When it comes to the future of the world’s coasts, few places on Earth matter more than the ice-choked, storm-tossed Bellingshausen Sea.
There, the warm ocean currents whirling around Antarctica first wash up onto the continental shelf and bathe the vast ice sheet, making the region the tip of the spear for the melting processes that are raising sea levels globally.
So when Andy Thompson, an environmental scientist at the California Institute of Technology, got a chance to go to the Bellingshausen next year, he seized it. There’s so much to be discovered there that any expedition is the oceanographic equivalent of going to the moon, Dr. Thompson said.
Now, President Trump’s cost-cutting could take away the ship.
Among the many deep cuts to scientific research in Mr. Trump’s proposed budget is the abrupt termination of the Nathaniel B. Palmer, the sole U.S. icebreaker dedicated to Antarctic research. The budget also pauses development of a new vessel that was supposed to succeed the Palmer in the 2030s.
The administration says the cuts will free up resources for America’s three aging Antarctic research stations. But scientists said they would endanger decades of U.S. leadership in studying the Southern Ocean and the Antarctic coast, where waters warmed by the emissions from burning fossil fuels are melting the ice from below.
After half a century in which the United States has had one or more ships devoted to Antarctic science, the Palmer’s decommissioning would effectively cede access to the most unexplored region of the globe to other nations. And given how booked up those nations’ ships are, polar veterans said the chances were slim that many stranded American scientists could easily hitch new rides.
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