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August 4, 2021

Climate Change and Antarctica Polar Vortex Data

Antarctica Polar Vortex Data and Climate Change
BY: TARTLE

Antarctica and Australia and Climate Change

Guess what? A chunk of ice bigger than New York City recently broke off the ice shelf in Antarctica. The continent has been recording some of its warmest days ever and that ice seems to be breaking off at an alarming rate. Before you ask, yes, we are talking about net loss. 

If you are thinking about the potential effects of that if the trend should continue - good. There is so much ice on the massive continent that if all of it melted, it would raise sea level by 180ft. Not quite the way the world looks in Waterworld, but certainly there would be a lot less land.

Of course, all of that ice is highly unlikely to melt and certainly won’t do so overnight. That doesn’t mean there aren’t some immediate effects that we should concern ourselves with. One aspect is all of the freshwater that is getting added into the ocean. As that melts, the ocean’s salt and minerals are diluted, potentially disrupting sensitive ecosystems. 

It actually reminds me of another movie, The Day After Tomorrow. While the scenario in the film is outlandish, its premise is founded in a grain of truth. There has been concern in the past that melting ice at the North Pole would disrupt the Trans-Atlantic Current (TAC). All the freshwater, being lighter than salt water, would in effect submerge the current, interrupting the flow of warm water the TAC brings up from the Caribbean. Some scientists believe that may be what caused the Little Ice Age from roughly 1300 – 1850 AD. This makes sense as immediately preceding that time frame was the equally well-known Medieval Warming Period. 

The water from melting Antarctic ice is not terribly likely to directly affect the TAC, yet it could have an effect on weather in Australia by disrupting local water currents. The warmer water in general could also weaken the polar vortex at the South Pole. The vortex is created because of the difference in temperature between the water immediately around the frozen continent and the warmer water that comes down from the equatorial region. Less temperature difference equals a weaker vortex, which could lead to warmer and drier weather in Australia. If you remember the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020, large swaths of Australia were a blazing hell-scape that at one point even rained fire. I’m sure they would like less of that, not more. 

That begs the question, how does one make that happen? Most of us lack the resources to have any significant impact all by ourselves, positive or negative. However, when a large number of people all take action in a particular direction, the results can be astonishing, even though the action taken by one person seems insignificant. For those who fly, maybe the business can have their meetings on Zoom instead. Yes, the Davos crowd would do well to put their money where their mouths are on this one. Don’t fly? Maybe one less steak a week. How does that affect anything? Cows take up a lot of land. A whole lot. That usually leads to the cutting down of lots of CO2 processing trees to make room for the bovine methane generators. A little less consumption on the part of everyone can save acres of rainforest. You most likely drive. Make your next car something more fuel efficient. In the meantime, getting all of your shopping done in one shot and cutting down on those trips to town wouldn’t hurt. 

Yes, these are all individually insignificant. But if a billion people around the world did it, it would add up to a big gain. You could then share the changes you’ve made via TARTLE, making it possible to track the effects, and determine what had the biggest net gain so people can actually see the results and use them to determine their own course of action. And maybe, that ice will melt just a little bit slower.

What’s your data worth? Sign up for the TARTLE Marketplace through this link here.

Summary
Climate Change and Antarctica Polar Vortex Data
Title
Climate Change and Antarctica Polar Vortex Data
Description

Antarctica and Australia and Climate Change Guess what? A chunk of ice bigger than New York City recently broke off the ice shelf in Antarctica. The continent has been recording some of its warmest days ever and that ice seems to be breaking off at an alarming rate. Before you ask, yes, we are talking about net loss. 

Feature Image Credit: Envato Elements
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For those who are hard of hearing – the episode transcript can be read below:

TRANSCRIPT

Speaker 1 (00:07):

Welcome to TARTLE Cast with your hosts Alexander McCaig and Jason Rigby, where humanity steps into the future and source data defines the path.

Alexander McCaig (00:19):

You know, I've heard that intro so many times. I wonder if I know it by heart.

Jason Rigby (00:31):

I guarantee you, I don't. I've heard songs a thousand times and I still don't know the words. It's horrific. Some people just have a memory that... You would know it. You probably hear it three times and know it.

Alexander McCaig (00:42):

Yeah. It's because I'm just focusing on it. I never take that idea that, "I could never remember something like that." To me, I think that's ridiculous or like, "Oh, I can't learn math." "Oh, I can't learn a new language." Hearing things like that are just...

Jason Rigby (00:58):

I can't...

Alexander McCaig (00:58):

I can't, I can't, I can't.

Jason Rigby (01:00):

I can't focus. I can't work. I can't...

