Ice Berks

Some of the icebergs looming before us are literal. It is thought that the Titanic was sunk by one that calved off of Jacobshavn Isbrae, one of Greenland’s great glaciers. Today it is source of around 10% of icebergs plunging into the sea from Greenland, and one of the fastest moving on Earth. The rate doubled from 1996 to 2005. Freshening caused by melting icebergs diminishes the saltiness that causes Gulf Stream waters to sink, thus hindering the mechanism that drives the current. The North Atlantic circulation is now at its weakest point in at least 1,000 years, and scientists point to those calving icebergs as the source.

The collapse of the Gulf Stream would cause climate chaos across the world, intensifying extremes in Europe and storms in North America. Already the slowing is piling up warm water off the U.S. East Coast, where waters are heating faster than anywhere on Earth, adding to sea level rise already created by melting glaciers and threatening greater storms. In a supreme but predictable irony, one of the descendants of the Morgan trusts, J.P. Morgan & Chase, is the largest bank funder of fossil fuels since the Paris Climate Accords were signed in 2016, having invested $434 billion by 2022. J.P. Morgan financed the Titanic. J.P Morgan & Chase is financing the iceberg.

…it seems too many of us are comfortably sleeping in our cabins, believing that the captain has matters well in hand. When it is clear the captains of the world do not, with great power conflict escalating seemingly beyond control, and the climate crisis mounting even as it is shoved into the background.

Sailing on Planet Titanic – by Patrick Mazza – The Raven