Spirit Sightings
March 4, 2018: Contemplate God’s Glory
From Fraser Macnaughton
Last July it was reported that an iceberg the size of the U.S. state of Delaware, or four times the size of London, and the third biggest on record, had broken off from the Antarctic landmass. The unprecedented size of the iceberg had climate change scientists in a froth as it was clear that it was going to have an impact on the world’s oceans, if such occurrences were going to become more frequent due to global warming.
Now, however, film footage has become available that illustrates the immensity of the iceberg in all its glory. The iceberg, with the etching name of A-68, broke away from the Larsen C ice shelf revealing a deep fissure that now has widened sufficiently for scientists to research and examine what lies below. Excitement at the sheer diversity of a potential new eco-system that has lain undisturbed for 120,000 years is palpable among researchers led by the British Antarctic Survey.
“The calving of A-68 provides us with a unique opportunity to study marine life as it responds to a dramatic environmental change. It’s important we get there quickly before the undersea environment changes as sunlight enters the water and new species begin to colonise… It’s very exciting,” said marine biologist Dr. Katrin Linse.
The team will collect seafloor animals, microbes, plankton, sediments, and water samples using a range of equipment including video cameras and a special sledge pulled along the seafloor to collect tiny animals.
The haunting grandeur of the remote Antarctic region presents its own challenges for science not least the extremes of weather. However, in a rare example of political cooperation across the globe, an international agreement reached in 2016 sets aside the area for Special Scientific study aimed at conserving Antarctic marine living resources. As ice shelves and ice sheets retreat in the future, humanity collectively will have the chance to better understand these remote regions and the impact changes will have on all of us.
Explore…Psalm 19
What emotions come to the surface as you perhaps view the footage of the immensity and grandeur of parts of our planet?
What sense of humanity’s smallness do you have when you see and read of places like Antarctic, now exposed?
How do you think you could become better informed as to the diversity and variety of the world or “God’s glory”?
Prayer…
We recall the words of Psalm 8 when the psalmist says “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” And it is true enough when we are set in the immense wilderness of the Antarctic where great shifts of nature occur and powerful forces are at work… and we are helpless. May we be reminded of the interconnectedness of all things and of our place. Amen.
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