Alexander McCaig (01:02):

I guess you can't then. That's too bad.

Jason Rigby (01:07):

I can't understand big icebergs falling into the ocean.

Alexander McCaig (01:12):

I can't understand why people say they have to believe in climate change when they see that 252 gigatons of ice are falling into the ocean every single year.

Jason Rigby (01:20):

Yeah. The Brunt Ice Shelf last month-

Alexander McCaig (01:21):

Brunt.

Jason Rigby (01:22):

It was an iceberg bigger than New York City. Gone.

Alexander McCaig (01:26):

Think about that. Think about that. I'm laughing at how absurd it is. It's bigger than New York City. Dude, that is so effing big.

Jason Rigby (01:39):

Yeah. And Antarctica is recording its hottest days on record.

Alexander McCaig (01:43):

Which are?

Jason Rigby (01:44):

It doesn't give the... It's just saying that they are. But this is an example. The polar vortex over Antarctica, a wind pattern driven by the contrast between the frigid pole and the warmth at lower latitudes. That can impact temperature and rainfall patterns in Australia dramatically. So when you have a weakened polar vortex, it makes it super hot and dry and gives huge extremes to Australia.

Alexander McCaig (02:04):

So, you're telling me Australia, thousands and thousands of miles away should be worried about ice breaking off? You're telling me that should be a worry for them.

Jason Rigby (02:18):

Think about that.

Alexander McCaig (02:19):

Yeah.

Jason Rigby (02:20):

I mean, well in 19-

Alexander McCaig (02:21):

Let it sink in like an iceberg.

Jason Rigby (02:23):

Gigatons of ice lost annually.

Alexander McCaig (02:26):

Gigatons.

Jason Rigby (02:27):

1979 to 1990, 40 gigatons were lost.

Alexander McCaig (02:31):

Thousand tons.

Jason Rigby (02:32):

1989 to 2000 50 gigatons. Oh, we're doing good.

Alexander McCaig (02:35):

A ton is 2000 pounds.

Jason Rigby (02:37):

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah. 1999 to 2009, we went from 50 to 166.

Alexander McCaig (02:45):

166 million. Dude, that's nuts. It's a gigaton, 2000.

Jason Rigby (02:48):

So, we tripled.

Alexander McCaig (02:49):

Yeah, that's ridiculous.

Jason Rigby (02:50):

And then 2009 to now, we're at 252. Gigatons.

Alexander McCaig (02:56):

Dude, the data's right there. And if you're like, "Oh it's a chart. Maybe someone is manipulating it," look at the satellite imagery of the damn shelf of ice. It's disappearing. They have these things geotagged. Could you imagine geo-tagging Manhattan because it's about to float away into the ocean? Oh, how many nautical miles has Manhattan drifted off today? People would be in a freaking panic.

Jason Rigby (03:27):

Yeah, and then, how many... If the ice melts in Antarctica, what was it? For raising...

Alexander McCaig (03:33):

180 feet.

Jason Rigby (03:35):

It would raise sea level.

Alexander McCaig (03:37):

Bye Florida. Bye everybody else. Bye every spice island. New Zealand, see you later.

Jason Rigby (03:43):

Anything that's below 180 feet, sea level, gone.

Alexander McCaig (03:47):

You're screwed. Yeah, you're screwed.

Jason Rigby (03:48):

So most of the world would just be a big warm ocean.

Alexander McCaig (03:50):

Isn't that great? Just a giant warm ocean. And last I checked, people are pretty fearful of swimming in the ocean. They don't like touching seaweed on their feet. You want to go hang out with some sharks and whales? Some moon jellies?

Jason Rigby (04:01):

Yeah, because I wonder how much of the population is under 180 feet.

Alexander McCaig (04:05):

How many people can actually swim?

Jason Rigby (04:06):

Yeah, exactly.

Alexander McCaig (04:06):

Think about it.

Jason Rigby (04:07):

I know California, Florida, the east coast, the west coast, any coasts are going to be gone.

Alexander McCaig (04:13):

Gone.

Jason Rigby (04:14):

Oh wow. Because I know like-

Alexander McCaig (04:15):

And then imagine, you know how much a tide rises by like 25 feet when there's a storm. So this thing's up 180 feet, and now they've got a storm coming in. Imagine a typhoon with a 180 foot increase in sea level rise. Dude, there's nothing left. That thing would be so far inland. You'd be the United ocean.

Jason Rigby (04:35):

And it's crazy because they said this, the detection of sponges and other unidentifiable animals.

Alexander McCaig (04:42):

U.F. Animals.

