Rising Antarctic ice melt will dramatically slow global ocean flows

Research found that rapidly melting Antarctic ice is dramatically slowing down the flow of water through the world’s oceans.

Highlights of the study:

• Rapidly melting Antarctic ice is slowing down the flow of water through the world’s oceans.
• It could have a disastrous impact on global climate, the marine food chain and even the stability of ice shelves.
• As temperatures rise, freshwater from Antarctica’s melting ice enters the ocean, reducing the salinity and density of the surface water and diminishing that downward flow to the sea’s bottom.
• The study found that deep-water circulation in the Antarctic could weaken at twice the rate of decline in the North Atlantic.
• Disruption the base of food chain: Ocean overturning allows nutrients to rise up from the bottom, with the Southern Ocean supporting about three-quarters of global phytoplankton production, the base of the food chain.
• Leaving more CO2 in the atmosphere: Study suggest that the ocean would not be able to absorb as much carbon dioxide as its upper layers become more stratified, leaving more CO2 in the atmosphere.

Causes of climate change:

• Co2 emission on rise:According to the Global Carbon Project, CO2 emissions are on rise by 0.6% in 2019 (2.1% in 2018). The reductions are not enough to stop global warming.
  • Despite a significant decline in coal consumption in US and Europe, the higher global emissions are attributed to growth in natural gas and oil usage.
• Industrial heat:Industrial products are essential to construction, infrastructure and manufacturing, but making them requires a lot of heat—heat that emits more carbon dioxide than all the world’s cars and planes.
  • Many industrial processes start with melting rocks by burning fossil fuels, and development of alternative technologies is far behind and expensive.
• Land degradation:Land degradation, mainly due to human activities like deforestation, mining/quarrying, construction, roads, other infrastructure for economic development, human settlements for increasing population, etc., is a contributing factor to climate change.
• Meat consumption:IPCC report ‘Climate Change and Land’ emphasises the ever-increasing global meat consumption and the resulting distorted land-use pattern to meet this requirement, as a cause contributing to climate change.
• The EAT-Lancet Commission report also supports this; it adds biodiversity loss, natural water depletion and carbon emission to the associated risks.
  • Creating pastures to feed cattle causes huge deforestation. Processing, preservation and packaging of cattle slaughtered is also highly GHG-generation intensive process.
• Disregard for ocean health: Overfishing, plastic pollution, micro-plastics, flow of fertilisers and chemicals etc. is suffocating fish and damaging ocean health.
  • More than 1 billion people depend on the oceans. Ocean health is vital to biodiversity, healthy fisheries and to regulate the climate.

New-age measures adopted/suggestions to control climate damage:

• Carbon markets: Creation of ‘carbon markets’ under the Paris Agreement allows countries, or industries, to earn carbon credits for emission reductions they make in excess of what is required of them.
  • These credits can be traded to the highest bidder in exchange of money. The buyers of carbon credits can show the emission reductions as their own and use them to meet their own emission reduction targets.
• Climate- Neutral Europe: In a ‘Green Deal’, Europe has vowed to become the first ‘climate-neutral’ continent by 2050, as it aims to eliminate its net discharges of greenhouse gases.
  • This will be done through creating single set of definitions, to determine what economic activities are sustainable and should count as green, in areas ranging from finance to design of cities.
  • Stricter emission limits for industries from cars to chemicals; revamped energy taxes; new rules on subsidies for companies; greener farming; and a possible environmental import tax.
• Markets pricing carbon risks: For long climate specialists warned about a “carbon bubble” in which markets ignore or massively undervalue the risks to companies from climate change.
  • But latest studies suggest that especially since the Paris Agreement of 2015, financial markets have seriously started to factor in ‘carbon risk premiums’ in their price settings and valuation of stocks.
• Carbon capture: Carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) is essential to reducing carbon emissions from heavy industry, especially cement and steel production. It is more affordable than most other option—far cheaper and more readily available than electrical heating or burning biomass.
  • CCUS also supports production of one of the most viable and versatile low-carbon fuels: hydrogen.
  • Low-carbon hydrogen is known as “blue” hydrogen.
  • CCUS can create future opportunities for “green” hydrogen, made from zero-carbon electricity and water.
• Shift to vegetarianism: While the entire process of agricultural production also generates significant GHG, but there is scientific evidence that its carbon footprint is much less compared to meat production.
• New Climate Economy: Studies suggest that shifting to a low-carbon economy represents USD 26 trillion growth opportunity that could create 65 million new jobs by 2030.