Monday, March 25, 2019
Strange days, baffling times
I got the strangest email today from a long time acquaintance who said the craziest things that were totally out of context and angry about things that just don't make sense or even compute. But given the world we live in today, I didn't take their angry words seriously and believe they were just having a rough week. Maybe they needed to vent. That's cool. In all for venting. But I'm just going to file their email away in the department of baffling emails and let it be. Let them be. The main thing is that there is love and encouragement in this world and they know it too. So all good, and everything will be fine once they sort things out. I send them my best wishes and hope they'll be feeling better soon. If my shoulder was found to be a good place to cry on, I'm all for it. That's what we're all here for, to support each other in these tough times. Onward. Chin up.
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Who was the American Geology Professor Fredrik Thwaites (1883-1961) and why was the Thwaites Glacier named by ACAN for him?
"If there is going to be a climate catastrophe, it's probably going to start at Thwaites."
-- Professor Ian Howat, OSU glaciologist in Ohio
RE: the late professor Fredrik Turville Thwaites, for whom the glacier was named for.
======================================
READ THIS IMPORTANT ''THWAITES'' POST TOO, WITH MORE DETAILS:
''TIME THWAITES FOR NO ONE''
https://cli-fi-books.blogspot.com/2019/03/time-thwaites-for-no-one-back-story-of.html
Thwaites, at this point in time, is one of the most famous surnames in the Anthropocene Era.
Why? BECAUSE....... (read on, below)
A headline in the May 2017 issue of Rolling Stone magazine called it ''The Doomsday Glacier," over a byline by climate beat reporter Jeff Goodell and his 2,500-word longform article about the Thwaites Glacier in Antartica.
The sub-headline doesn't mince words either: "In the farthest reaches of Antarctica, a nightmare scenario of crumbling ice -- and rapidly rising seas -- could spell disaster for a warming planet."
This was back in May of 2017, almost two years ago, and this spring of 2019 a major scientific expedition funded by British and American govenments and supported by a team of over 50 scientists, reporters, and staff aboard a solidly-built research ship have been cruisiing in waters close to the gigantic glacier, stuyding it for clues to what the future might hold for the prospects of runaway global warming within the next 30 generations of humankind.
There have been over 100 media reports about the 50-day expedition, both before and during and after, and not one newspaper or magazine report bothered to explain to readers why the glacier is named ''Thwaites'' or who is named for.
Well. you came to the right place, because this blog is about to explain to readers worldwide -- for the first time -- that the glacier was named for the American geologist Fredrik Thwaites (1883-1961) whose British grandfather emigrated with his wife to Boston in 1850.
So now you know: the Doomsday Glacier was named for an American college professor in Wisconsin who carried British ancestry and a surname minted in England. There's even a famous Thwaites Brewery in the UK that is known far and wide for the suds it sells, but that beer palance has nothing to do with the glacier.
There's more, but first read this quote from Ohio State University glaciologist Ian Howat who told the Rolling Stone reporter in the above-mentioned article in 2017: "If there is going to be a climate catastrophe, it's probably going to start at Thwaites."
So yes, the Thwaites, and the name itself, at this point in time, is one of the most famous surnames in the Anthropocene Era.
Why?
Because scientists from several nations are right now studying and researching Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica, as hundreds of news accounts confirm.
Let's now meet the late American Professor Fredrik Turville Thwaites for whom the glacier was named for:
He was born in 1883 in America and passed away in 1961. His paternal grandparents Mr and Mrs Thwaites were born in England and emigrated to the USA by ship in 1850, first to Boston and then moving on later to Wisconsin. So the surname Thwaites can reliably be said to be a British surname, as several people named Thwaites in Britain, Australia and America can confirm.
Professor Thwaites was only son of the Anerican historian Reuben Gold Thwaites and his wife Jessie Turville Thwaites. The Thwaites glacier was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (ACAN) after Thwaites, who was a glacial geologist, a geomorphologist and a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
A friend of mine, a writer who teaches creative nonfiction at Brown University in Rhode Island was aboard the government-funded research ship plying the icy waters around the Thwaites, and she, along with 50 climate change scientists on the expedition was able from time to time to tweet from their ship cabins and work spaces about this scientific adventure of a lifetime.
More than adventure. A very important expedition that will hopefully shed light on the future of humankind within the next 30 generations of man, that is to say, the next 500 years or so -- if indeed humanity is fated to exist that long.
Most likely we humans will continue on this Earth, our home planet, on and on, for much longer than 500 years. Then again, there are some alarmist voices online and on TV saying our days are numbered, from 12 years to 100 years to 300 years or so.
Me, I take the long view and see humans living on for another 1,000 years and more. Color me ''eternal optimist.''
By the way, if you want to learn more, there's even a hashtag for the Thwaites expedition in Antarctica, three in fact -- #Thwaites and #TheThwaites and #ThwaitesGlacier -- and it's possible for people around the world to follow the scientists and reports on board the research vessel as it navigates the frigid waters near the imposing glacier.
Go and take a look. Just go to Twitter and click on either of the three hashtags above, and you will be able to see photos and videos taken by expedition members and the reporters and environmental writers accompanying them.
And especially here and here and here and here.
So meet the late Professor Fredrik Turville Thwaites:
(1883 - 1961)
He was born in 1883 in America and passed away in 1961.
Any relation to Joe Thwaites, our online British acquaintance in Washington?
In the Wisconsin Academy Review, a UW retiremnt profile by Vivien Hone notes that
the American geologist FREDERICK T. THWAITES (also FREDRIK)
taught for 38
years at UW and served a long curator-ship
of the UW Geology Museum. [QUESTION FOR BLOG FOLLOWERS HERE: Where do you think the ''Thwaites'' name orignates from? Denmark, Germany, Holland, the UK? Any idea?]
Professor Thwaites of Wisconsin was only son of the historian Mr Reuben Gold
Thwaites and Mrs Jessie Turville Thwaites. (His paternal grandfather, Reuben's father, came to America from England in 1850.) He took his elementary
and high school instruction in Madison schools; spent his
early summers at the Turville homestead on Lake Monona and
later, for many years, dwelled permanently there. Trips
across the Atlantic were made more than once with his
parents, Thwaites recalled, but what seemed more mem-
orable to him was is a 1894 rowboat journey down the Ohio River. With his
social historian father. As a boy Frederick also retraced the
river routes of the early French missionary priests.
"Hey! Thanks, Dan, for your interest in my glacial namesake! Feel free to send over questions and I'll have a think. Mostly it's been friends and colleagues emailing me whenever it's in the news; it's become a bit of a running joke. The occasional journalist who I've talked to in the course of my work has also asked if there's a connection. [The news could be seen as being a bit] ominous in the sense that the glacier is a bit of a canary in the coal mine."
