Polar Oceans in Peril

The UN has named the month of June as ‘World Ocean’s Month’ and so this video is titled Our Polar Oceans in Peril. The polar oceans are the Arctic and Southern/Antarctic oceans. This video was recorded on June 18th, 2021 and published on June 30th, 2021.

Dr. Peter Carter, Paul Beckwith and Regina Valdez will discuss why the polar oceans play such a critical role in the climate system of our planet. They focus mainly on the Arctic ocean and various feedback mechanisms leading to further warming, sea level rise, and harm to the ecosystem. Further highlights include:

• The reason we’ve enjoyed a relatively stable climate over the last 10,000 years allowing us to produce an abundance of food to support and build our civilization
• Quantification of the Earth’s ice imbalance leading to a loss of 7.6 trillion tonnes of Arctic sea ice along with 0.9 trillion tonnes of Antarctic sea ice
• The stunning fact that the heat being retained by the climate system has doubled over the last 14 years
• A breakdown of the various feedback mechanisms leading to further warming.
• Some of the major geoengineering ideas on how we can preserve the Arctic sea ice are articulated including the use of micro-beads, marine micro bubbles, and marine cloud brightening
• How the melting of the ice in the arctic doesn’t stay in the arctic but affects the probability of extreme weather such as droughts and flooding
• What recent scientific research is saying about all this
• The need to maintain hope and push for political change leading to action on climate change

Links:

• Review article: Earth’s ice imbalance
• Joint NASA, NOAA Study Finds Earth’s Energy Imbalance Has Doubled
• What is CERES
• The Arctic Ice Project (Microspheres)
• Microbubbles/Sea Foam
• Marine Cloud Brightening Video with Paul - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4rVwR0wY-0&t=5s
• Heat from below: How the ocean is wearing down the Arctic sea ice
• Explainer: How ‘Atlantification’ is making the Arctic Ocean saltier and warmer

Panelists:

• Dr. Peter Carter - MD, Expert IPCC Reviewer and the director of the Climate Emergency Institute

• Paul Beckwith - Climate Systems Scientist. Professor at the University of Ottawa’s Paleoclimatology Laboratory as well as at Carleton University

• Regina Valdez - Program Director, Climate Reality Project, NYC. GreenFaith Fellow and LEED Green Associate

Video Production:

• Charles Gregoire – Climate Reality Leader, Electrical Engineer, Webmaster and IT prime for FacingFuture.Earth and the Climate Emergency Forum

• Heidi Brault - Climate Reality Leader, BA(Psychology), Library & Information Technician Diploma - Video production and website assistant - Organizer and convener, Metadata technician, COP26 Team Lead for FacingFuture.Earth and the Climate Emergency Forum.

Attributions:

Background Music:

• Title: Through the City II
• Author: Crowander
• Source: Free Music Archive
• License: BY-NC 4.0

Image and Video:

• Image and Video Attributions