'Maps Will Be Redrawn': Massive #ExxonKnew Iceberg Breaks From Antarctica
"The remaining shelf will be at its smallest ever known size. This is a big change."
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"Good morning to everyone except the 100 companies responsible for 71% of greenhouse gas emissions since 1988."
—Kate Aronoff, In These Times
—Kate Aronoff, In These Times
One of the largest icebergs on record—weighing in at approximately one trillion tonnes and encompassing an area comparable in size to the state of Delaware—has finally broken away from the Larsen C Ice Shelf, an event that has long been anticipated by scientists monitoring West Antarctica through satellite imagery.
"The calving occurred sometime between Monday 10th July and Wednesday 12th July 2017, when a 5,800 square km section of Larsen C finally broke away," Project Midas, a U.K.-based research group investigating the effects of climate change on Antarctic ice, reported on Wednesday.
Breaking news! The iceberg has fully detached from Larsen C - more details to follow soon
Updated #Sentinel1 InSAR sequence shows final branching at the rift tip as it reaches within 4.5 km (2.8 miles) of breaking through to calve
In a statement, Professor Adrian Luckman of Swansea University—the lead investigator of Project MIDAS—said that he and his team will continue to monitor both the impact of this calving event on the Larsen C Ice Shelf, and the fate of this huge iceberg."
"The remaining shelf will be at its smallest ever known size," Luckman added. "This is a big change. Maps will need to be redrawn."
While scientists acknowledged that it is unclear whether this particular event was caused by a warming climate, they argued that it could be "a sign of changes to come."
"Certainly the changes that we see on ice shelves, such as thinning because of warmer ocean waters, are the sort [of changes] that are going to make it easier for these events to happen," Twila Moon of the U.S. National Ice and Snow Data Center said in an interview with the Guardian.
Anticipating the break-off, climate activists have in recent days insisted that the event should be tied to the activities of fossil fuel companies. As Common Dreams reported, 350.org has called on the U.S. National Ice Center to "name the Larsen C iceberg #ExxonKnew."
"With one of the world's biggest ice shelves at a breaking point, this destruction should bear the name of its greatest perpetrator: Exxon," Aaron Packard, 350.org's climate impact coordinator, said in a statement.
Following the news that the iceberg had finally split from the Larsen C Ice Shelf, commentators echoed Packard's remarks while using the event as an opportunity to slam President Donald Trump for withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris climate accord.
Good morning to everyone except the 100 companies responsible for 71% of greenhouse gas emissions since 1988 reuters.com/article/us-ant…
Ironic that this happens soon after Trump has taken U.S. out of #ParisAgreement. Rather like the ice-shelf, Trump has left U.S. drift alone twitter.com/greenpeacepres…
An iceberg the size of Delaware broke off of Antarctica. Good thing we have a smart leader who will keep us in the Paris Agreement. Oh....
1.12 trillion ton iceberg broke off Antarctica. 
2x the volume of Lake Erie. 
World maps will be redrawn. 
But climate change isn't real…
2x the volume of Lake Erie. World maps will be redrawn. But climate change isn't real…
posted by Satish Sharma at
19:27
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