''Yeah I've been getting questions about it much more frequently, which is both funny and ominous," Joe had told me in tweet, so I had asked him what he meant by ominous.
When I asked if he might be RELATED to the man the Thwaites Glacier was named for, Joe replied in internet tine: ''Haha. I've been getting asked that a fair bit in recent years. Not that I know of!''
As for the origin of the Thwaites surname, Joe told me: ''By the way, I'm British, which perhaps explains the name better!''
On his Twitter page, Joe writes this as part of his intro: I work on climate policy at a Washington firm. --- And on that Twitter intro he runs this quote: “If there is going to be a climate catastrophe,” says glaciologist Ian Howat, “it's probably going to start at Thwaites.”
Note that Joe is part of an organization working to shift the world’s financial flows to support sustainable development at the institute he works for in DC, so he is aware of the Thwaites expedition, very aware.
What does Wikipedia have to say about the glacier itself? Well, Thwaites Glacier (75°30′S 106°45′W / 75.500°S 106.750°W) is an unusually broad and fast Antarctic glacier flowing into Pine Island Bay, part of the Amundsen Sea, east of Mount Murphy, on the Walgreen Coast of Marie Byrd Land.[1] Its surface speeds exceed 2 km/yr near its grounding line, and its fastest flowing grounded ice is centred between 50 and 100 km east of Mount Murphy. It was named by ACAN[2] after Fredrik T. Thwaites, a glacial geologist, geomorphologist and professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.[3] Thwaites Glacier drains into West Antarctica’s Amundsen Sea and is closely watched for its potential to raise sea levels.[4]
Because scientists from several nations are right now studying and researching Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica, as many news accounts confirm here and here and here.
And especially here and here and here and here.
So meet the late American Professor Fredrik Turville Thwaites for whom the glacier was named for:
He was born in 1883 in America and passed away in 1961. His paternal grandparents Mr and Mrs Thwaites were born in England and emigrated to the USA by ship in 1850, first to Boston and then moving on later to Wisconsin. So the surname Thwaites can reliably be said to be a British surname, as Joe Thwaites, a British man living in Washington D.C. in 2019
can confirm. There's a famous Thwaites Brewey in the UK, too.
In the Wisconsin Academy Review, a UW retiremnt profile by Vivien Hone notes that
the American geologist FREDERICK T. THWAITES (also FREDRIK)
taught for 38
years at UW and served a long curator-ship
of the UW Geology Museum. [QUESTION FOR BLOG FOLLOWERS HERE: Where do you think the ''Thwaites'' name orignates from? Denmark, Germany, Holland, the UK? Any idea?]
Professor Thwaites of Wisconsin was only son of the historian Mr Reuben Gold
Thwaites and Mrs Jessie Turville Thwaites. He took his elementary
and high school instruction in Madison schools; spent his
early summers at the Turville homestead on Lake Monona and
later, for many years, dwelled permanently there. Trips
across the Atlantic were made more than once with his
parents, Thwaites recalled, but what seemed more mem-
orable to him was is a 1894 rowboat journey down the Ohio River. With his
social historian father. As a boy Frederick also retraced the
river routes of the early French missionary priests.
What does Wikipedia have to say about the glacier itself? Well, Thwaites Glacier (75°30′S 106°45′W / 75.500°S 106.750°W) is an unusually broad and fast Antarctic glacier flowing into Pine Island Bay, part of the Amundsen Sea, east of Mount Murphy, on the Walgreen Coast of Marie Byrd Land.[1] Its surface speeds exceed 2 km/yr near its grounding line, and its fastest flowing grounded ice is centred between 50 and 100 km east of Mount Murphy. It was named by ACAN[2] after Fredrik T. Thwaites, a glacial geologist, geomorphologist and professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.[3] Thwaites Glacier drains into West Antarctica’s Amundsen Sea and is closely watched for its potential to raise sea levels.[4]
see also another climate expert on board the same ship Jeff Goodell, who will also be writing a book later on about what he saw there....
International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration @GlacierThwaite
Exploring Antarctica to investigate the nightmare scenario of melting ice that could spell disaster for a warming planet
-- Professor Ian Howat, OSU glaciologist in Ohio
RE: the late professor Fredrik Turville Thwaites, for whom the glacier was named for.
======================================
READ THIS IMPORTANT ''THWAITES'' POST TOO, WITH MORE DETAILS:
''TIME THWAITES FOR NO ONE''
https://cli-fi-books.blogspot.com/2019/03/time-thwaites-for-no-one-back-story-of.html
Thwaites, at this point in time, is one of the most famous surnames in the Anthropocene Era.
Why? BECAUSE....... (read on, below)
A headline in the May 2017 issue of Rolling Stone magazine called it ''The Doomsday Glacier," over a byline by climate beat reporter Jeff Goodell and his 2,500-word longform article about the Thwaites Glacier in Antartica.
The sub-headline doesn't mince words either: "In the farthest reaches of Antarctica, a nightmare scenario of crumbling ice -- and rapidly rising seas -- could spell disaster for a warming planet."
This was back in May of 2017, almost two years ago, and this spring of 2019 a major scientific expedition funded by British and American govenments and supported by a team of over 50 scientists, reporters, and staff aboard a solidly-built research ship have been cruisiing in waters close to the gigantic glacier, stuyding it for clues to what the future might hold for the prospects of runaway global warming within the next 30 generations of humankind.
There have been over 100 media reports about the 50-day expedition, both before and during and after, and not one newspaper or magazine report bothered to explain to readers why the glacier is named ''Thwaites'' or who is named for.
Well. you came to the right place, because this blog is about to explain to readers worldwide -- for the first time -- that the glacier was named for the American geologist Fredrik Thwaites (1883-1961) whose British grandfather emigrated with his wife to Boston in 1850.
So now you know: the Doomsday Glacier was named for an American college professor in Wisconsin who carried British ancestry and a surname minted in England. There's even a famous Thwaites Brewery in the UK that is known far and wide for the suds it sells, but that beer palance has nothing to do with the glacier.
There's more, but first read this quote from Ohio State University glaciologist Ian Howat who told the Rolling Stone reporter in the above-mentioned article in 2017: "If there is going to be a climate catastrophe, it's probably going to start at Thwaites."
So yes, the Thwaites, and the name itself, at this point in time, is one of the most famous surnames in the Anthropocene Era.
Why?
Because scientists from several nations are right now studying and researching Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica, as hundreds of news accounts confirm.
Let's now meet the late American Professor Fredrik Turville Thwaites for whom the glacier was named for:
He was born in 1883 in America and passed away in 1961. His paternal grandparents Mr and Mrs Thwaites were born in England and emigrated to the USA by ship in 1850, first to Boston and then moving on later to Wisconsin. So the surname Thwaites can reliably be said to be a British surname, as several people named Thwaites in Britain, Australia and America can confirm.
