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“I don’t think anyone expected the rates of melts that we found. It’s really alarming”

Rob Larter is a marine geophysicist with the British Antarctic Survey who studies ice sheet history and climate change. He joins us to discuss his research as part of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration, being on the front lines of climate change science in the Antarctic and making the connection between his work and the potential impact on human health

Key Learnings

1. What it’s like to be a scientist and explorer in Antartica on board a ship

2. Focusing on rapid and accelerating ice loss in West Antarctica, which is the biggest unknown in predicting sea level rise

3. The experience of watching a glacier shatter

4. The way research seasons in Antarctica work and the layering of research

5.  When he noticed a shift in rhetoric around climate change and the debate moving towards “what can we do about it”

6.  Connecting his research and the impact of sea level rise, climate change & human health

7. Wherein we take a deep dive into the Thwaites Glacier, the rate of ice loss that is occurring and have we passed the point of no return in the West Antarctic ice sheet. This is scary…

8. Waiting to get back to the glacier and what’s next in his work

9. Recommended depots of information on climate change and Antarctica and our shared struggles with paywalls and PubMed hell

Links

Rob’s British Antarctic Survey page: https://www.bas.ac.uk/profile/rdla/

British Antarctic Survey: www.bac.ac.uk

International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration: www.thwaitesglacier.org

Twitter: @rdlarter,  @BAS_News, @GlacierThwaites