The iceberg metaphor has exerted a powerful sway over our imaginations, and has helped us explain why the realities we confront turn out to be so much more complex, and difficult, and intractable than they appear.Here's another consequence of global warming. As the icebergs disappear, there goes our metaphor!
Deeply meaningful, I'm sure, but a bit of a stretch. Icebergs are not disappearing. In fact, they are increasing in the Antarctic, and some glaciers in Alaska and Greenland are growing, not shrinking.
ReplyDeleteDespite the hyperbole, glaciers do not respond to global average surface temperature, they respond primarily to precipitation in the high origins of the glacier. And when global temperatures rise, precipitation increases. Seems counter intuitive, but true.