I am rebooting a previous petition, because the impacts of global warming are much more alarming than we assume!
Although many of us accept without question the supposed need for 'ice-breaker' ships that regularly disrupt and destroy the integrity of polar sea ice, we don’t realise they are often nuclear-powered, and that their activity contributes massively to the loss of polar ice-caps.
Polar-region sea ice is broken for reasons like: (1) to keep shipping channels open for cargo container vessels, (2) to conduct cruise-ship tourism expeditions for wealthy clients, and (3) for scientific investigations, that culminate in a suggestion that polar ice cover is rapidly depleting on account of global warming, thereby threatening the pristine wilderness value of the polar regions. This also damages and destroys polar bear habitat.
These activities (polar region cargo ships, lucrative cruise-ship tourism, and excess scientific expeditions) are unnecessary, and could be replaced with alternatives.
Ice-breakers impact the integrity and outflow into the ocean of land-based ice stores, by reducing the usual force, derived from cold sea water and sea ice, that keeps glaciers from spilling out and calving icebergs more quickly. Thereby they contribute to a much more rapid loss of ancient land-based ice, especially from Greenland and Antarctica, which is the major source of expected sea level rise.
Polar travel and ice-breaker activities substantially increase the ongoing reduction in annual polar-region sea ice, further to dumping nuclear waste and human-generated wastes in polar regions, endangering some wildlife species, localised warming and overconsuming fossil fuels, and repetitively damaging land and sea-based ice formation and ice stores. This is like leaving the fridge door of the world standing wide open!
While sea ice at times appears to be spreading, in fact land ice has rapidly diminished in recent years. The 'excitement’ – shown in some films – of cracking off large ice sheets and ice shelves is a misrepresentation of an extremely destructive activity, at this time in history!
To protect polar bears, and ultimately everyone, ice-breaker ships’ activity must urgently be challenged and preferably stopped completely. Please URGENTLY join me in petitioning political leaders of countries involved in 'Ice-breaking', by signing this petition! Demand a phasing out and cessation of destructive, needless and senseless 'Ice-breaker' ship activity! Help reduce big-picture impacts of global climate change!
