International Conference on

ENGLISH LANGUAGE, LITERATURE AND LINGUISTICS

Name & Affiliation:   R. Jayasree

                                    II M.A. English Literature

                                    P.S.G.R. Krishnammal College for Women

                                    Peelamedu

                                    Coimbatore

Title of The Paper:    The consequences of Arctic Sea Ice Retreat in Peter Wadhams’ A

Farewell to Ice: A Report from the Arctic

Mobile: 9442290668

Email  : jai.radee018@gmail.com
 Abstract

Literature is a reflection of life. Literature is a way of expressing a person’s thoughts,

experiences, and ideas that is accessible to others. Ecocriticism is a study of culture and

cultural products that is in some way connected with the human relationship to the natural

world. Ecocriticism is a retort to the need for humanistic understanding of our relationships

with the natural world in an age of environmental destruction. Ecocritics examines the

underlying ecological values. Many writers have explored the ecocritical perspectives in the

world of literature. A famous writer is Peter Wadhams. He is the UK’s most experiences sea

ice scientist. He has made more than fifty expeditions to both polar regions, working from ice

camps, ice breakers, aircraft and submarines. This paper focuses on the current environmental

crisis that is the retreat of Arctic sea ice and the consequences of the loss of summer sea ice in

Peter Wadhams’ A Farewell to Ice: A Report from the Arctic. The vicissitudes that are

happening in the Arctic don’t just affect the Arctic. Our planet is an interrelated system, and

the vanishing ice has many effects, among them include rising sea levels, faster global

warming, and possibly more dangerous natural disasters.

Key Words: Arctic, Sea ice, Environment, Global warming, Greenhouse gases
Introduction:

Ecocriticism developed as a study of the relationship between literature and the

natural environment in the mid-1990‘s. Ecocriticism is the study of literature and

the environment from an interdisciplinary point of view, where literature scholars analyze

texts that exemplify environmental concerns and scrutinize the various ways’ literature

discusses the subject of nature. Lawrence Buell has defined ecocriticism as a study of the

relationship between literature, and the environment led in a spirit of obligation to

environmentalist praxis.

Materials and methods:

A Farewell to Ice: A Report from the Arctic by Peter Wadhams has been taken for

discussion. The author applies ecocriticism to bring out the upcoming crisis which are stated

in the book.

Findings and Results:

Nature and literature are always related together, and ecocriticism deals with

literature that focus on “green” and only the true facts. In this nonfiction, Peter Wadhams

gives a detailed account of the physics of sea ice, the greenhouse effect, and its importance to

our climate. The fate of sea ice is unavoidably entangled with that of life on Earth. Though he

has formerly been labelled an "alarmist" by climate change deniers, he thrives in making an

exhaustive and convincing argument that climate change is real, and it is an urgent problem

facing humanity.

Background:

Peter Wadhams is the Professor of Ocean Physics. In the University of Cambridge, he

was also the Head of the Polar Ocean Physics Group in the Department of Applied

Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. He is well known for his work on sea ice. Since 1969,
Wadhams has carried out 42 field projects in Arctic and Antarctic seas, involving work from

submarines, ships, aircraft, UAVs and ice camps. He advocates for the use of climate

engineering to mitigate climate change. In 1971, he received the Bronze medal from the

Goverrment of Canada. His famous works are Ice in the Ocean, The Great Ocean of Truth:

Memories of "Hudson-70," the First Circumnavigation of the Americas and The Physics of

Icebergs.

Discussion:

A Farewell to Ice: A Report from the Arctic by Peter Wadhams shows the role of ice

in our planet, its history and the dimensions of the current global crisis and gives advice of

what can be done and what must be done to save our planet. Since 1970, he has been studying

ice first-hand. He has completed 50 trips to the poles in the world and has observed the

changes that has taken place over the last five decades.

His main objective to write this book is to make people aware of the impending

dangers as the result of melting summer sea ice. His main concern is on three things: the first

is because of global warming, sea ice will disappear completely within few years and the

second is the release of methane which now held frozen in subsea permafrost off the Siberian

coast will lead to an extra 0.6˚C of global warming before the middle of the century and the

third is how the shrinking sea ice may impact our climate in the coming decade or two.

The human race are in an unprecedented situation. Because of the modification of the

environment by human beings, there are many problems which includes CO2 production,

clearance of land, destruction of forest, harnessing of water resources and cultivation of

crops. Only in the last 200 years, there was massive use of fossil fuels. The greatest impact is

the climate change. “The natural atmosphere warms the earth – so called ‘natural greenhouse

effect’ and that the gases which adds to the atmosphere today warm it still more” (47).

The natural greenhouse effect has made life possible. Adding carbon dioxide to the
atmosphere results in the rise in temperature. The more carbon dioxide is added, the greater is

the temperature rise. CO2 is identified as the main agent in climate change. “The only way to

get rid of CO2 from the environment is for the material produced from it to be permanently

interred in the Earth’s interior” (55).

