water supplies for some communities.<\/p>\n Paul Mayewski: For the people who live in places like the Himalayas, the Andes, Europe for that matter, loss of glaciers is a tremendous change.<\/p>\n Janek Schaller: And we\u2019re not just talking about a few communities. Melted glaciers meet the water needs of more than 200 million people every year.<\/p>\n