S is for sight: #antarcticalphabet

Sight, language, reference and memory are contingent, rely on our agreement to shared understandings. Does what I see differ from what you see? You may read that number-plate which is a blur to me, or I think this scarf is green when you insist it’s blue. Yet the interior experience … Continue reading

#penguinrights and habitat corpus: #antarcticalphabet

  Let us sound the battle-cry for #penguinrights. Suppose penguins took us humans to court for destroying their habitat? Suppose they won?  I am not talking only of animal rights, or even land rights, but earth rights. Penguin power is habitat corpus: the battle to protect an ecosystem – a place … Continue reading

Ice sheets in Antarctica: losing or gaining?

A friend recently highlighted last year’s NASA research on Antarctic ice-sheets and asked me to comment. So I’m going slightly away from the journey reprise to take a quick jaunt around some of the latest publications.In short: some ice sheets may be thickening slightly but that does not mean we … Continue reading

#AntarcticAlphabet: I is for ice

Ice strains, cracks and sometimes breaks, under the burden, slips and slides, does not stay in place, does not stay still.Glaciers, like poems, appear solid, inevitable, perfect at their heart, but are not. Impermanent ice weathers like epigraphs in the graveyard, words written on the changing world. Rivers flow, scouring … Continue reading

COP15 and Antarctica: how soon, how fast, how deep?

Torrents of bandwidth have been dedicated to the Paris climate change conference (COP15). I am not an expert, a scientist or diplomat so I’ve focused on one small question. What about Antarctica, the warning canary of climate change?The standout headline is the commitment to keep global temperatures ‘well below’ 2° above … Continue reading

Darkness in the abyss

Glacial melt isn’t only about sea-level rise. It’s about mud. Sediment to be precise. As old ice melts into the sea it brings down all that stuff it’s been sitting on, the mud it has scraped up and absorbed over decades and centuries. Newly exposed, ice-free beaches deteriorate too, putting … Continue reading