Antarctica visit reveals much about global warming

Tuesday, January 24, 2006 - Bangor Daily News

Six former EPA administrators, Republicans and Democrats, recently called for action to limit the greenhouse gases that most scientists think are linked to climate change. That conclusion was echoed by the experts with whom I recently met in Antarctica.

I traveled to Antarctica with Senate colleagues John McCain and John Sununu at the invitation of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the University of Maine. Before we left Christchurch, New Zealand, the NSF outfitted us with the cold weather gear that everyone wears on the continent. The daily uniform included long underwear, long thick gray wool socks, insulated bib overalls, a black fleece jacket, a neck warmer, two choices of hats, a goose-down parka trimmed with coyote fur, thin wool glove liners that were worn within a second pair of liners topped by leather gloves, and what were called "Bunny Boots." The boots were huge, white and had air bladders. While they were awkward and heavy, my feet were never, ever cold inside them. This uniform, which we wore every day, weighs 25 pounds.

Perhaps the most important gear, however, is sunglasses. It is unbelievably bright in Antarctica, and if you don't wear sunglasses, you risk snow-blindness. And this time of year, it is sunny 24 hours a day.

Antarctica is the coldest, windiest, driest place on earth, a land where the air is so clear and the landscape features so sparse that one's perspective is totally warped. Mountains that look close enough to touch are in fact more than 50 miles away and much larger than they seem because there are no trees or other features to give you a sense of perspective. A Bowdoin College physicist who was there studying carbon dioxide concentrations in ice cores explained to me that everyone at first has the sensation that we experienced of distortions in distance, space and size.

There is much about the continent that is surprising - and beautiful. Every conceivable shade of blue is found in the ice - from deep navy to a startling green-blue. I was surprised at how mountainous much of the continent was. Two features surprised me most: the active volcano, Mount Erebus, near McMurdo Station, which is constantly belching steam and smoke and contains a lava lake, and the Dry Valleys, an area where there is no snow, just mountains with nearly horizontal layers of light and dark-colored rock, ices flows, and weird wind-carved rocks called "ventifacts." The ventifacts look like aliens carved them for a playground in a science fiction movie.

The summer population of McMurdo Station reaches 1,200 people; in the winter, the population shrinks to only about 250 people. For every scientist, there are about 10 support people including cooks, physicians, plumbers and heavy equipment operators. Research supported by McMurdo Station includes glaciology, upper atmospheric physics, marine and terrestrial biology, geology, biomedicine, astrophysics, and climate research, which was our major interest.

The University of Maine's Climate Institute is well respected among the scientists in Antarctica. Over time, UMaine has had some 200 professors and students doing research on the continent. The university's George Denton is particularly well known and has spent an astonishing 30 seasons on the continent. The "Denton Glacier" and the "Denton Hills" are named for him.

Our first excursion from McMurdo was to the South Pole via a cargo plane equipped with skis. The Pole is a three-hour flight and about 850 miles from McMurdo. Some 10,000 feet high, the Pole sits on three miles of ice so heavy that it depresses the earth's crust. One scientist described the phenomenon to me as the earth's belly button.

The South Pole has the cleanest air on earth and thus is ideal for measuring carbon dioxide. CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere have increased dramatically during the past 50 years, which most scientists believe is caused by human activities rather than natural climate cycles. A few years ago, ice the size of Delaware broke off Western Antarctica, causing concern. If the entire West Antarctica Ice Sheet were to collapse, it would raise sea level by 15 feet, flooding some coastal cities.

Mainers are everywhere, and the South Pole is no exception. At the cafeteria, the head chef was Wendy Beeler, who cooks during our summers at the Pot and Kettle Club on Mount Desert Island. Her assistant, John Wight, works at the Jordan Pond House during our summers and then returns to the South Pole to cook for the austral summer. Small world indeed!

Another day, we boarded a Huey helicopter and set off for several fascinating stops, including a visit to Cape Royds where we visited a rookery of Adelie penguins. Thousands of them clustered all over this cape. They are incredibly appealing despite being kind of stinky. Having just watched "The March of the Penguins," I had a new appreciation for their endurance and dedication to their young. The Adelie penguins are smaller than the Emperor penguins featured in the film.

We then visited the century-old hut of Ernest Shackleton. Shackleton was the explorer whose ship was crushed in the ice and whose extraordinary leadership kept all of his men alive for two years while he went for help over mountains and glaciers. Neither the hut nor anything in it has decayed or been looted, so it looks as if the explorers had just stepped out for a moment. Frozen seals surround the hut, and boxes and cans of provisions (curried rabbit, lamb's tongue, pickled cabbage, egg powder) are stacked neatly on shelves inside. The hut, which was erected in 1908, has a surprisingly homey feel about it.

Next, we visited Dr. Brenda Hall and her two students, all from the University of Maine, who were in a remote camp by themselves doing research on the impact of climate change on elephant seal colonies. From the air, we could see the three small yellow tents in which they were living for two weeks in the middle of nowhere. They had just discovered some ancient elephant seal remains and were eager to discuss their findings.

Later in the week, we toured the Southern Alps of New Zealand with Professor Denton who pointed to the retreating glaciers and told us that New Zealand has lost 50 percent of its ice since 1860. We could clearly see the moraines marking the retreat of the glaciers.

Throughout our trip, I asked the scientists about the public policy implications of their research. Each recommended two actions: more funding for research to help us better understand climate change and its implications, and a curb on emissions of greenhouse gases. I will be advocating both in the Senate.

Susan Collins is a Republican senator from Maine.

gases. I will be advocating both in the Senate.

Susan Collins is a Republican senator from Maine.