Knowing No

Waking up every day to the sounds of crying glaciers as they collapse to raise global sea levels sends an alarming message about the deterioration of our climate. Ice calving represents not just mere anger but also an explicit rejection of our environmental behavior's status quo, which seems to drive our challenges to climate change.

Anthropogenic emissions know no borders as they travel freely around the globe driven by the wind. They are generated by the irresponsible way we live, commute, generate, and use power, which creates heat sinks and pollutant accumulation. As adaptation and mitigation strategies fall short in keeping up with the rising tide of air pollution, humanity must opt for efficient processes and natural resource utilization to gear up toward embracing sustainability.

Why Svalbard

I have been an environmental enthusiast from an early age, and advocating for enhanced air quality has been my mission for over a quarter century. I have always wondered why we pollute horrendously and then spend tremendously on technologies such as filtration to capture our anthropogenic emissions. I wanted to bring my message across the world, and an ideal coordinate would be Longyearbyen, Svalbard, where global heating is hitting hardest.

Arrival

I arrived in Svalbard in July and stayed for an entire week in daylight, witnessing the midnight sun. Upon landing, everyone had their airport pickup arranged, and I learned that the surrounding area is inhabited by polar bears. Svalbard is certainly not a place where one would hear the honking of vehicle horns, the crunching sound of machinery wheels, the shriek of steam from boilers, or the regular beat of the looms; it is rather a quiet and peaceful place to stay and admire its nature.

Seeing Is Believing

Unless one experiences the scene and sound of the daily ice calving, telling the story cannot adequately convey the feeling of such a loss. Svalbard is located at the main gateway of atmospheric and oceanic heat transport into the Central Arctic and has experienced a 3-5 °C increase in temperature from 1971 to 2017. [1,2] Glaciers and ice sheets make up 10% of the Earth’s surface and store nearly 80% of the planet’s fresh water.[3,4] The increase in temperature results in ice melting, causing a cascade of effects. It alters the ocean’s salinity, temperature, and volume, leading to a rise in sea level, estimated to be 0.15 to 0.25 meters between

1901 and 2018.[5] Such rise in sea levels positions cities worldwide, particularly coastal ones, representing 90% of urban areas today, to be more vulnerable to being engulfed, similar to what has happened in Brazil recently.

The glacier’s losses cause their region to be converted to atmospheric heat and moisture sources, significantly impacting local and regional climate. Research has shown that the Arctic region is threatened by contamination arising from precipitation, atmospheric transfer, and anthropogenic activities.[6,7] Glacial systems confront contaminants from external sources, which have been deposited onto the ice surface.[8,9] Anthropogenic emissions have raised temperatures even higher in the poles, leading to rapid glacier melting, calving off into the sea, and receding.[10]

Polar Bears

While some studies suggest that polar bears outnumber Svalbard inhabitants, who number just under 2,700, other projections argue that the number is way below such a prediction.[11] However, scientists have indicated that sea ice level decline and rising air pollutant concentrations impact their conditions and ecosystems, forcing them to venture deeper into land areas to search for food. Consequently, this leads to increased contact with humans and potentially human-bear loss. Legislation to protect polar bears was put into place to decrease their killing in defense of life or property and has helped protect them to a certain extent.