A Rocking Review
The most recent ice age may have ended, but there is still a lot of ice remaining in Antarctica and Greenland. Here’s a little more about the Antarctic ice, who lives around it, how it behaves, and why we might care. We’ll explore the warming effect of rising CO2 in Module 12; for now, just note that we are raising CO2 in the air, and it does have a warming influence, based on fundamental physics discovered in part by the Air Force for military applications.
Video: Snowflake: An ode to traditional folk song, "A Fox Went Out On A Chilly Night" (4:08 minutes)
DR. RICHARD ALLEY: [Singing] Oh, snowflake out on a chilly night. Over the ocean of blue and white. Southern Cross as a guiding light and heading for South Pole-Oh, Pole-Oh, Pole-Oh. Southern Cross as a guiding light and heading for South Pole-Oh.
Over the albatross soaring through. Penguins plying the krill-flecked blue, seals and skuas and great whales, too, all playing around South Pole-Oh, Pole-Oh, Pole-Oh. Seals and skuas and great whales, too, all playing round South Pole-Oh.
One flake's a miracle, two a display. Three and you might wreck your car today, but make a two-mile pile and they're on their way flowing from South Pole-Oh, Pole-Oh, Pole-Oh. Two-mile pile and they're on their way flowing from South Pole-Oh.
The physics are simple, all piles spread, water, batter, or cats on a bed, or a continent-wide two-mile pile snow-fed and heading from South Pole-Oh, Pole-Oh, Pole-Oh. A continent-wide two-mile pile snow fed and heading from South Pole-Oh.
Slow in the middle, thick and cold, down through the mountains carved and old, picking up speed in the ice streams bold, don't fall in a crevasse-oh, crevasse-oh, crevasse-oh, picking up speed in the ice streams bold, don't fall in a crevasse-oh.
Ice streams at the sea don't make bergs right away, they flow across the ocean for many a day. As great ice shelves in a rock-bound bay with friction from sides-oh, sides-oh, the sides-oh. A great ice shelf in a rock-bound bay with friction from the sides-oh.
If we raise CO2, warm the air and sea, melt the shelves away, and let the piles spread free, it'll raise the oceans towards you and me while it shrinks that two-mile pile-oh, pile-oh, pile-oh, raise the oceans towards you and me while it shrinks that two-mile pile-oh.
Arctic fox on a chilly night by another ocean of blue and white, if we melt their ice, would that be right? Both poles are on the same trail-oh, trail-oh, trail-oh. If we melt their ice, would that be right? Both poles are on the same trail-oh.
Oh, a snowflake out on a chilly night.