Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)

‘Precipitous’ fall in Antarctic sea ice since 2014 revealed

Plunge is far faster than in Arctic and may lead to more global heating, say scientists

The vast expanse of sea ice around Antarctica has suffered a “precipitous” fall since 2014, satellite data shows, and fell at a faster rate than seen in the Arctic.

The plunge in the average annual extent means Antarctica lost as much sea ice in four years as the Arctic lost in 34 years. The cause of the sharp Antarctic losses is as yet unknown and only time will tell whether the ice recovers or continues to decline.

But researchers said it showed ice could disappear much more rapidly than previously thought. Unlike the melting of ice sheets on land, sea ice melting does not raise sea level. But losing bright white sea ice means the sun’s heat is instead absorbed by dark ocean waters, leading to a vicious circle of heating.

Sea ice spreads over enormous areas and has major impacts on the global climate system, with losses in the Arctic strongly linked to extreme weather at lower latitudes, such as heatwaves in Europe.

The loss of sea ice in the Arctic clearly tracks the rise in global air temperatures resulting from human-caused global heating, but the two poles are very different. The Arctic is an ocean surrounded by continents and is exposed to warming air, while Antarctica is a freezing continent surrounded by oceans and is protected from warming air by a circle of strong winds.

Antarctic sea ice had been slowly increasing during the 40 years of measurements and reached a record maximum in 2014. But since then sea ice extent has nosedived, reaching a record low in 2017.

“There has been a huge decrease,” said Claire Parkinson, at Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Center in the US. In her study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, she called the decline precipitous and a dramatic reversal.

“We don’t know if that decrease is going to continue,” she said. “But it raises the question of why [has it happened], and are we going to see some huge acceleration in the rate of decrease in the Arctic? Only the continued record will let us know.”

“The Arctic has become a poster child for global warming,” Parkinson said, but the recent sea ice falls in Antarctica have been far worse. She has tracked Antarctic sea ice for more than 40 years. “All of us scientists were thinking eventually global warming is going to catch up in the Antarctic,” she said.

Kaitlin Naughten, a sea ice expert at the British Antarctic Survey, said: “Westerly winds which surround the continent mean that Antarctic sea ice doesn’t respond directly to global warming averaged over the whole planet.”

“Climate change is affecting the winds, but so is the ozone hole and short-term cycles like El Niño. The sea ice is also affected by meltwater running off from the Antarctic ice sheet,” she said. “Until 2014, the total effect of all these factors was for Antarctic sea ice to expand. But in 2014, something flipped, and the sea ice has since declined dramatically. Now scientists are trying to figure out exactly why this happened.”

Prof Andrew Shepherd at Leeds University in the UK said: “The rapid decline has caught us by surprise and changes the picture completely. Now sea ice is retreating in both hemispheres and that presents a challenge because it could mean further warming.” He said it would also be important to find if the ice’s thickness has changed, as well as its extent.

The new research collated microwave satellite data from 1979 to 2018, providing excellent measurements of sea ice as the different signals from ice and ocean are very distinct and microwaves can be detected day or night and usually through clouds.

Sea ice expands in winter and retreats in summer every year, so Parkinson used annual averages to assess the long term trends. The biggest single year fall was in 2016, when an El Niño boosted human-caused warming to result in record global temperatures.

She said rates of decline after 2014 were three times faster than the most rapid melting ever recorded in the Arctic. Sea ice extent had a small uptick in 2018, but in 2019 so far there had been a further reduction, she said.

Parkinson said the dramatic plunge was a strong piece of evidence that scientists could use to narrow down the causes of the change. “As a Nasa scientist, my key responsibility is to get the satellite data out and I hope others will take this 40-year record and try to figure out how these dramatically rapid decreases since 2014 can be explained,” she said.

From: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/01/precipitous-fall-in-antarctic-sea-ice-revealed

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With thanks to Stacey for keeping us informed about activities in Canada and the USA.

https://our-compass.org/2019/07/01/watch-unprecedented-animal-rights-protest-at-pig-farm/

Source Sentient Media
By Matthew Zampa

A sign posted inside the farm read, “What happens in the barn, stays in the barn,” an explicit reminder of the industry’s aversion to transparency.

At 6 a.m. on Sunday, April 28, a group of 50 Meat the Victims animal rights activists entered Excelsior Hog Farm, owned and operated by a board member of the British Columbia Pork Producers Association in Canada. Once activists were inside, Meat the Victims organizers reported that the facility promptly went on lockdown. The activists didn’t budge. They stayed to bear witness, pleading with farmers to help the distressed animals, many of which were found pregnant and dehydrated.

Meat the Victims protests are part of the animal rights movement’s effort to create more transparency and accountability in the animal agriculture industry, not just in Canada, but the United States, Australia, Britain, and anywhere there are farm animals suffering. Check out footage of the unprecedented demonstration at Excelsior Hog Farm here.

