Iceberg! Right ahead!

Lately it feels like everything I blog about relates to James Cameron, but it’s for good reason.  Sure he went to the deepest point in the ocean, but he also directed 1997’s Titanic starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, which was the highest-grossing film in history for 12 years, until Avatar, also written and directed by Cameron, surpassed it in 2010. And as the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic is only ten days away, and because Titanic the movie was rereleased in IMAX 3D, and 2D last night, news outlets everywhere, including National Geographic, are posting stories to commemorate the sinking. 

National Geographic’s main story today is “Titanic would encounter more icebergs today?” discussing how if the Titanic sailed today, it would actually encounter more icebergs than it did when it departed in 1912.  It’s a feature-y story that takes a new look at the sinking by focusing on how the northern Atlantic has changed today, and asking if the changes could be caused by global warming.  Definitely not a story you’d find anywhere but National Geographic. 

According to the article, melting glaciers and ice sheets shed 100-200 gigatons , a kilometer cubed, of ice each year, and all those ice cubes likely add up to more icebergs, but those can’t necessarily be correlated with global warming.  There are however a few examples of warmer temperatures making for icebergs, like Antarctica’s Larsen B ice shelf which lost huge masses to the ocean.

But, the article also tells us that an increase in icebergs today wouldn’t endanger the modern vessels since ships today use radar that can spot floating ice masses miles away, unlike in Titanic’s day when it was just two guys sitting in the crow’s nest in the middle of the night.  Remember the scene in the movie when Jack and Rose have just run out of the boiler room, and the two guys in the crow’s nest are watching them, say something along the lines of “bleedin love!” and then spot the iceberg?  If not, here’s a refresher:

My favorite part of this story though is the ending because it leaves us with a call to action. Jeremy Bassis, a glaciologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor is quoted heavily in the story, so it’s right that the story ends with his quote:

“ ‘People changed their behavior in response to the Titanic catastrophe,’ he said—for example by providing more lifeboats on cruise ships.  Adopting new habits, he said, is ‘one of the things we need to start doing more of in the climate change realm.’”