Three Scientists Walked Into the Arctic

There's more than meets the research eye.

In the parable of the blind men and the elephant, the identity of the beast must be determined by touch and conjecture. The first person touches the trunk and says, "This being is like a thick snake." Another person touches an ear, and it seems like a kind of fan. The leg reminds the toucher of a tree trunk. The side of the elephant feels like a wall, the tail a rope, and the tusk smooth like a spear. They can comprehend an elephant only when they listen to each other with open minds and much dialog.

Atmospheric scientists, terrestrial ecologists, and oceanographers went to the Arctic blinkered by their areas of expertise. The first group sees the atmosphere warming the ocean’s surface. They measured rising air temperatures and the retreat of summer sea ice over the Arctic Ocean at a rate of almost 13% per decade, from mostly covering the ocean to less than a third coverage. Based on their air temperature data, they were surprised to see more sea ice melt during the summer months than they expected. With open water looking darker than sea ice, they said it’s like the temperature difference between a black car seat versus a white seat on a sunny day. It’s the Albedo effect.

The terrestrial ecologists see sunlight passing through the snowpack to warm the ground below. Insulated by snow, frost touching the earth melts away, leaving a few inches of air space. This subnivean space is comfortable for mice, voles, lemmings, and shrews. Here, they are safe from foxes and owls. Only the slinky ermine can hunt here. These mammals breed beneath the snowpack.

These scientists see plants regulating the climate. During the three summer months of 24-hour light, there is a riot of plant growth, drawing down carbon dioxide, taking up water, and photosynthesizing carbohydrates (lipids and sugars). Plants release bacteria and fungi into the air. Water vapor nucleates around organic particles to form cumulous clouds. There is an exothermic reaction when water converts from gas to liquid to solid (snow). This lowers the atmospheric pressure, and moist air from higher-pressure areas over the ocean is drawn in over the plants. More cumulous clouds cool the region.

Oceanographers see the ocean regulating the climate. The Earth's turning to the East sets up a motion in the ocean, where currents will always veer right in the Northern Hemisphere. The Gulf Stream veers right off New England to flow to Europe. Sea water temperature is why palm trees grow on Scotland’s Western Isles and icebergs frequent Newfoundland. Both places are at the same latitude and receive the same amount of sunlight.

Oceanographers were once recognized by the silver nitrate stains on their fingers from titrating seawater to determine salinity. From ships underway, they lowered into the ocean metal torpedo-shaped bathythermographs. Inside was a gold-plated glass slide attached to a bellow that contracted with increasing depth. A thermal coil contracts or expands with changing temperatures. The coil’s end was sharpened to etch the gold on the slide. The slide is seated in a monocular to chart the axes and reveal a line that alters with depth and temperature. The line is straight with constant temperature until, at a specific depth, it goes perpendicular to drop again at a different temperature. This is the thermocline. It marks the boundary between two water bodies. Water bodies are known for their density as measured by salinity and temperature. The Gulf Stream is a warm 76 to 77 degrees F and has a salinity of 36.5 parts per thousand. The Labrador Current is less than 32 degrees F, and salinity is 30 to 34 ppm. Being lighter, the Gulf Stream moves easily over the south-bound cold Labrador Current.

When the Arctic Ocean changed from being mostly covered by sea ice to less than a third, it left more open water to freeze in October. When ice forms, salt is left behind in the cold water. This frigid, briny concoction is the densest water, and it sinks. More cold, nutrient-rich water flows out of the Arctic into the Atlantic. It bears right around Greenland to become the Labrador Current in Baffin Bay.

The Gulf Stream barrels north with a volume of 700 Amazon Rivers. It meanders to dissipate energy like a freight train in an accident. In 2011, the Gulf Stream demonstrated more power by meandering onto the continental shelf closer to Rhode Island. In 2007, the Gulf Stream surfaced in Svalbard, causing glaciers on the land to melt. More warm Gulf Stream water flows into the Arctic Ocean to warm the surface water and accelerate the melting of the sea ice.

When scientists use logic to explain what their clockwork models portend, they cannot fathom the natural world’s complexity, the interconnections becoming one. Life has agency. Bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals make our planet inhabitable. Without conversing about observations and experiences, people fortify their beliefs and draw battle lines between themselves and others. Are you for or against dark plants? To know the Earth, we must listen like blind men to divergent perspectives with open minds and wonder.