Nearly 200 animal rights activists gathered outside of an industry-leading pig farm in an industry-leading country: to bring awareness to the crimes of animal agriculture. On the back of the shirts worn by the demonstrators, Meat the Victims adorned this simple truth, “One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”

In a sweeping act of defiance, activists can be seen sprinting past the “No Trespassing” signs and attempting to gain access to the pig farm. In doing so, they put themselves at certain risk of facing criminal trespassing and breaking and entering charges. “That’s okay,” said Amy Soranno, a spokesperson for the group of activists who made it inside the facility. “We’re challenging the law. That’s what we came here to do.”

Soranno was later taken into custody. The rest of the activists walked peacefully off the property, many with tears streaming down their faces, holding peace signs and white flowers in their hands.

Excelsior Hog Farm is located in Abbotsford, British Columbia, a community that earns a higher dollar per acre of agricultural land than any other city in Canada. More than 1,000 pigs are currently being held at the facility.

The following excerpt is from a statement released by Meat the Victims activists (May 4, 2019):

“Once we arrived at the farm and began filing out of buses, we could hear dogs barking and sirens blazing in the distance,” stated a Meat The Victims participant. The group jogged down a long path, heading for the back of the farm, stating what they saw when they arrived was just the beginning of a “horrific nightmare.” “The first thing we saw was dumpsters full of dead rotting pig carcasses, my heart was racing, and hands were shaking, I didn’t have any fear of being caught, but was so terrified of what we were about to witness inside.” Due to the secrecy of animal agriculture, many people have never seen inside an industrial animal farm. The group’s goal was to bring the truth to light.

Soon after the group arrived, around 140 activists formed a protest outside of the facility, and 65 activists (fully dressed in biosecurity suits, masks, and booties) attempted to go inside. Of the 65 activists, 50 successfully gained access into the farm. “As I stepped inside, at first all I saw was darkness, but as my eyes adjusted, I began to see hundreds of eyes curiously looking at me, my stomach sunk.”

The activists inside occupied a room full of gestation crates. “Gestation crates are used to immobilize pregnant pigs for weeks on end,” stated an activist, continuing “we occupied an entire row of crates and documented the animals’ heartbreaking existence. The air was nauseating, the concrete slatted floors were cold and filthy, many of the pigs could barely fit into the crates–with their legs, tails, and noses hanging out, pushed against the metal bars. All of these pigs had various cuts and sores, and were conducting unnatural repetitive behaviors, showing signs of insanity.” At least one pig appeared to be lying in a pool of her own blood, with a severely bruised face, and the group witnessed a pig having a miscarriage. “The hundreds of pregnant mothers had a variety of different markings spray painted on their bodies, one row of females in particular really struck me–the pigs were all facing the concrete wall, unable to turn around,” stated an activist.

“This just goes to show that there is no right way to do the wrong thing.

This farm is as good as it gets.”

The activists refused to leave the facility until the owner of the farm agreed to allow accredited media inside, to which the farm eventually agreed. Based on information passed between the outside and inside groups, the media tour was delayed by three hours while the farm cleaned-up specific areas and decided who would be allowed in. Eventually, five out of the 11 news outlets were approved. The investigative outlet The Intercept and CTV News were of the group who were removed from the tour. We had full bio suits available for anyone entering the barn, but the farmers were not concerned about this. Therefore media, farmers, police, and even the vet went in without any protection.

Throughout this delay, activists begged the farm to help the most distressed animals. “In exchange for immediate veterinary care, we agreed to leave the gestation room, but the vets who arrived only took a brief look at any animals,” stated an activist who was inside. The activists also pleaded with the farmers to give the pigs water, of which their trough was empty upon the activist’s arrival. “These pregnant pigs were so dehydrated, desperately nudging their trough and frothing at the mouth.” The farmers eventually agreed to give the pigs water.

The media tour went roughly as the Pork Producers Association wanted it to go, but nothing could hide the cruel reality of animal agriculture. Excelsior hog farm is owned and operated by a board member of the BC Pork Producers Association, and Excelsior is considered an industry leader. “This just goes to show that there is no right way to do the wrong thing,” stated an activist. “This farm is as good as it gets.”

A sign posted inside read, “What happens in the barn, stays in the barn,” an explicit reminder of the industry’s aversion to transparency.

Since the negotiations had been met, the group of activists inside agreed to leave. The police informed them that they were all under arrest for trespassing and breaking and entering and that they could possibly be charged eventually, but would otherwise be free to go.

“We celebrated our accomplishments,” stated one of the activists. “But none of us will forget those we left behind.”

Read Sentient Media’s breaking news coverage from Excelsior Hog Farm.

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