A hopeless task of course. It will melt. Our planet has been ice free more often than not. We are really chasing something far more ephemeral; an ethic, a lost connection to the natural world, even a return to the comfort of shared spiritual belief as organized religion.

So we chase ice.

Those who believe the biblical geological time scale chase ice. Those who believe the moonlanding was a hoax chase ice. Those who believe human carbon dioxide is melting the icecaps chase ice.

It is incredibly beautiful stuff.

Science also chases ice. Theories arise, seem substantiated, become believed. New information is found, theories challenged, belief betrayed. Science chases ice to think people comfortable in belief even care, but without science belief will turn to stone.

And so it is with carbon dioxide. Incapable of warming ice or the oceans, which warm by the sun and unknown means to melt the ice. Capable in theory of warming the atmosphere but declining to do so, on average, for a decade and a half. The polar atmosphere has warmed a bit more than average, but the ice is melting where warm ocean currents lap the shores.

So chase your ice, but know that it will always melt away before your eyes, and please, don’t let your belief turn to stone.