Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
a long search during which we began to wonder if we would even find a floe with
a decentchanceofsurvivingthroughthenextsummer,we eventuallysettled on ice
about2m thick, and beganthe intenseactivity of deployingthe variousinstrument
systems.
Some time duringthat first week on the ice, I sat for an interview with reporters
from a national news network, and during the questioning tried to succinctly voice
thelongpracticedtalkingpointssummarizingtherationaleforthiscomplexandex-
pensiveexperiment:thatclimatemodelsweresensitivetotheinsulatingandalbedo
properties of sea ice; that polar regions were the “canary in the mine” for global
warming; that many of us suspected, even if we could not prove it unequivocally,
that warming climate was tied to our collective appetite for fossil carbon, etc. The
interview was long, and of course, I was anxious to get back to the task of putting
my instruments in the water, yet I also understoodthe necessity of communicating
ourworkandwhywethoughtitimportant.
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Within a couple of days after the media interview, we were able to start the
SHEBA ocean profiler and to obtain the first samples of upper ocean temperature
andsalinity.ThateveningIlookedovertheinitialprofiles,andcomparedthemwith
data taken from a nearby location at the same time of year during the Arctic Ice
Dynamics Joint Experiment (AIDJEX) in 1975. I had trouble sleeping that night,
returning again and again to the thought that my children or at least their children
would live to see an Arctic free of perennial sea ice. What kept me awake was a
nebulous juxtaposition of the intellectual versus emotional sides of being a scien-
tist.JustdaysbeforeIhadtriedtoexplaintowhatmightconceivablybeatelevision
audience of millions of people how our craving for fossil fuels could, according to
thebestmodelswehad,permanentlychangeatleastoneofthedistinguishingpolar
caps of our planet, and that our mission here was to try to better understand what
rolerather esotericprocesseslike the albedofeedbackmightplayin thattransition.
The analytical side of me understood and accepted those physical arguments, yet
there was still something essentially conservative in me that rejected the idea that
my species could really modify something as fundamental as the earth's climate
in the short span of a few decades. But here was evidence that things were indeed
changing,perhapsmuchfasterthanwehadthoughtpossible.
Whythoseinitialprofilestriggeredmyconcernrequiressomeexplanation.First,
theyindicatedthattheupperoceannearthecenteroftheBeaufortGyrewasatleast
10% fresher than it had been in any previous measurements I had seen. Data from
the central part of the Gyre are quite limited because compact and thick multiyear
sea ice had traditionally made it one of the hardest Arctic regions to sample. By
itself, the freshening was somewhat alarming but could have been due to a variety
of factors, including an accumulation over several years of fresh water into the re-
gion from enhanced continental runoff combined with changes in the wind-driven
circulation.However,fromstudyingupperoceanevolutionatthefourAIDJEXdrift
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Whentheinterview finallyaired laterthat fall onone ofthenetwork morning shows, itlastedfor
lessthan1min,andcomprised mainlymycommunicatingthat,yes, Ihadaccidentallyfalleninthe
Arctic Ocean before, and that, yes, it was cold
My experience withother media interviews and
conversations withjournalists during the SHEBA deployment was ingeneral much more positive.
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