Bring Tech and Innovation to the Climate-Change Fight
The Arctic and Antarctic are heating up fast, creating terrible feedback loops. Breaking the cycle will require urgent action — and creativity.
There’s no time to spare.
Photograph: Kathryn Hansen/NASA
Over the past few weeks, Alaska recorded record-high temperatures, scientists released a “report card” showing relentless deterioration of the Arctic’s climate, and researchers warned that an ice shelf in Antarctica could collapse within a few years, dramatically increasing the region’s contribution to rising sea levels.
These are signposts on a grim path. They show that damage to the cryosphere, the portions of Earth’s surface where ice predominates, is happening faster than many anticipated. After a year of promises — at the United Nations’ Glasgow climate conference and beyond — 2022 must be the year of concrete action, in particular at the Earth’s poles.