Jason Rigby (04:44):

That defy established science is just one in a steady stream of revelations about a forbidding region. So now, as we begin to study it more, we're finding these sponges and these other unidentifiable animals that we didn't even know existed. And we're beginning to. So this shows the importance of the Antarctic. I know it's remote and desolate, but it affects us all. And if we get 150 billion metric tons of ice every year melting, we've got an issue.

Alexander McCaig (05:14):

I mean, just the first year, it's an issue. But you know, it's not the issue that it's melting. It's the fact that it's increasing in its melt. Problem. That's a huge problem.

Jason Rigby (05:25):

Yeah. And it's pretty cool. They strapped sensors onto seals to check the melting area, you know? So it's kind of cool. So you have all these seals and they have sensors on and they're just floating around, but they're like little IOT devices.

Alexander McCaig (05:37):

Yeah. Nature's IOT.

Jason Rigby (05:39):

Yeah. Collecting mass amounts of data. And then in real time, they're able to see the melting side of things, because how they're swimming, that's going to be relative to the amount of depth.

Alexander McCaig (05:50):

That's correct.

Jason Rigby (05:51):

That's there. So it's just really cool, what the scientists are doing up there. But it's not cool. So this is from the world economic forum. I want to tell you what they said, how we should combat this. This is really interesting. "There are a number of things just about anyone can do to help blunt the effects of climate change on Antarctica and the rest of the world, ranging from flying less to eating less meat. If we manage to cut emissions and hols warming-"

Alexander McCaig (06:12):

They said eating less meat?

Jason Rigby (06:13):

Yeah.

Alexander McCaig (06:14):

Wow!

Jason Rigby (06:15):

"If we managed to cut emissions and hold warming to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, sea level rise by the end of this century could be just half of what it could be otherwise." So just small... If all of us... It's like these Fintech companies and stuff like that, that charge a penny, but then they charge a penny to a billion people. Well, how much money did you just make? No one noticed that the penny charged was more.

Alexander McCaig (06:39):

Yeah.

Jason Rigby (06:41):

You know, it's like taxes-

Alexander McCaig (06:41):

So divide a billion by a hundred.

Jason Rigby (06:41):

... that way. You know, if I come to you and I say, "Oh, you represent this district in New York City. Well, perfect. Well I can help you out. I'm a lobbyist. I can help you out and we can make sure you get re-elected. All we need is a three cent tax." You know, but on millions of people, how much does that come up to?

Alexander McCaig (06:58):

It's massive.

Jason Rigby (06:58):

So if everybody would say, "Hey, let's just fly a little bit less, let's eat a little less meat, let's consume things that are properly-

Alexander McCaig (07:07):

Meat is not only cows, chicken, beef, pork, all that stuff on land. Meat is also in the water.

Jason Rigby (07:13):

Oh yeah. Well, we had an episode on that.

Alexander McCaig (07:14):

People think... When they think meat, what's the first thing you go to in your mind?

Jason Rigby (07:16):

A cow.

Alexander McCaig (07:16):

Cow. Wrong. No. It's all the stuff in the ocean too. Okay? [crosstalk 00:07:21].

Jason Rigby (07:20):

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, every-

Alexander McCaig (07:22):

Tunas.

Jason Rigby (07:23):

Yeah. I mean, we did a whole episode on tuna and stuff like that, but-

Alexander McCaig (07:27):

I think I got really upset.

Jason Rigby (07:28):

It's little... If you make... You don't have to make drastic changes. Little tiny changes-

Alexander McCaig (07:33):

What happens to seven billion people make a small change?

Jason Rigby (07:35):

A very small change, a micro change.

Alexander McCaig (07:36):

Micro. Yeah. Whoa, that's a shift.

Jason Rigby (07:40):

If you ate meat once a week, instead of eating meat three times a week and seven billion people did that. Huge dramatic increase.

Alexander McCaig (07:46):

Imagine if we all stopped killing each other.

Jason Rigby (07:48):

Oh yeah.

Alexander McCaig (07:48):

Holy crap.

Jason Rigby (07:49):

Well, we did that. It just got released, but you remember the episode that we did, and it was [inaudible 00:07:53] and I listened to it and it was great. The episode that we did on how much violence is costing countries.

Alexander McCaig (07:58):

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jason Rigby (07:59):

And that amazing report that we did that on. It just-

Alexander McCaig (08:01):

[crosstalk 00:08:01] a piece. Yeah.

Jason Rigby (08:02):

Yeah, just the billions of dollars that are wasted on violence. And we talked about that. I encourage everybody to listen to that episode. It was really good. But these are just a few things that we can do that's not a big deal.

Alexander McCaig (08:14):

We're not asking... Just change a little bit of the behavior.

