A68 melted, what was once the largest iceberg in the world. The ice mountain, which has also become a star on social media, originally covered an area of almost 6,000 square meters, an extension slightly greater than that of Liguria or the island of Cyprus.
According to the images taken by satellites, only a myriad of fragments of A 68 remain that are no longer worth monitoring, explains the BBC. The iceberg broke off from Antarctica’s Larsen C shelf in 2017 and remained motionless for a year, and then began to drift northward with increasing speed, driven by strong winds and currents. The block, weighing one billion tons, had thus crossed the South Atlantic to reach the British overseas territory of South Georgia. The island is a real cemetery of icebergs, which remain trapped by the shallows and they end up melting slowly.
However, last November A68 had managed to avert this fate to continue his journey and finally succumb to the progressive rise in temperatures. “It’s amazing that A68 lasted so long,” Professor Adrian Luckman of Swansea University explained to the BBC, “when you think about the thickness ratio, it’s like four A4 sheets stacked on top of each other. So this object is incredibly flexible and fragile on its way across the ocean. It lasted four years but in the end it broke into four or five pieces which then shattered in turn ».
What captured the attention of the world public was the approach of the A68 to South Georgia, as the passage of an iceberg of that size would have jeopardized the areas where the local colonies of penguins feed.
That was the moment when millions of people, worried about the fate of animals, began to follow the path of the iceberg through satellites. From a scientific point of view, the A68’s journey allowed scientists to better study the structure of ice shelves and the processes, such as hydro-fracturing, by which rising temperatures destroy ice. Data that will be useful in the study of climate change, of which A68 is not a victim.
The detachment of A68 was in fact the result of the normal process by which the ice shelves are kept in equilibrium, getting rid of the excess mass following snowfall or thickening of the ice.
China-US cooperation agreement on the climate crisis
China and the United States issued a joint statement on the climate crisis following talks in Shanghai on Thursday and Friday between China’s special envoy for climate change Xie Zhenhua and the U.S. president’s special envoy for climate John Kerry. Below is the text of the declaration.
1) China and the United States are committed to cooperating with each other and with other countries to tackle the climate crisis, which must be managed with the seriousness and urgency of the case. This includes both the enhancement of respective actions and cooperation in multilateral processes, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement. Both countries recall their historic contribution to the development, adoption, signature and entry into force of the Paris Agreement through their leadership and collaboration.
2) For the future, China and the United States are firmly committed to working together and with other parties to strengthen the implementation of the Paris Agreement. The two parties recall the objective indicated in article 2 of the Agreement to keep the global average temperature increase well below 2 ° C and even to do everything to limit it to 1.5 ° C. In this regard, they undertake to pursue the objectives set, including by adopting enhanced climate actions that in the next decade increase the ambition in the context of the Paris Agreement to keep the above temperature limit reachable and to collaborate to identify and address the related challenges and opportunities.
3) Both countries are looking forward to the climate leaders summit organized by the United States on April 22-23. The two sides share the summit’s goal of increasing global climate ambitions on mitigation, adaptation and support on the way to COP 26 in Glasgow.
4) China and the United States will take other short-term actions to further help address the climate crisis: a. Both countries intend to develop their respective long-term strategies for carbon neutrality / zero greenhouse gas emissions by Glasgow COP 26. b. Both countries intend to take appropriate action to maximize investment and international funding to support the transition from carbon-intensive fossil fuel-based energy to low-carbon and renewable green energy in developing countries. c. Both will implement the gradual reduction of the production and consumption of hydrofluorocarbons as foreseen by the Kigali amendment to the Montreal Protocol.
5) China and the United States will continue to discuss, in view of COP 26 and beyond, concrete actions to be implemented in the current decade to reduce emissions and maintain the temperature limit under the Paris Agreement, including : to. policies, measures and technologies to decarbonise industry and energy, including through the circular economy, energy storage and grid reliability, CCUS and green hydrogen; b. greater diffusion of renewable energy; c. green and climate resilient agriculture; d. energy efficient buildings; is. green and low-carbon transport; f. cooperation in addressing emissions of methane and other non-CO2 greenhouse gases; g. cooperation in addressing emissions from international civil aviation and maritime activities; h. other short-term policies and measures, including in the context of reducing emissions from coal, oil and gas. 6. The two sides will cooperate to promote a successful COP 26 in Glasgow, with the aim of completing the arrangements for implementing the Paris Agreement (for example, under Articles 6 and 13) and making significant progress global climate ambitions for mitigation, adaptation and support. They will further cooperate to promote the success of COP 15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Kunming, underlining the importance of the global biodiversity framework for the post-2020 period, including its relevance for climate mitigation and adaptation.