A meizanologist's diary (106)

2 April: half a day’s flying out of KIX, the map display shows that we’re coasting in over northeast Greenland. Perfectly placed on the shaded side of the aircraft, I turn to the window only to find that it has blacked itself out.

Of course, I realise, we are on one of those notorious craft – let’s just call them buffs – with centrally controlled window darkening. Remonstrating with a flight attendant is not an option, given the airline industry’s current commitment to an intense customer experience.

Konrad Steffen
Portrait by Fridolin Walcher.

Yet somewhere down there, beyond the blacked-out windows, is a coastal glacier named in honour of Konrad Steffen (1952–2020), the Swiss glaciologist who spent his career investigating the dynamics of the Greenland ice sheet. 

About a decade ago, Professor Steffen came to our alpine club in Zurich and explained to us in his quiet, unemphatic way – he was a master of science communication – what would happen if, or rather when, the world’s ice sheets melted. Some years later, he vanished into the depths of the ice sheet he’d dedicated his life to studying.

Location of the Sermeq Konrad Steffen.
Map by courtesy of Leister Expeditions: 2021 and 2022 report.

Later in the flight, kneeling on the floor – with one knee embedded in a bag of garbage to line myself up with the tiny inspection window in the buff’s back door – I do manage a glimpse of the ice sheet scrolling by. Soon other passengers are queuing up to share this intense customer experience. It seems that quite a few of us are fascinated by this land of ice. Alas, it's far too late now for anybody to pay their respects to Koni Steffen's glacier.

Later still, it occurs to me that, rigged in the eclipse though it is, this buff does provide the perfect metaphor for the pickle we’re in. If we can’t handle the idea of seven metres of sea level rise  –  and that is just from the ice sheet right below us  – then it's surely tempting simply to black out the view and pretend none of this is happening ...