Jason Rigby (08:17):

Yeah. Certain oils, don't buy.

Alexander McCaig (08:18):

What's so hard about that?

Jason Rigby (08:20):

Stop cooking with certain oils.

Alexander McCaig (08:21):

Stop buying stuff with palm oil in it.

Jason Rigby (08:23):

Yeah.

Alexander McCaig (08:24):

Do you like rainforest? You like tigers? Orangutans, stuff like that? If you like the color green, stop buying palm oil.

Jason Rigby (08:31):

I was shocked at how many tigers there are in the world. That's how many that's wild. Let me put that... Dude, it's shocking.

Alexander McCaig (08:38):

Aren't there more in cages than there are in the wild?

Jason Rigby (08:39):

There are more. There's more in cages. Watch this, population of wild tigers. And we're coming in there and lopping their land. There's 3,900 tigers total. How big of a city is 3,900 people?

Alexander McCaig (08:54):

I think there's more in the local apartment complex.

Jason Rigby (08:58):

Yeah. Think about that. That would be like a micro city. Like it would probably have maybe a post office.

Alexander McCaig (09:04):

It's a village, dude.

Jason Rigby (09:04):

Yeah. It probably wouldn't even have a post office.

Alexander McCaig (09:06):

No, like in New Mexico, you go by some places, like, what is this? Does this exist?

Jason Rigby (09:12):

3,900 tigers are in the world. And that's it.

Alexander McCaig (09:16):

That's a shame.

Jason Rigby (09:17):

After that it's gone. Yeah, there's more in captivity than there is in the wild. But over and over again, we see this. You mentioned orangutans. There's species of orangutans that are almost gone.

Alexander McCaig (09:28):

Yeah.

Jason Rigby (09:28):

Like will be gone forever. Like the orange... I forgot the name of that-

Alexander McCaig (09:34):

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. It doesn't matter what the name is, dude, the species is disappearing. Just correlate it to this, everybody, if the ice disappears, you disappear. If you're worried about orangutans, you should also worry about you. You're the next thing that's going to happen. First, it's the plants and the animals. Then it's the ice. Then it's the land you step on. Then it's you.

Jason Rigby (09:58):

Well, there was a whole population of penguins that had to leave because of this. So yeah, it starts at the population of penguins and then it turns to Australia.

Alexander McCaig (10:07):

Penguins can barely walk.

Jason Rigby (10:08):

Yeah.

Alexander McCaig (10:08):

Could you imagine displacing that many penguins?

Jason Rigby (10:10):

And they wear tuxedos. They're so classy.

Alexander McCaig (10:12):

All the time. They're classy. They can barely walk. And we're displacing them from [crosstalk 00:10:16].

Jason Rigby (10:16):

They walk like me after leg day.

Alexander McCaig (10:17):

Yeah. That delayed onset muscle soreness, huh? Yeah, we got to pay attention to the data and if this is what... I'm going to make a little bridge to TARTLE. It's one thing for someone to self identify and say a specific thing about their data. It's another one for them to back it up with photographic proof. On TARTLE, someone could tell you something about the meds they're taking and also take a picture of the bottle in their hand and sell that to you. Like, oh that is in fact happening, right? So it's like, when I look at this ice shelf data, I can give you the charts, but I can also show you a picture to back it up. That's what data in this world has come to. It's no longer a thing where it's like, oh, someone's probably manipulating. It's just a graph. Doesn't mean much. The impact changes when I can show you the whole story, right? This isn't 50% of the picture anymore. They're giving you all the data. This isn't something you have to believe in. It's the truth that's staring you in the face.

Jason Rigby (11:23):

Well, let's just take Australia. This is the instance, and TARTLE could help with this. If the governments of Australia would get together and say, "Yeah, we do have a concern about Antarctica, but we know the population doesn't understand that these extreme temperatures in the summer that's crazy, because Australia can get crazy. That's from Antarctica. Did you know that?" And most people in the population would say, "I had no idea that it affects us that much with this vortex." So now TARTLE can become an educational process, where people are able to learn and get paid for learning.

Alexander McCaig (11:54):

Wow. Learn, teach, teach, learn with an economic empowerment? When's the last time... Honestly, if you think about the amount of population that has gone to higher education that got paid to go there. Slim. Everybody else was paying, right? Paid to learn? Cool. Thank you.

Jason Rigby (12:10):

And why is, for the big seven that we have and people can donate their earnings of data to these big seven causes. Why is climate stability number one?

Alexander McCaig (12:18):

Why is it number one? If you don't have a planet, you don't have a business. If you don't have a planet, you don't have people. You don't have food. You don't have to worry about global peace. You don't have to worry about public health. You're all dead. You're gone.