Professor Thwaites was only son of the Anerican historian Reuben Gold Thwaites and his wife Jessie Turville Thwaites. The Thwaites glacier was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (ACAN) after Thwaites, who was a glacial geologist, a geomorphologist and a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
A friend of mine, a writer who teaches creative nonfiction at Brown University in Rhode Island was aboard the government-funded research ship plying the icy waters around the Thwaites, and she, along with 50 climate change scientists on the expedition was able from time to time to tweet from their ship cabins and work spaces about this scientific adventure of a lifetime.
More than adventure. A very important expedition that will hopefully shed light on the future of humankind within the next 30 generations of man, that is to say, the next 500 years or so -- if indeed humanity is fated to exist that long.
Most likely we humans will continue on this Earth, our home planet, on and on, for much longer than 500 years. Then again, there are some alarmist voices online and on TV saying our days are numbered, from 12 years to 100 years to 300 years or so.
Me, I take the long view and see humans living on for another 1,000 years and more. Color me ''eternal optimist.''
By the way, if you want to learn more, there's even a hashtag for the Thwaites expedition in Antarctica, three in fact -- #Thwaites and #TheThwaites and #ThwaitesGlacier -- and it's possible for people around the world to follow the scientists and reports on board the research vessel as it navigates the frigid waters near the imposing glacier.
Go and take a look. Just go to Twitter and click on either of the three hashtags above, and you will be able to see photos and videos taken by expedition members and the reporters and environmental writers accompanying them.
Meanwhile, thanks to the magic of the internet, I met a British man who lives and works in Washington DC, and at this point in time, he has one of the most famous surnames in the Anthropocene Era: ''Thwaites.''
Why is the name so famous now? Because scientists from several nations are right now studying and researching Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica, as many news accounts confirm here and here and here.
And especially here and here and here and here.
So meet the late Professor Fredrik Turville Thwaites:
(1883 - 1961)
He was born in 1883 in America and passed away in 1961.
Any relation to Joe Thwaites, our online British acquaintance in Washington?
In the Wisconsin Academy Review, a UW retiremnt profile by Vivien Hone notes that
the American geologist FREDERICK T. THWAITES (also FREDRIK)
taught for 38
years at UW and served a long curator-ship
of the UW Geology Museum. [QUESTION FOR BLOG FOLLOWERS HERE: Where do you think the ''Thwaites'' name orignates from? Denmark, Germany, Holland, the UK? Any idea?]
Professor Thwaites of Wisconsin was only son of the historian Mr Reuben Gold
Thwaites and Mrs Jessie Turville Thwaites. (His paternal grandfather, Reuben's father, came to America from England in 1850.) He took his elementary
and high school instruction in Madison schools; spent his
early summers at the Turville homestead on Lake Monona and
later, for many years, dwelled permanently there. Trips
across the Atlantic were made more than once with his
parents, Thwaites recalled, but what seemed more mem-
orable to him was is a 1894 rowboat journey down the Ohio River. With his
social historian father. As a boy Frederick also retraced the
river routes of the early French missionary priests.
The Thwaites was named by ACAN[2] after Fredrik T. Thwaites, a glacial geologist, geomorphologist and professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison[3 in the USA.
When this blogger discovered Joe Thwaites on Twitter by complete chance the other day [and I don't even remember exactly how his name popped up into my online surfing, but pop up it did, and it caught my eye.]
Joe Thwaites: Nice guy, unassuming, modest guy, British chap, enjoying his life and work in Washington, and while he has never taken advantage of the publicity surrounding the scientific cruise to Thwaites glacier in 2019 year to claim he has any relation to the glacier itself -- he doesn't -- he has at the same time told this blogger (when I asked) that yes, since the news about Thwaites and the scientists studying it went viral on a variety of websites in dozens of langauges, he has received a few curious remarks about his last name from colleagues at work and and friends online and from a few inquiring reporters and bloggers.
When this blog asked Joe if he had been getting any inquiries from the media about his possible link via surnme to the Thwaites glacier, he replied in internet time in a very friendly way:'"Hey! Thanks, Dan, for your interest in my glacial namesake! Feel free to send over questions and I'll have a think. Mostly it's been friends and colleagues emailing me whenever it's in the news; it's become a bit of a running joke. The occasional journalist who I've talked to in the course of my work has also asked if there's a connection. [The news could be seen as being a bit] ominous in the sense that the glacier is a bit of a canary in the coal mine."
''Yeah I've been getting questions about it much more frequently, which is both funny and ominous," Joe had told me in tweet, so I had asked him what he meant by ominous.
When I asked if he might be RELATED to the man the Thwaites Glacier was named for, Joe replied in internet tine: ''Haha. I've been getting asked that a fair bit in recent years. Not that I know of!''
As for the origin of the Thwaites surname, Joe told me: ''By the way, I'm British, which perhaps explains the name better!''
On his Twitter page, Joe writes this as part of his intro: I work on climate policy at a Washington firm. --- And on that Twitter intro he runs this quote: “If there is going to be a climate catastrophe,” says glaciologist Ian Howat, “it's probably going to start at Thwaites.”
Note that Joe is part of an organization working to shift the world’s financial flows to support sustainable development at the institute he works for in DC, so he is aware of the Thwaites expedition, very aware.
What does Wikipedia have to say about the glacier itself? Well, Thwaites Glacier (75°30′S 106°45′W / 75.500°S 106.750°W) is an unusually broad and fast Antarctic glacier flowing into Pine Island Bay, part of the Amundsen Sea, east of Mount Murphy, on the Walgreen Coast of Marie Byrd Land.[1] Its surface speeds exceed 2 km/yr near its grounding line, and its fastest flowing grounded ice is centred between 50 and 100 km east of Mount Murphy. It was named by ACAN[2] after Fredrik T. Thwaites, a glacial geologist, geomorphologist and professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.[3] Thwaites Glacier drains into West Antarctica’s Amundsen Sea and is closely watched for its potential to raise sea levels.[4]
Along with Pine Island Glacier, Thwaites Glacier has been described as part of the "weak underbelly" of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, due to its apparent vulnerability to significant retreat. This hypothesis is based on both theoretical studies of the stability of marine ice sheets and recent observations of large changes on both of these glaciers. In recent years, the flow of both of these glaciers has accelerated, their surfaces lowered, and the grounding lines retreated.
JEFF GOODELL for ROLLING STONE Magazine wrote earlier this winter: ''I’m writing this aboard the R/V Nathaniel Palmer, a 300-foot ocean research vessel. On board the ship [are me and writer Elizabeth Rush and] 26 scientists and 31 crew members and support staff, as well as many millions of dollars worth of scientific equipment. We first made a week-long transit from Chile to the West Coast of Antarctica, where we then spent the next 6 weeks in one of the most remote regions of the most remote continent in the universe.
