Walking On Water

According to a Vatican news release: President Joe Biden convened the Leaders Summit on Climate on April 22-23, which included a video message by Pope Francis. Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City and Bishop David J. Malloy of Rockford, respective chairmen of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committees on Domestic Justice and Human Development and International Justice and Peace, have released the following statement in support of the Holy Father:

“Pope Francis addressed a virtual gathering of over 40 leaders from the highest levels of world government at the White House’s Leaders Summit on Climate, saying, ‘our concern is to see that the environment is cleaner, healthier and conserved, and to take care of nature so that it takes care of us.’

“We commend the Biden Administration’s commitment to climate stewardship and environmental justice, consistent with the decision to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement. The Leaders Summit on Climate reflects renewed American leadership on climate change, and the pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% from 2005 levels by 2030 is an ambitious and welcome national goal. Consistent with the Holy Father’s call for integral ecology, the movement towards a net-zero emission world must also emphasize just transition so that working families who rely on the energy sector are not left behind.” 

Sea level continues to rise.  Glaciers are melting at a higher rate than expected.  Scientists continue to sound the alarm.  Consider the following recent news:

An Antarctic glacier larger than the UK is at risk of breaking up after scientists discovered more warm water flowing underneath it than previously thought. The fate of Thwaites – nicknamed the doomsday glacier – and the massive west Antarctic ice sheet it supports are the biggest unknown factors in future global sea level rise.

Over the past few years, teams of scientists have been crisscrossing the remote and inaccessible region on Antarctica’s western edge to try to understand how fast the ice is melting and what the consequences for the rest of the world might be.

“What happens in west Antarctica is of great societal importance,” said Dr Robert Larter, a scientist with the British Antarctic Survey and principal investigator with the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration, the most ambitious research project ever carried out in Antarctica. “This is the biggest uncertainty in future sea level rise.”…

…Anna Wahlin, a professor of oceanography at the University of Gothenburg who led the study, said the findings suggested that the fate of the glacier and the west Antarctic ice sheet would be sealed in the next two to five years. “The coming years will be crucial … they will determine what happens to this glacier,” she said.

Wahlin said the front of the Thwaites glacier was resting on a number of “pinning points” under the sea. But as relatively warm water from the deep ocean increased the melting, she said, these would be lost, breaking up the ice and allowing warm water further under the ice. This would speed up the flow of the glacier into the sea.

“It could be that once that happens everything falls apart and this is just the beginning of some quite dramatic change … but if it doesn’t happen now, I think we can be more confident that it is not going to happen as the worst-case scenarios,” Wahlin said.

The worst-case scenarios for Thwaites are grim. It is the widest glacier on the planet, more than 1km deep and holds enough ice to raise the sea level by 65 cm (26 inches) (my emphasis).

Ice loss has accelerated in the last 30 years, and it now contributes about 4% of all global sea level rise. Experts say this could increase dramatically if the ice at the front of Thwaites breaks up, with knock-on effects for other glaciers in the area…

…Ella Gilbert, a research scientist at the University of Reading, said what was happening in the polar regions demanded an urgent response from the international community. “The polar regions are the canary in the coalmine – they are the symbol of climate change,” said Gilbert, who was a joint author of a recent study of warning of the catastrophic impact of global heating on Antarctic ice. “We really do need to minimize our emissions because if we lose the polar regions, not only are we going to amplify climate change … it will contribute to sea level rise which affects everyone around the globe.” (end)

By 2030, about nine years away and with a worse-case scenario, 26 or more inches of sea level rise should have coastal residents needing to walk on water.  We might need to walk with Jesus, in more ways than one.

Deacon David Pierce