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Ancient artifacts dislodged by climate change

smithsonianmag.com

21–30 of 84 posts

Re: Ancient artifacts dislodged by climate change

#21
I often get into arguments with people not believing in the consequences of climate change, especially when it's about the melting glaciers. People reason that finding ancient objects hints to low ice levels at numerous times in the last millennias. My reaction is to reason about the implications of melting ice (ex. sea level rise), which I cannot really back up with facts. Is there another way to argue about this?

Re: Ancient artifacts dislodged by climate change

#23
post #21

I often get into arguments with people not believing in the consequences of climate change, especially when it's about the melting glaciers. People reason that finding ancient objects hints to low ice levels at numerous times in the last millennias. My reaction is to reason about the implications of melting ice (ex. sea level rise), which I cannot really back up with facts. Is there another way to argue about this?

You can absolutely back up concerns about sea level rise with facts: https://skepticalscience.com/sea-level-rise.htm

Some just choose to ignore them.

Re: Ancient artifacts dislodged by climate change

#24
post #11

If an arrow shaft was found from about 1500 years ago, does that imply there probably wasn't ice there at the time? Or were people hunting on the ice then?

Almost certainly icy areas, simply for the fact that the weight of the ice could easily crush and mangle any artefacts if the ice formed over them while they'd have much better survival chances the higher up in the ice layer they spent the bulk of their time in. Ötzi for example was travelling through a cold and icy region, it is what preserved him (although he's 3x as old).

Ice weighs 0.919 grams per cubic centimeter or 919 kilograms per cubic meter, for those of us more familiar with inches/feet that means a cubic foot of ice 57.4 pounds. That weight adds up quickly.

Re: Ancient artifacts dislodged by climate change

#27
post #21

I often get into arguments with people not believing in the consequences of climate change, especially when it's about the melting glaciers. People reason that finding ancient objects hints to low ice levels at numerous times in the last millennias. My reaction is to reason about the implications of melting ice (ex. sea level rise), which I cannot really back up with facts. Is there another way to argue about this?

Easy explanation:

    Glacier -> Camp
Glaciers move.

Re: Ancient artifacts dislodged by climate change

#30
post #13
post #5

Cant read this article, Medium shows me to signup for an account.

That always pops up for me, but I can just close it by clicking outside the box or clicking the x in the top right. Do those not work for you?

Those always used to work. But now I’m getting an uncloseable popup:

You've completed your member preview for this month, but when you sign up for a free Medium account, you get one more story

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