Btw: Some other Thwaites online:
- Ann Thwaites (1789–1866) English philanthropist also known as Mrs Thwaites, Ann Thwaytes and Mrs Thwaytes
- Brenton Thwaites (born 1989), Australian actor
- Caitlin Thwaites (born 1986), Australian netball and volleyball player
- Daniel Thwaites, Sr. (1777–1843), founder of Thwaites Brewery
- Daniel Thwaites (1817–1888), English brewer and Liberal Party politician
- David Thwaites (born 1976), British actor
- Denis Thwaites (1944–2015), English professional footballer who plays outside left
- Edward Thwaites (1667–1711), English scholar of the Anglo-Saxon language
- F. J. Thwaites (1908–1979), Australian novelist
- George Henry Kendrick Thwaites (1812–1882), British botanist and entomologist
- John Barrass (Jack) Thwaites (1902–1986), Tasmanian bushwalker and conservationist
- John Anthony Thwaites (1909–1981), British art critic and author
- John Thwaites (Australian politician) (born 1955)
- John Thwaites (British politician) (1815–1870)
- Michael Thwaites (1915–2005), Australian academic, poet, intelligence officer, and activist
- Reuben Gold Thwaites (1853–1913), American historical writer FREDRIK'S FATHER!
- Robinson Thwaites (1807-1884), English mechanical engineer and mill-owner
- Ronald Thwaites (born 1945), Jamaican minister and politician
- Thomas Thwaites (c.1435–1503), English knight and conspirator
- Thomas Thwaites (designer), British designer and writer
- William Thwaites (1868–1947), former Commander of the British Army of the Rhine
Because scientists from several nations are right now studying and researching Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica, as many news accounts confirm here and here and here.
And especially here and here and here and here.
So meet the late American Professor Fredrik Turville Thwaites for whom the glacier was named for:
He was born in 1883 in America and passed away in 1961. His paternal grandparents Mr and Mrs Thwaites were born in England and emigrated to the USA by ship in 1850, first to Boston and then moving on later to Wisconsin. So the surname Thwaites can reliably be said to be a British surname, as Joe Thwaites, a British man living in Washington D.C. in 2019
can confirm. There's a famous Thwaites Brewey in the UK, too.
In the Wisconsin Academy Review, a UW retiremnt profile by Vivien Hone notes that
the American geologist FREDERICK T. THWAITES (also FREDRIK)
taught for 38
years at UW and served a long curator-ship
of the UW Geology Museum. [QUESTION FOR BLOG FOLLOWERS HERE: Where do you think the ''Thwaites'' name orignates from? Denmark, Germany, Holland, the UK? Any idea?]
Professor Thwaites of Wisconsin was only son of the historian Mr Reuben Gold
Thwaites and Mrs Jessie Turville Thwaites. He took his elementary
and high school instruction in Madison schools; spent his
early summers at the Turville homestead on Lake Monona and
later, for many years, dwelled permanently there. Trips
across the Atlantic were made more than once with his
parents, Thwaites recalled, but what seemed more mem-
orable to him was is a 1894 rowboat journey down the Ohio River. With his
social historian father. As a boy Frederick also retraced the
river routes of the early French missionary priests.
The Thwaites was named by ACAN[2] after Fredrik T. Thwaites, a glacial geologist, geomorphologist and professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison[3 in the USA.
A friend of mine is on board a government-funded research ship plying the icy waters around the Thwaites, and she, along with 50 climate change scientists accompanied by a several national news reporters for Rolling Stone magazine and other outlets, have been tweeting from their ship cabins and work spaces about this scientific adventure of a lifetime. More than adventure. A very important expedition that will hopefully shed light on the future of humankind in 30 generations of humans, that is to say the next 500 years or so, if indeed humanity exists for that long. Most likely we will continue on and on. Then again, there are those voices online and on TV saying our days are numbered, from 12 years to 100 years to 300 years or more.
There's even a hashtag for the Thwaites expedition going on now in Antarctica -- #Thwaites and #TheThwaites -- and it's possible for people around the world to follow the scientists and reports on board the research vessel and it navigates the frigid near the imposing glacier. Go and take a look. Just go to Twitter and click on either of the two hashtags above, and you will be able to see photos and videos taken by expedition members and the reporters and environmental writers accompanying them.
This quote: “If there is going to be a climate catastrophe,” says glaciologist Ian Howat, “it's probably going to start at Thwaites.”
What does Wikipedia have to say about the glacier itself? Well, Thwaites Glacier (75°30′S 106°45′W / 75.500°S 106.750°W) is an unusually broad and fast Antarctic glacier flowing into Pine Island Bay, part of the Amundsen Sea, east of Mount Murphy, on the Walgreen Coast of Marie Byrd Land.[1] Its surface speeds exceed 2 km/yr near its grounding line, and its fastest flowing grounded ice is centred between 50 and 100 km east of Mount Murphy. It was named by ACAN[2] after Fredrik T. Thwaites, a glacial geologist, geomorphologist and professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.[3] Thwaites Glacier drains into West Antarctica’s Amundsen Sea and is closely watched for its potential to raise sea levels.[4]
Along with Pine Island Glacier, Thwaites Glacier has been described as part of the "weak underbelly" of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, due to its apparent vulnerability to significant retreat. This hypothesis is based on both theoretical studies of the stability of marine ice sheets and recent observations of large changes on both of these glaciers. In recent years, the flow of both of these glaciers has accelerated, their surfaces lowered, and the grounding lines retreated.
Some other Thwaites online:
- Ann Thwaites (1789–1866) English philanthropist also known as Mrs Thwaites, Ann Thwaytes and Mrs Thwaytes
- Brenton Thwaites (born 1989), Australian actor
- Caitlin Thwaites (born 1986), Australian netball and volleyball player
- Daniel Thwaites, Sr. (1777–1843), founder of Thwaites Brewery
- Daniel Thwaites (1817–1888), English brewer and Liberal Party politician
- David Thwaites (born 1976), British actor
- Denis Thwaites (1944–2015), English professional footballer who plays outside left
- Edward Thwaites (1667–1711), English scholar of the Anglo-Saxon language
- F. J. Thwaites (1908–1979), Australian novelist
- George Henry Kendrick Thwaites (1812–1882), British botanist and entomologist
- John Barrass (Jack) Thwaites (1902–1986), Tasmanian bushwalker and conservationist
- John Anthony Thwaites (1909–1981), British art critic and author
- John Thwaites (Australian politician) (born 1955)
- John Thwaites (British politician) (1815–1870)
- Michael Thwaites (1915–2005), Australian academic, poet, intelligence officer, and activist
- Reuben Gold Thwaites (1853–1913), American historical writer FREDRIK'S FATHER!
