New Zealand's glaciers shrinking faster, scientist warns

We flew to the southern-most glaciers, ones that we’ve not seen since 2018," said Lorrey on the back of this year’s trip.

“One is now two thirds of the size it was on our last visit,” he added.

The institute said that New Zealand had experienced seven of its hottest years on record over the past decade.

Even if this trend was to be reversed, Lorrey said that many glaciers were too far gone to be saved.

“Even if we got a few cooler seasons, they wouldn’t be enough to undo the damage that’s already been done,” he said.

“That’s how stark it is, and it’s not just happening in New Zealand but all over the world.”

LemmyKnowsBest,

I’ve never been to the southern hemisphere and the geography of this kinda confuses my mind because New Zealand is east of Australia, and technically Australia’s south end is closer to the South Pole than New Zealand is, but somehow we think of Australia as a beach destination also with lots of desert-y outback, So even though on a map I can see how it’s close to Antarctica, knowing everything else I know about Australia and New Zealand, hard for me to imagine there’s glaciers involved in any of that. But okay.

Fizz,
@Fizz@lemmy.nz avatar

I went to fox glacier as a kid and I went again 5 years ago. The 2nd time it was all stone and no snow we had to walk an hour just to see the glacier in the distance

BruceTwarzen,

I live close to a few glaciers that we always went as kids. It's pretty damn shocking to go there now.

NoRamyunForYou,

Yeah, right inbetween the first two lockdowns, we did a trip out to the West Coast, and was pretty dissapointed in the Glacier unfortunately.

Though the Skydiving was incredible :)

NoRamyunForYou,

At this rate, I do wonder what will happen in the near to mid future (within most of our lifetimes), say 20~50 years time.

Will things just continue to accelerate and the world as we know it around us completely changes? Or will there be something that truly drives a reversal ( say a breakthrough technology or a complete 180 in thinking/policies around the world)? Or will climate change happen at a rate that allows us to adapt to it as it changes.

hanrahan,
@hanrahan@slrpnk.net avatar

Until the hoped for breakthrough technology arrives perhaps it makes sense to preseve a livable biosphere by minimizing our impact to sustainable levels? Alas I am sure that doesn’t mean keep doing what we’re doing.

NoRamyunForYou,

With the direction alot of the world seems to be taking recently - especially with all these political parties/politicians that are so into Climate Change Denial, I don’t have too much faith we’d be able to achieve something like that on a meaningful global scale.

deadbeef79000,

TL;DR: the west Antarctic ice sheet collapses into the ocean causing a 5m sea level rise globally. Billions dead or displaced.

BruceTwarzen,

30 or so years ago we were told in school that global warming is going so slow that you can't even tell in a lifetime. So... About that

NoRamyunForYou,

During highschool (between 2000’s and 2010’s) I don’t think there even were any conversations around climate change.

Dave,
@Dave@lemmy.nz avatar

It’s a good question. My guess is that money will be driven to things that mitigate the effects of climate change (better cooling and insulation for houses, mass hydroponic buildings for crops, meat alternatives that can be grown in a factory), and poorer countries will see mass famine. Richer countries will start to send aid but it will be too little too late.

The other day there was that post about CFCs and how the whole world acted together to ban them and now the ozone layer is healing, and there was conversation about how the world acted swiftly and there was no leader-level denial. But I think a big difference here is that there was a single, known cause, and it had known alternatives that didn’t involve anyone making big changes. Climate change is caused by a number of factors that interact with each other in ways it’s hard for a layperson to understand (“why is it extra cold, I thought there was supposed to be global warming”), and there’s no clear path to leading the same lifestyle without climate change.

I have near-zero faith that change will happen fast enough to mitigate the effects.

NoRamyunForYou,

Yeah, realistically I don’t see enough change happening to mitigate everything.

Add in the fact that a lot of politics around the world seems to be adamant on speeding Climate Change, sometimes I get into mini spirals thinking about potential flow on effects and how it would impact our society, and our family etc.

Axisential,

On my more optimistic days I see a future where plentiful, cheap energy (ie fusion) can drive technology that will halt, perhaps even reverse the damage we’ve done. And perhaps that’s even compatible with capitalism, as there are potential profits to be made.

More often though I see a difficult, painful future for the human species, with massive famines, human displacement and wars over the resources that remain. I hope I’m wrong.

NoRamyunForYou,

Similar here. I don’t know too much about it other than reading some articles and going down mini rabbit holes of surface level research, but it really seems Fusion is something the entire world should be a lot more invested in.

BalpeenHammer,

Every prediction made about global warming has underestimated both the severity and the speed of the oncoming catastrophe.

hanrahan,
@hanrahan@slrpnk.net avatar

This article supoorts that

jonathonporritt.com/mainstream-climate-science-th…

arin,

Reality is too scary to acknowledge. Root cause is capitalism and exploitation in burning fuels, dumping sludge and toxic chemicals into the ocean(which we depend on for the majority of new oxygen)

eagleeyedtiger,

I think at this point we can assume anything climate change related is getting worse faster than we previously thought, unfortunately.

hanrahan,
@hanrahan@slrpnk.net avatar

jonathonporritt.com/mainstream-climate-science-th…

dr_jekell,
@dr_jekell@lemmy.world avatar

From what I understand is that the warming isn’t linear but exponential and we are already at the point of no return well ahead of predictions.

The world we are leaving for the next generations is going to be a hot drought ridden wasteland because companies and governments for decades have been polluting and destroying the environment in the endless quest for money with basically no repercussions.

Companies have been allowed to dump toxic waste into the ground then walk away from it leaving the tax payers to fund the cleanup.

This is happening because of greed.

rimu,
@rimu@piefed.social avatar

13 years ago, a sign was installed at Franz Joseph Glacier, speculating how it will look in 2100 with a photoshopped image. The glacier looks like that right now, tho.

Here are photos I took: https://mastodon.nzoss.nz/@rimu/110258661962917055

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