ice core – Misryoum revisits the icy Delaware crossing and pairs it with evidence that winters are warming and CO₂ surged after 1800.
Staring at Emanuel Leutze’s painting, you can almost feel the biting cold. For Misryoum, that ice is more than symbolism—it’s a reminder of how a few degrees can steer human outcomes.
When George Washington’s army reached the Delaware at the end of 1776, the situation was precarious.. After a run of losses, the force was near collapse.. Misryoum reports that on Christmas. as ice formed in the river. the opposing side assumed the crossing would be too dangerous for the Americans.. But Washington’s gamble paid off: cold weather didn’t just obstruct the enemy’s expectations. it became an operational advantage.
Alex Robb. an educator at Washington Crossing Historic Park near Philadelphia. describes the logic of that moment as strategic rather than accidental.. “It does a lot to impede the crossing and endanger the whole operation. ” Robb said. but the same conditions also act as a “shield.” Misryoum notes the practical point: ice can slow. but it can also create conditions that a defender doesn’t anticipate—especially when the decision is shaped by fear of what the environment might do.
That is where the historical lesson meets a modern one.. Misryoum explains that Americans in the late 1700s were not strangers to winter extremes. a fact reflected in the weather-keeping habits of the era.. But according to Jen Brady, a data analyst at Climate Central, the long arc since then has tilted warmer.. In the Philadelphia region. her research indicates winter temperatures are now about 5.5 degrees Fahrenheit higher than in 1970. even as winter can still deliver snow and deep cold “in cold places.”
Brady’s interpretation matters because it captures what many people feel but may not see clearly: climate change doesn’t erase cold—it reshapes the odds.. There can still be snow, and temperatures can still plummet, but the baseline is moving.. Misryoum frames this as a shift in distribution, not a simple switch from winter to no-winter.
To understand how far back that baseline has traveled. scientists lean on a tool that feels almost like time travel: ice cores.. Misryoum describes how glaciologists extract long tubes of ice from glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica. then read the past encoded inside them.. Deeper ice holds older air bubbles—tiny samples of the atmosphere trapped at the time the snow fell and compacted.
Eric Steig. a glaciologist at the University of Washington. calls ice cores a “time machine. ” and Misryoum highlights his demonstration of the human connection embedded in the science.. In one core dating to around 1776, trapped air pockets preserve the composition of the atmosphere at that time.. “So. like. you’re breathing a little bit of the air that George Washington breathed. ” Steig said—an image that turns a climate record into lived reality.
Those air bubbles include carbon dioxide, the gas that helps regulate Earth’s temperature.. Misryoum notes that for hundreds of thousands of years—about 800. 000—CO₂ levels in ice cores rose and fell but never exceeded roughly 300 parts per million.. The pattern changes around 1800, when CO₂ climbs sharply and decisively.. Steig links the turning point to fossil fuel burning: cars. factories. and power plants accelerating the release of carbon stored for millennia underground.
This is the analytical bridge Misryoum draws between the two “pictures” coming into focus around Washington’s era.. One is the story of a new nation—its battles, its risks, its decisions made under uncertainty.. The other is the beginning of climate change as a measurable driver of atmospheric chemistry.. The same Industrial-era momentum that powered economic growth also increased greenhouse gases quickly enough to push temperatures upward. intensifying threats like extreme floods. droughts. and fires.
Why does that matter for a story about an icy river in 1776?. Because Misryoum sees the same theme in both timelines: small differences in environmental conditions can redirect events.. Washington’s victory at Trenton depended on an enemy’s expectation meeting an unexpected reality.. In climate terms. a shift in average temperature can change how often certain extremes occur—and how ready societies are to withstand them.
Brady’s view of winter today aligns with Steig’s longer record: the future may still include cold events. but the atmosphere that produces them is evolving.. Steig’s warning, as Misryoum presents it, isn’t about panic—it’s about preparation.. “It would seem to me it’s good for people to understand things have changed. and will continue to change. ” he said. emphasizing the need to anticipate what comes next rather than rely on a past that is no longer the same.
And if Washington could step into 2026, Steig suggests the difference would be unmistakable.. Misryoum reports that he believes someone from that period would see the world has changed “quite dramatically.” In other words. the Delaware ice that helped shape history also sits alongside a climate signal that helps explain why the world keeps moving on—war by war. season by season. record by record.
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