- Robinson Thwaites (1807-1884), English mechanical engineer and mill-owner
- Ronald Thwaites (born 1945), Jamaican minister and politician
- Thomas Thwaites (c.1435–1503), English knight and conspirator
- Thomas Thwaites (designer), British designer and writer
- William Thwaites (1868–1947), former Commander of the British Army of the Rhine
see also another climate expert on board the same ship Jeff Goodell, who will also be writing a book later on about what he saw there....
International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration @GlacierThwaite
Rolling Stone magazine's @jeffgoodell writes from the U.S. icebreaker R/V Nathaniel Palmer heading to #ThwaitesGlacier in #Antarcica https://www.rollingstone.com/
Journey to Antarctica: Jeff Goodell Begins His Trip to Thwaites Glacier
Exploring Antarctica to investigate the nightmare scenario of melting ice that could spell disaster for a warming planet
This is the first dispatch in a series from Jeff Goodell, who will be investigating the effect of climate change on Thwaites glacier.
I’m writing this aboard the R/V Nathanial Palmer, a 300-foot ocean research vessel that is, at this moment, tied up at a dock in Punta Arenas, Chile. On board the ship are me and writer Elizabeth Rush and 26 scientists and 31 crew members and support staff, as well as many millions of dollars worth of scientific equipment. We departed for Antarctica two nights ago, but we had to return to port because of a problem with the ship’s rudder. OUCH! Divers are in the water now — presumably it will get fixed shortly and we will depart for a week-long transit to the West Coast of Antarctica, where we will spend the next 6 weeks in one of the most remote regions of the most remote continent in the universe.
The mission of this scientific expedition is straightforward: to better understand the risk of catastrophic collapse of Thwaites glacier, one of the largest glaciers in West Antarctica. Thwaites glacier is perhaps the most important tipping point in the Earth’s climate system. Thwaites is the cork in the wine bottle for the entire West Antarctic ice sheet. If it collapses, it could dump enough ice into the ocean to cause seas to rise by 10 feet or more. That would doom Miami, Boston, New York City, London, Shanghai, Jakarta — and virtually every other coastal city in the world. As Thwaites goes, so goes human civilization as we know it.
The trip I’m about to take is the first expedition in a US$25 million, five-year joint research project between the National Science Foundation and the British Antarctic Survey. During this 5-year research project, scientists will poke and prod the glacier from every direction, map the ground beneath it, measure changes in ocean currents that are bringing warm water to the base of the glacier, and dig up mud near the front of the glacier to better understand how quickly it has retreated during past warm periods. As Robert Larter, a marine geophysicist with the British Antarctic Survey who is the chief scientist on the trip, told us during a science meeting aboard the ship last night, “The question we want to answer is, is West Antarctica on the verge of unstoppable collapse?”
But first, of course, we have to get to Antarctica. Right now, as we wait for the rudder to be fixed, everyone is sorting out their gear, meeting their cabin-mates (2 people to a cabin, in small bunk beds with railings that can be installed so you aren’t thrown out of bed during high seas). The ship has 5 decks which are connected through a maze of green steel doors and stairways. Because this is, in part, a USA government sponsored trip, this afternoon we all had to watch videos about environmental rules in Antarctica (which included tips on how to pick seed pods out of the Velcro on your winter jacket so as to not import any invasive species to the continent). We also practiced getting into the lifeboat and donning our bright orange immersion suits, which would, in theory, keep us warm for a few hours if we had to abandon ship in the icy waters of the Southern Ocean. We have learned that everything must be strapped down and have tested sea sickness medications for when the big seas hit as we cross Drake’s Passage, the notoriously treacherous open water between South America and Antarctic.
For the scientists aboard the ship, there is a lot of unpacking and prepping and strategizing happening right now. I’ve spent most of my career as a journalist around scientists, but on a trip like this, you really feel the urgency of their work. To get invited on this cruise, scientists had to submit lengthy proposals about what they hope to discover and why it is important. Selection was highly competitive. The people onboard are the All-Stars of the science world. And there is a lot of pressure to make the most of their time and not to screw anything up. Once we are at sea, work will go on 24 hours a day, every day.
“There is not a moment to waste on a trip like this,” Robert Larter told me while we were standing on the deck of the ship, watching cranes lift containers full of scientific equipment onto the deck. “This ship is very expensive to run” — Larter estimates the Palmer costs US$30 K a day to operate — “and this is your one shot to get to a place like Thwaites glacier. You want to take full advantage of that.”
The mission of this scientific expedition is straightforward: to better understand the risk of catastrophic collapse of Thwaites glacier, one of the largest glaciers in West Antarctica. Thwaites glacier is perhaps the most important tipping point in the Earth’s climate system. Thwaites is the cork in the wine bottle for the entire West Antarctic ice sheet. If it collapses, it could dump enough ice into the ocean to cause seas to rise by 10 feet or more. That would doom Miami, Boston, New York City, London, Shanghai, Jakarta — and virtually every other coastal city in the world. As Thwaites goes, so goes human civilization as we know it.
The trip I’m about to take is the first expedition in a US$25 million, five-year joint research project between the National Science Foundation and the British Antarctic Survey. During this 5-year research project, scientists will poke and prod the glacier from every direction, map the ground beneath it, measure changes in ocean currents that are bringing warm water to the base of the glacier, and dig up mud near the front of the glacier to better understand how quickly it has retreated during past warm periods. As Robert Larter, a marine geophysicist with the British Antarctic Survey who is the chief scientist on the trip, told us during a science meeting aboard the ship last night, “The question we want to answer is, is West Antarctica on the verge of unstoppable collapse?”
But first, of course, we have to get to Antarctica. Right now, as we wait for the rudder to be fixed, everyone is sorting out their gear, meeting their cabin-mates (2 people to a cabin, in small bunk beds with railings that can be installed so you aren’t thrown out of bed during high seas). The ship has 5 decks which are connected through a maze of green steel doors and stairways. Because this is, in part, a USA government sponsored trip, this afternoon we all had to watch videos about environmental rules in Antarctica (which included tips on how to pick seed pods out of the Velcro on your winter jacket so as to not import any invasive species to the continent). We also practiced getting into the lifeboat and donning our bright orange immersion suits, which would, in theory, keep us warm for a few hours if we had to abandon ship in the icy waters of the Southern Ocean. We have learned that everything must be strapped down and have tested sea sickness medications for when the big seas hit as we cross Drake’s Passage, the notoriously treacherous open water between South America and Antarctic.
