Help Me I’m Melting

Ice can feel?

Now hang a sec, you snort.  That is just insane. How can a block of ice have feelings?

But what if she did?

Consider for instance every winter (or elongated polar ice cap gradient-induced jet stream mutant spring, like some places I know are experiencing…ahemmm) when you pull out that toxic chemical cocktail and spread a nice crunchy veneer onto your clear sidewalk in anticipation of a sprinkle of snow heading your way. Imagine the happy oblivious water crystals dancing down from the sky like little ballerinas in Swan Lake. Girl, are they in for a nasty surprise! They fall onto a sharp bed of chlorine and cyanide infested shards that attack them like they would the Wicked Witch of the West.

The innocent snow angels melt into oblivion.

When enough of these well-intentioned, delicate, and beautiful crystals have morphed into a big slushy, the cool air still hovering above them and smashing them down to the fiery concrete hell will eventually corral them so that their little H2O hands reach out to one another and snuggle in tight…”United We Stand!” is their battle cry as they courageously meet their ice-maker.

But that just won’t do in the human world.  Concrete rules! So out comes another serrated blanket called Carpetface and the shrunken and fear-frozen droplets get their arms sawed off. Water spurts everywhere and the community shrieks in searing pain.

Meanwhile down in Antarctica, the mighty glaciers hear their cry.  

Remember, there is only one water. All drops are part of the one big Hydrologic Cycle and news travels faster in water than in air (a little science factoid). The majestic ice cliffs are doing their fair share of melting “sans salt” with just the whiff of humanity’s presence in the atmosphere.

According to a study funded by NASA’s Cryospheric Science Program and MEaSUREs program, glaciers actually do “feel” what is happening far downstream of themselves and react accordingly. In fact, (well, more like in jest) if they had discos in the Antarctic, the theme song would be There’s a Whole Lot of Melting Going On.

Find out why Antarctic ice divas are leaping at record heights into the sea: Antarctic ice study finds global sea levels could rise even faster than before.