“The temperature rise since 1980 has been about 0.9˚C globally, while CO2 levels

have risen nearly 50 percent which give 1-2.25˚C of warming according to IPCC figures, and

3.9˚C according to glacial or interglacial ratios” (60). The Earth had warmed up much more

than it has to warm and only by stopping the emission of greenhouse gases, the Earth can be

saved.

Through the aircraft surveys, people got evidence that the Arctic sea ice has begun to

retreat. The retreat was only noticeable in summer and in other seasons the sea ice filled the

entire Arctic Basin up to the coasts. The ice is thinning and shrinking. “By the 1990s the ice

has thinned 43 percent relative to the 1970s” (69). The summer ice cover had lost 60 percent

of its volume between the 1970s and the 1990s.

“The total ice area in 1970s was 8 million km2 but in September 2005, it was only 5.3

million km2” (71). This thinning of ice is produced by extra warming of the Earth. The

massive retreat of sea ice is generating enough open water area to permit winds to create

plenty of wave energy at the ice edge. This may be enough to break up the ice faster. It also

speeds the melt and retreat.

Andy Lee Robinson, a geographical data analyst has outlined how rapidly the decline

in summer sea ice will lead to disappearance. Looking at the Arctic Death Spiral, on has say

that the summer sea ice will not exist for a long time. The sea ice on September 2016 was the

thinnest in the history of the world. There is a possibility that within a few years the North

Pole will be ice-free for the first time in 10,000 years and people will enter “Arctic death
spiral”.

“The multi-year ice has almost gone and even if the Arctic atmosphere suddenly

changes, there is no time to … reach substantially greater thickness” (85). Because of the

continuous melting of the ice, coastal regions will be severely affected throughout the world.

The large amount of methane will be released as the result of the collapse of the summer ice.

Global warming is the main consequence of shrinking sea ice.

The future of the Arctic is evidently one of the greatest reduced ice cover, specifically

during the summer seasons. An instant consequence of sea ice retreat is that compared to the

past, the Arctic is more open for oil exploration. “Much of the damage has already been done.

The Siberian shelves are already ice-free in summer and this is producing the threat of

massive methane release” (103).

The indirect effects of the Arctic ice retreat are devastatingly negative for the planet.

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas. It is warm farmer than carbon dioxide. “Arctic

offshore emissions is the main cause of methane rise in 2008. It will speed the sea ice retreat,

reduce the reflection of solar energy and hasten sea level rise as the5 Greenland ice sheet melt

accelerates” (124). If global warming is halted and reversed for example by geoengineering,

the summer Arctic sea ice cover would come back, and the shelf water would return to its 0˚C

temperature level. The thawing of permafrost and the emission of methane can also be

ceased.

The ice retreat may cause in addition to the impact on the weather, loss of ice and

snow from mountain glaciers which reduces the spring water supply to crop producing areas.

Agricultural production will be affected because of the extreme weather events. There is a

problem of water supply in addition to the problem of sufficient food for the human race. The

sea ice and the land ice in Australia and Greenland continues to melt, the coastal communities
across the world will be devastated because of the rise in sea levels.

Antarctic sea ice differs from Arctic ice. Arctic is made up of ocean surrounded by

land while Antarctic is a huge land surrounded by an ocean. The Antarctic ice sheet is also in

retreat though not fast as Greenland. “Net Antarctic ice loss at present is about 84Gt per year,

compared to at least 300Gt from Greenland” (168).

Despite the efforts by some countries to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels, there

is no let-up in the rate of growth of greenhouse gas concentrations. The human population has

projected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100. Because of the large-scale

climate disruption, bread baskets of the world are affected. Forests are being destroyed and

there is scarcity of water. Even in agriculture, there is shortage of raw industrial materials.

Every human being is a carbon emitter and if there are more people, the reduction of

carbon emissions is difficult. To reduce carbon emissions, one can recycle the rubbish,

insulate the home, drive smaller cars, eat more vegetables and less meat. Wadhams says, “

There is only two possibilities to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide – the first is to use

technical methods to reduce the rate of warming while allowing CO2 levels to continue to

increase and the second is to develop even more advanced technical means to actually take

CO2 out of the atmosphere” (177).

Afforestation (planting trees) also relies on photosynthesis to remove CO2 from the

atmosphere. People have destroyed the planet by mindless development and misuse of

technology. A mindful development of technology for geoengineering and for carbon removal

is necessary to save the planet. If the atmosphere and the climate are stabilized, the ice may

return for the future generations to wonder at and enjoy. Chief Seattle is absolutely right in

his remark that “ All things are connected. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the children of

the Earth”.
Work Cited:

Wadhams, Peter. A Farewell to Ice: A Report from the Arctic. Oxford University Press, 2017.

Print.

“University of Cambridge DAMTP: Professor Peter Wadhams.” Four Pillars,

www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/pw11/.