For the scientists aboard the ship, there is a lot of unpacking and prepping and strategizing happening right now. I’ve spent most of my career as a journalist around scientists, but on a trip like this, you really feel the urgency of their work. To get invited on this cruise, scientists had to submit lengthy proposals about what they hope to discover and why it is important. Selection was highly competitive. The people onboard are the All-Stars of the science world. And there is a lot of pressure to make the most of their time and not to screw anything up. Once we are at sea, work will go on 24 hours a day, every day.
“There is not a moment to waste on a trip like this,” Robert Larter told me while we were standing on the deck of the ship, watching cranes lift containers full of scientific equipment onto the deck. “This ship is very expensive to run” — Larter estimates the Palmer costs US$30 K a day to operate — “and this is your one shot to get to a place like Thwaites glacier. You want to take full advantage of that.”
The Nathaniel B. Palmer in port. Photo courtesy of Jeff Goodell
But there is also the excitement of exploring one of the most remote and consequential regions of the planet. Antarctica is the last uncivilized place on Earth, a vast continent where about 70 percent of the Earth’s fresh water is locked up in ice. For most the 20th century, climate scientists thought Antarctica was a cold and stable place — most of their attention was focused on Greenland, which is melting like a popsicle on a summer sidewalk as the climate warms.
But as it turns out, Antarctica is in trouble, too. But instead of melting from the surface like Greenland, the ice in parts of Antarctica is melting from below, thanks to warmer ocean currents (I’ll talk more about this in future dispatches). The Antarctic lost 40 billion tons of melting ice to the ocean each year from 1979 to 1989. That figure rose to 252 billion tons lost per year beginning in 2009, according to a study published recently by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. That means the region is losing six times as much ice as it was 40 years ago, an unprecedented pace in the era of modern measurements. (It takes about 360 billion tons of ice to produce one millimeter of global sea-level rise.)
And nowhere in Antarctica is more unstable than Thwaites glacier. To many climate scientists, this has come as a big surprise. “Until about 25 years ago, we knew virtually nothing about Thwaites glacier,” Larter told me over dinner in the mess hall last night. Even more alarming, this particular glacier is a good example of what scientists call “a threshold system.” That means instead of melting in a fairly predictable way, as the ice sheets in Greenland are doing, it could collapse suddenly (I’ll write more about this in future posts as well). In addition, scientists now understand that Thwaites glacier is like the cork in the bottle for the entire West Antarctic ice sheet — if it goes, the entire ice sheet could collapse into the sea relatively quickly, adding eight, nine, 10 feet to the height of the world’s oceans. As the climate warms, how big is the risk that Thwaites will collapse? How soon could it happen? Those are perhaps the two most important questions in climate science right now, and they are precisely what we will be exploring on this journey to Antarctica.
But first, we have to get the rudder fixed and ride out the rough seas and rogue waves in Drake’s Passage. Talk over breakfast in the mess hall this morning was about a storm brewing just west of the passage. But as Larter, a veteran of many Antarctic crossings put it with a wry smile, “There is always a storm on the way to Antarctica.”
Monday, March 11, 2019
Time Thwaites for No One: the back story of Fredrik Thwaites, an American glacial geologist that the Thwaites Glacier was named for
A headline in the May 2017 issue of Rolling Stone magazine called it ''The Doomsday Glacier," over a byline by climate beat reporter Jeff Goodell and his 2,500-word longform article about the Thwaites Glacier in Antartica.
The sub-headline doesn't mince words either: "In the farthest reaches of Antarctica, a nightmare scenario of crumbling ice -- and rapidly rising seas -- could spell disaster for a warming planet."
This was back in May of 2017, almost two years ago, and this spring of 2019 a major scientific expedition funded by British and American govenments and supported by a team of over 50 scientists, reporters, and staff aboard a solidly-built research ship have been cruisiing in waters close to the gigantic glacier, stuyding it for clues to what the future might hold for the prospects of runaway global warming within the next 30 generations of humankind.
There have been over 100 media reports about the 50-day expedition, both before and during and after, and not one newspaper or magazine report bothered to explain to readers why the glacier is named ''Thwaites'' or who is named for.
Well. you came to the right place, because this blog is about to explain to readers worldwide -- for the first time -- that the glacier was named for the American geologist Fredrik Thwaites (1883-1961) whose British grandfather emigrated with his wife to Boston in 1850.
So now you know: the Doomsday Glacier was named for an American college professor in Wisconsin who carried British ancestry and a surname minted in England. There's even a famous Thwaites Brewery in the UK that is known far and wide for the suds it sells, but that beer palance has nothing to do with the glacier.
There's more, but first read this quote from Ohio State University glaciologist Ian Howat who told the Rolling Stone reporter in the above-mentioned article in 2017: "If there is going to be a climate catastrophe, it's probably going to start at Thwaites."
So yes, the Thwaites, and the name itself, at this point in time, is one of the most famous surnames in the Anthropocene Era.
Why?
Because scientists from several nations are right now studying and researching Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica, as hundreds of news accounts confirm.
Let's now meet the late American Professor Fredrik Turville Thwaites for whom the glacier was named for:
He was born in 1883 in America and passed away in 1961. His paternal grandparents Mr and Mrs Thwaites were born in England and emigrated to the USA by ship in 1850, first to Boston and then moving on later to Wisconsin. So the surname Thwaites can reliably be said to be a British surname, as several people named Thwaites in Britain, Australia and America can confirm.
Professor Thwaites was only son of the Anerican historian Reuben Gold Thwaites and his wife Jessie Turville Thwaites. The Thwaites glacier was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (ACAN) after Thwaites, who was a glacial geologist, a geomorphologist and a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
A friend of mine, a writer who teaches creative nonfiction at Brown University in Rhode Island was aboard the government-funded research ship plying the icy waters around the Thwaites, and she, along with 50 climate change scientists on the expedition was able from time to time to tweet from their ship cabins and work spaces about this scientific adventure of a lifetime.
More than adventure. A very important expedition that will hopefully shed light on the future of humankind within the next 30 generations of man, that is to say, the next 500 years or so -- if indeed humanity is fated to exist that long.
Most likely we humans will continue on this Earth, our home planet, on and on, for much longer than 500 years. Then again, there are some alarmist voices online and on TV saying our days are numbered, from 12 years to 100 years to 300 years or so.
Me, I take the long view and see humans living on for another 1,000 years and more. Color me ''eternal optimist.''
By the way, if you want to learn more, there's even a hashtag for the Thwaites expedition in Antarctica, three in fact -- #Thwaites and #TheThwaites and #ThwaitesGlacier -- and it's possible for people around the world to follow the scientists and reports on board the research vessel as it navigates the frigid waters near the imposing glacier.
Go and take a look. Just go to Twitter and click on either of the three hashtags above, and you will be able to see photos and videos taken by expedition members and the reporters and environmental writers accompanying them.
