On Tuesday, April 2, the University of Idaho introduced Dr. Twila Moon as their guest speaker at the 1912 Center.
Moon is the Deputy Lead Scientist and Science Communication Liaison at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado. She is also a world-renowned glaciologist visiting UI to advise during the Future of Greenland Ice Sheet Science workshop held on April 3-5.
The lecture was to “kick-off” the workshop and introduce a space where interested members of the audience could discuss their views on the Greenland ice sheet.
The presentation was titled, “Understanding Greenland Ice: Science, sea level and…you!”
“[The Greenland ice sheet] is about three kilometers thick in the interior,” Moon said. “Think thirty statues of liberty stacked up on each other.”
Dr. Moon goes on to say that one of the ice’s most important functions is, “acting like a water tower and keeping stuff out of our ocean.”
She also showed a map of mass loss for the ice sheet over the decades.
“The Greenland ice sheet has now lost ice every year since 1998,” Moon said. “The Arctic is warming multiple times faster than the global average.”
Due to recent ice melt, darker ice has been exposed to the surface, which in turn causes more ice melt.
“This is what I would call a vicious amplifying cycle,” Moon said.
She also shares a story of when she was visiting Greenland and took a boat to see the fjords by the glacier. Moon found herself off the map and in an area where the glacier was supposed to be.
“We were literally in uncharted waters,” she said.
She argues that the melting of the Greenland ice sheet should matter because of locals and their fishery practices, regional scales, and effects on the ocean.
During the presentation, Moon displayed a map of how the Greenland ice sheet will change over time. The map showed that if there is no help to preserve the glacier, it will be almost depleted in a thousand years.
“All of us are now dealing with a changed climate,” Moon said.
Moon offers solutions to climate change such as solar panels, eliminating food waste, and spreading awareness to others.
“This is our opportunity to do something that makes a millennial-scale impact,” Moon said.
The plenary event was followed by a get-together where members could ask questions or learn more about the Greenland ice sheet from Moon.
More of UI’s events can be found here.
Andrea Roberts can be reached at [email protected].