Jason Rigby (12:31):

Shareholder value is gone.

Alexander McCaig (12:33):

When I see things like ESG and shareholder value and people still talking about financial gain in the time of crisis, get out of here. Get out of my face. Get your perverted ideas of reality millions and millions of mile way out into space where there's no oxygen and no one can hear you screaming your nonsense. We here are trying to focus on the thing that's actually going to affect our future. That's affecting our longevity as a species. You are no different from that tiger walking around, other than the fact that you have the ability for creative thought. And the thing is you're killing that.

Jason Rigby (13:08):

Can we... Because Tesla has a vehicle that's launched into space and has a camera hooked to it.

Alexander McCaig (13:13):

Yeah. WE'll launch those people into space. "Shareholder value!" Bye. Bye. Launch you up there.

Jason Rigby (13:19):

It's really cool. People have to look at it because the camera is giving photos and it's like hooked. And Elon Mush said he didn't expect for the camera to last this long or be hooked on the arm. He thought something would happen. But it's still floating around and it's great, and taking pictures of itself. But...

Alexander McCaig (13:31):

I mean, if your head's in the sand, well then, I'm going to put the rest of you in the desert over there. You can all put your heads in the sand while we focus on those other important things that are currently affecting us. So when you ask about the big seven, why is climate stability first? Because if you can't stabilize the problem, it will continue to spiral out of control beyond a point when you can't do anything, and there's no hope left.

Jason Rigby (13:56):

Yeah, so we have users in Australia. We have people that listen to podcasts that are in Australia too. So those.

Alexander McCaig (14:01):

Thanks. Shout out to Australia.

Jason Rigby (14:02):

Yeah. Those Australians that are seeing their climate change dramatically, especially in the summers there, how can they, instead of relying on their government, instead of relying on policies, instead of reading these articles like this and feeling depressed, how can they make a change right now? Like right this instant. Get off from listening to us. What can they do right now to make a change for climate stability?

Alexander McCaig (14:23):

Oh gosh. Don't ask me these questions. Well, because... All right, first thing you can do.

Jason Rigby (14:28):

Well, I know. I mean, TARTLE.co.

Alexander McCaig (14:28):

I know, I know. first of all, you can go to TARTLE.co, right?

Jason Rigby (14:32):

That's what I was teeing up.

Alexander McCaig (14:32):

I was like going to be like, "What? Tell them to stop eating meat? Don't drive your car?"

Jason Rigby (14:34):

No, no, no, no.

Alexander McCaig (14:34):

No, no.

Jason Rigby (14:35):

I want something they can do right now. An easy win.

Alexander McCaig (14:37):

Easy win you can do, you can sign up on TARTLE. For free. Right this second. You can start sharing your data about your thoughts and behaviors. Things you are currently purchasing, what you intend to do in the future. So people can analyze that for you and deliver you information back that helps educate you on your own processes that can be beneficial to this planet. And then after they've bought it from you, they're going to give you some money. Why don't you put some money towards those charitable organizations that are strapping IOT devices to seals, or putting geotag markers on Antarctic pieces of ice.

Jason Rigby (15:07):

Or, I mean, if you want to eliminate the supply chain, raise chickens in your backyard. I mean, you're vegan so you-

Alexander McCaig (15:15):

I mean, now you're asking me this, but no, I don't mind having chickens. Listen, I like regenerative farming. But you're asking me a question, like what can people do? Well, I'm trying to focus on TARTLE. I'm not trying to talk about like, don't eat-

Jason Rigby (15:23):

Don't eat, yeah.

Alexander McCaig (15:24):

... dolphins.

Jason Rigby (15:25):

Yeah, yeah.

Alexander McCaig (15:25):

Okay?

Jason Rigby (15:26):

Because you don't know what's in that tuna can.

Alexander McCaig (15:28):

Yeah.

Jason Rigby (15:28):

I wonder how much is actually tuna.

Alexander McCaig (15:30):

Yeah, lay off the methylmercury, okay?

Jason Rigby (15:33):

All those things. Purchasing power, that's another way.

Alexander McCaig (15:36):

All that, yeah.

Jason Rigby (15:38):

Just learn to understand that the planet is here for you to steward.

Alexander McCaig (15:44):

Yeah. We need to be better stewards.

Jason Rigby (15:46):

Of our data and our planet.

Alexander McCaig (15:48):

Yes. And of ourselves as individuals because we're a little reckless.

Speaker 1 (16:00):

Thank you for listening to TARTLE cast, with your hosts, Alexander McCaig and Jason Rigby, where humanity steps into the future and the source data defines the path. What's your data worth?