Meanwhile, thanks to the magic of the internet, I met a British man who lives and works in Washington DC, and at this point in time, he has one of the most famous surnames in the Anthropocene Era: ''Thwaites.''
Why is the name so famous now? Because scientists from several nations are right now studying and researching Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica, as many news accounts confirm here and here and here.
And especially here and here and here and here.
So meet the late Professor Fredrik Turville Thwaites:
(1883 - 1961)
He was born in 1883 in America and passed away in 1961.
Any relation to Joe Thwaites, our online British acquaintance in Washington?
In the Wisconsin Academy Review, a UW retiremnt profile by Vivien Hone notes that
the American geologist FREDERICK T. THWAITES (also FREDRIK)
taught for 38
years at UW and served a long curator-ship
of the UW Geology Museum. [QUESTION FOR BLOG FOLLOWERS HERE: Where do you think the ''Thwaites'' name orignates from? Denmark, Germany, Holland, the UK? Any idea?]
Professor Thwaites of Wisconsin was only son of the historian Mr Reuben Gold
Thwaites and Mrs Jessie Turville Thwaites. (His paternal grandfather, Reuben's father, came to America from England in 1850.) He took his elementary
and high school instruction in Madison schools; spent his
early summers at the Turville homestead on Lake Monona and
later, for many years, dwelled permanently there. Trips
across the Atlantic were made more than once with his
parents, Thwaites recalled, but what seemed more mem-
orable to him was is a 1894 rowboat journey down the Ohio River. With his
social historian father. As a boy Frederick also retraced the
river routes of the early French missionary priests.
The Thwaites was named by ACAN[2] after Fredrik T. Thwaites, a glacial geologist, geomorphologist and professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison[3 in the USA.
When this blogger discovered Joe Thwaites on Twitter by complete chance the other day [and I don't even remember exactly how his name popped up into my online surfing, but pop up it did, and it caught my eye.]
Joe Thwaites: Nice guy, unassuming, modest guy, British chap, enjoying his life and work in Washington, and while he has never taken advantage of the publicity surrounding the scientific cruise to Thwaites glacier in 2019 year to claim he has any relation to the glacier itself -- he doesn't -- he has at the same time told this blogger (when I asked) that yes, since the news about Thwaites and the scientists studying it went viral on a variety of websites in dozens of langauges, he has received a few curious remarks about his last name from colleagues at work and and friends online and from a few inquiring reporters and bloggers.
When this blog asked Joe if he had been getting any inquiries from the media about his possible link via surnme to the Thwaites glacier, he replied in internet time in a very friendly way:'"Hey! Thanks, Dan, for your interest in my glacial namesake! Feel free to send over questions and I'll have a think. Mostly it's been friends and colleagues emailing me whenever it's in the news; it's become a bit of a running joke. The occasional journalist who I've talked to in the course of my work has also asked if there's a connection. [The news could be seen as being a bit] ominous in the sense that the glacier is a bit of a canary in the coal mine."
''Yeah I've been getting questions about it much more frequently, which is both funny and ominous," Joe had told me in tweet, so I had asked him what he meant by ominous.
When I asked if he might be RELATED to the man the Thwaites Glacier was named for, Joe replied in internet tine: ''Haha. I've been getting asked that a fair bit in recent years. Not that I know of!''
As for the origin of the Thwaites surname, Joe told me: ''By the way, I'm British, which perhaps explains the name better!''
On his Twitter page, Joe writes this as part of his intro: I work on climate policy at a Washington firm. --- And on that Twitter intro he runs this quote: “If there is going to be a climate catastrophe,” says glaciologist Ian Howat, “it's probably going to start at Thwaites.”
Note that Joe is part of an organization working to shift the world’s financial flows to support sustainable development at the institute he works for in DC, so he is aware of the Thwaites expedition, very aware.
What does Wikipedia have to say about the glacier itself? Well, Thwaites Glacier (75°30′S 106°45′W / 75.500°S 106.750°W) is an unusually broad and fast Antarctic glacier flowing into Pine Island Bay, part of the Amundsen Sea, east of Mount Murphy, on the Walgreen Coast of Marie Byrd Land.[1] Its surface speeds exceed 2 km/yr near its grounding line, and its fastest flowing grounded ice is centred between 50 and 100 km east of Mount Murphy. It was named by ACAN[2] after Fredrik T. Thwaites, a glacial geologist, geomorphologist and professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.[3] Thwaites Glacier drains into West Antarctica’s Amundsen Sea and is closely watched for its potential to raise sea levels.[4]
Along with Pine Island Glacier, Thwaites Glacier has been described as part of the "weak underbelly" of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, due to its apparent vulnerability to significant retreat. This hypothesis is based on both theoretical studies of the stability of marine ice sheets and recent observations of large changes on both of these glaciers. In recent years, the flow of both of these glaciers has accelerated, their surfaces lowered, and the grounding lines retreated.
JEFF GOODELL for ROLLING STONE Magazine wrote earlier this winter: ''I’m writing this aboard the R/V Nathaniel Palmer, a 300-foot ocean research vessel. On board the ship [are me and writer Elizabeth Rush and] 26 scientists and 31 crew members and support staff, as well as many millions of dollars worth of scientific equipment. We first made a week-long transit from Chile to the West Coast of Antarctica, where we then spent the next 6 weeks in one of the most remote regions of the most remote continent in the universe.
Btw: Some other Thwaites online:
- Ann Thwaites (1789–1866) English philanthropist also known as Mrs Thwaites, Ann Thwaytes and Mrs Thwaytes
- Brenton Thwaites (born 1989), Australian actor
- Caitlin Thwaites (born 1986), Australian netball and volleyball player
- Daniel Thwaites, Sr. (1777–1843), founder of Thwaites Brewery
- Daniel Thwaites (1817–1888), English brewer and Liberal Party politician
- David Thwaites (born 1976), British actor
- Denis Thwaites (1944–2015), English professional footballer who plays outside left
- Edward Thwaites (1667–1711), English scholar of the Anglo-Saxon language
- F. J. Thwaites (1908–1979), Australian novelist
- George Henry Kendrick Thwaites (1812–1882), British botanist and entomologist
- John Barrass (Jack) Thwaites (1902–1986), Tasmanian bushwalker and conservationist
- John Anthony Thwaites (1909–1981), British art critic and author
- John Thwaites (Australian politician) (born 1955)
- John Thwaites (British politician) (1815–1870)
- Michael Thwaites (1915–2005), Australian academic, poet, intelligence officer, and activist
- Reuben Gold Thwaites (1853–1913), American historical writer FREDRIK'S FATHER!
