Thwaites Glacier Archives - DOES GOD EXIST? TODAY

Thwaites Glacier and Climate Change — Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica

The rhetoric over climate change involves disagreements on both the amount and the causes. One of the main issues in this discussion is data on Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier. That glacier is roughly the size of Florida and up to 6500 feet thick. According to the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (ITGC), if it were to collapse completely, it would raise worldwide sea levels by 65 cm (more than two feet).

The ITGC is an organization of scientists from the UK and the US that gather data on the Thwaites Glacier. Dr. Ted Scambos, who is a glaciologist at the University of Colorado working with this group, says, “It’s concerning that the latest computer models predict continuing ice loss that will accelerate through the 22nd century and could lead to a widespread collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet in the 23rd.” In the last 30 years, the melting rate of the Thwaites Glacier has been speeding up and has recently risen sharply. Whatever people think about the cause of this, we must do whatever we can to prevent the melting of the Thwaites Glacier.

However, the Thwaites Glacier is not the only melting ice sheet in the world. Many glaciers are melting worldwide, and only a handful are stable or gaining ice. Human action is most certainly not the only cause of climate change, but God’s instructions to care for the creation include controlling the collateral damage from these changes.

— John N. Clayton © 2024
References: Thwaitesglacier.org and wikipedia.org

Antarctic Glaciers and Flooding — Thwaites Glacier

Two of the most massive Antarctic glaciers have broken loose from their land connections and are floating in the ocean. This is a concern because if both glaciers melt, there would be enough water to raise the world’s oceans by ten feet. It is not only another evidence of global warming but also a warning to the world that we must pay attention to the coming rise in sea level.

Understand that when ice is exposed to the air on land, it absorbs a minimum of heat, so melting on a landmass is very slow. In water, however, heat exchange is very rapid. We all know that hypothermia takes place when a human gets into icy water. The melting of ice is much faster once it is in water, and the Thwaites glacier, the larger of the two Antarctic glaciers involved, is one of the fastest-changing glaciers on Earth.

Job 38:22-23 refers to the “treasures of the snow” and says that this frozen water is “reserved against the time of trouble.” In Earth’s design, the snow and ice preserve water and provide a vital heat sink to the whole planet. We see evidence that the oceans have been much higher in Earth’s geological history than they are today. There have also been times when they were much lower. The polar ice caps have been the primary water storage areas. Glaciers are also part of the design of Earth to make it hospitable for Life.

If the sea level rises ten feet, imagine what would happen to the world’s major cities located on the edge of the oceans. Since the mass of these two glaciers is enormous, this is not an immediate threat. ( A recent NASA study says that at the present rate, the melting ice sheets would add 15 inches to the sea level by 2100.) But it is a potential catastrophe we can avoid if we recognize that the possible flooding is a consequence of human actions, not a vindictive act of God. We can avoid what has already begun to happen by taking care of the planet as God instructed us to do.

Reference: A report about Antarctic glaciers in the September 14, 2020, issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.