The melting of glaciers in Antarctica matters to Mexico because it leads to sea level rise, so Cancun and Villahermosa could be on the map of potential disappearance, said Mexican scientist Sandra Guzmán, who has just returned from an international expedition in the Antarctic region.
As part of the Australian initiative Homeward Board that seeks to strengthen the leadership of women in science, Sandra was part of an expedition with 80 female scientists to study the effects of climate change and the actions that can be implemented to address it.
Sandra explained that her work that lasted approximately 20 days in the expedition in the Antarctic Peninsula, where research bases from different countries have been established, consisted in documenting the effects of climate change by exchanging various materials from some of the scientists established in the region.
Among the findings, highlights that the melting of ice in the Antarctic Peninsula, caused by the increase in temperature on the planet, is increasingly accelerated, resulting in huge portions of ice that have disappeared and shows no signs of recovery.
This, together with the fact that the region concentrates 80 percent of the world’s freshwater reserves, so that the melting of ice falls into fresh water mixed with sea salt, which results in losses of reserves aquifers of the planet; this, added to a substantial reduction of Antelia penguins, which die of hunger due to the fact that they feed on crill, a crustacean whose fishing is currently carried out.
Another of Guzmán’s observations during the Antarctic expedition is that the region is also the driest and coldest continent on the planet Earth; it does not rain, it just snows, and liquid showers have been observed; even, people who live in research bases report that there is an exponential change and more radical phenomena have been observed in the last ten years.
The researcher highlights the importance of Mexico being part of the Antarctic Treaty, of which several countries are part of to implement actions and has promoted climate change actions in the world.
“Maybe many people will think that Mexico cares about that, but just to give a datum, with the melting of the glaciers the sea level increases more and more and some cities like Cancun and Villahermosa are on the map of potential disappearance because of the rise in sea level, then is not foreign to Mexico.”
Sandra Guzmán, who is currently looking for ways to increase investments in climate change, added that Mexico should care about the changes that have been detected in Antarctica, which would generate more changes in the global weather systems. It is vulnerable to hurricanes, these alterations could increase the number and intensity of storms in Mexico.
“Although we are too late to save many of the ecosystems that are already in severe danger, we can still do something to recover species, to recover ecosystems,” added Sandra, who at just 34 years of age reaffirmed that there are many women who, like her, play important actions to combat the effects of climate change.