- Robinson Thwaites (1807-1884), English mechanical engineer and mill-owner
- Ronald Thwaites (born 1945), Jamaican minister and politician
- Thomas Thwaites (c.1435–1503), English knight and conspirator
- Thomas Thwaites (designer), British designer and writer
- William Thwaites (1868–1947), former Commander of the British Army of the Rhine
Saturday, March 9, 2019
David Wallace-Wells is kinda jumping the gun here. We are NOT ''on the brink of climate catastrophe'' by a long shot, David.
David Wallace-Wells @dwallacewells
DWW TWEETS:
“Half of all emissions produced from fossil fuels have come in the last 30 years. I’m 36. I remember 30 years ago. My life contains the whole trajectory of this story that took us from a relatively stable climate to the brink of climate catastrophe.''
MY REPLY:
Yes, you are 36, David. But no, we are not any on the *brink* of climate catastrophe. Not now, not yet. Come on! Language likes that does a dis-service to your very good climate journalism and new book.
The truth is that the brink of climate catastrophe....''BCC''.....won't occur for another 10 to 20 generations of humans. That's your child's descendants in 200 years or so. Not now, not by a long shot. Please!
'Cli-fi' is on its own now. Godspeed!
My PR work with the cli-fi genre has pretty much come to an end, and I happy to know and to see that it doesn't need me anymore. Very capable people in the fields of literary criticism, academic, book reviewing and novel writing (and film directing) are on it now and doing some very good A++ work with the genre. I've retired and am living life in the slow lane, far from the madding crowds (and the maddening crowds, too) and I'm glad to see the cli-fi meme taking on a life of its own, with dozens, hundreds, thousands of boosters and fans around the world. Especccccially the writers, who are doing the heavy lifting and will continue to do so into the 2020s and 2030s and 2040s ...and beyond.
The 21st century belongs to cli-fi. That is to say, cli-fi belongs to the 21st century.
A large global army made it happen and it will continue to go on happening long after most of us reading this blog post today are dead. Long live cli-fi!
Glad to have made your acquaintance!
The Trouble With Difficult People [''緣木求魚'']
''緣木求魚''
(spoken in Chinese are ''yuan mu qiu yu'')
The above Chinese-language idiom means in English ''climb a tree to catch a fish." or in other words "to send someone on a fool's errand."
I start this blog off this way today in 2018 ... because I need to talk about ''the trouble with difficult people'' ... about a person who lives and works in the Wast Coast of the USA.....but I know that asking them to apologize is a useless task, since as the commuications [copied below] indicate, doesn't apologize, ever, even when their wrong, and also, at the same time, they are too selfish and wrapped up in their little world to get a grasp of the situation and apologize, or at least to say they accepts my sincere apology (see below emails) so my asking them to apologize (or even to explain themself) is pointless and I will be just wasting my breath (and bandwidth). That person is that way. I don't expect any miracles from them in this life.
In Chinese, the idiom ''緣木求魚'' [spoken as ''yuan mu qiu yu''] -- literally “to climb a tree to catch a fish” -- is used to refer to an activity that is ill-conceived, pointless or otherwise doomed to failure.
USE OF THE IDIOM EXAMPLE: "I’m quite happy to convey your apology to Mr. Jones, but ......''yuan mu qiu yu,='' .....I don’t think he is going to accept it. I fear you are sending me on a fool’s errand.''
You see, a while back, ten years ago or so, I had not heard from this person in California for a long time, and I was worried, since we were working independently on some online activities. I sent her some emails, I sent her some tweets, and she didn't answer or respond to any of them, so I was concerned about her health or whatever the problem might be. So I sent this very worried and sincere email to her and one of her colleagues one more time:
''Subject: Is she in the hospital? Am worried about her. She has not contacted me in a friendly way in the last two months, as she used to do when we first met online a few years ago. Please advise. ''
Well, she got that email [somehow she opened the email this time and read it] and this time she replied for some reason I cannot understand replied in an explosive and angry way. You be the judge,
She REPLIED:
''Hello,
''I'm surprised to hear from you given your somewhat joking and attempt at humor tweets a few months ago that we gave you a "gag order." You made it pretty clear then that you had no interest in communicating with me anymore, and I didn't appreciate your humor.
''That said, no, I'm not purposefully ignoring you nor am I in the hospital, but my aunt is, and I have been caring for her for three months now. While that has been going on, I have been continually harassed and verbally violated by endless numbers of right wing trolls and nuts online that verge into death and rape threats because of my leftwing politics. They at times reach into the hundreds per day, and when that happens, I have no choice but to globally block my entire twitter feed to get them to stop. I then have to go back and painstakingly unblock the people whose comments I actually want to see. This takes hours. Hours of my precious time that I have to share with caring for my sick aunt.
''As for my work, I am is active and my work is still alive and I will post whenever there's room on the calendar. I've told you before, there's *never* a set date. I have no control over the date my work runs. Please don't ask me about the date for it again, either by email or certainly not in public on Twitter. My twitter feed is already a garbage fire of harassment.
''You may email me yourself, but I likely won't respond in a timely manner. My aunt needs me foremost and my time is dedicated to her.
''Thank you for your support of my work -- you know that I appreciate your support.''
''-- signed xxx."
Then after reading that her elderly and ill relative was in the hospital and needed her to be there with her as much as possible, despite the long distance travel needed to visit her, I immediately sent her a sincere apology letter, and saying I was sorry for my attempt at online humor concerning the 'gag order" which was not really a ''gag'' ''order'' at all (but it was an email telling me one of her colleagues sent me to stop tweetiing about her very important work or else) and more importantly that I hoped her mother would get better soon."
And what was her response to my attempt to apologize sincerely, because I am a nice person, a very sincere person? She just exploded, explaining herself this way:
''I didn't reply to your apology letter to me, because I will never accept your apology and I don't have to, and I didn't even read the apology email so fuck you. Your apology means nothing to me, I could give a shit. Just get out of my life."
'- SIGNED XXXX.''
''I didn't reply to your apology letter to me, because I will never accept your apology and I don't have to, and I didn't even read the apology email so fuck you. Your apology means nothing to me, I could give a shit. Just get out of my life."
'- SIGNED XXXX.''
So that's the trouble with that difficult person.
And since that last time, that last email, 3 years ago, she has never once communicated with me again. Not to mention that she has prevented me since then from contacting her by email or by Twitter. She blocked me on twitter. How's that for a colleague I once helped get her start in the professio and helped turn her into a star? She blocks me? How's that for gratitude? WTF?
And to think, we were once good friends, as the many friendly and engaging emails she once upon a time sent me earlier in our relationship and all which I still have in my email files, dating back to the first email from her three years ago.
Where did things go wrong?
Maybe it's situational depression or other? Maybe she's bipolar?
I don't know the answer.
I'm worried.
(18)
TO BE CONTINUED....