Approximately 98% of Antarctica is covered by a sheet of ice. This large mass makes up 90% of the ice in the entire world. Additionally, we get more than half of our fresh water supply from the continent alone. If all of this ice would melt, sea levels would rise at an alarming 200 feet.
The debate lies in the fact that part of Antarctica is melting, but only some parts of it. The other is freezing, which is undoubtedly bizarre. So the question remains: Is Antarctica's ice doomed?
Many individuals believe the issue arises strictly from the man-made greenhouse effect, however, this is a partial reason as to why Antarctica's underlying ice is heating up and breaking off of the continent. Not only does our gas emissions contribute to this disaster,
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Some scientists believe that the continent is shrinking as a whole, while others believe the opposite. "The polar sea ice paradox is really a challenge for the science community," NASA research scientist Son Nghiem said in a recent interview. The melting is clearly evident, take the vast Larsen C ice shelf for example. A 5,000 sq miles just recently broke off its peninsula, the size of Trinidad and Tobago or a quarter size of Wales. It has been linked to global warming, but this does not explain the growth of the continent.
The reasoning behind the increased mass of the continent comes from the snowfall that falls mainly onto East Antarctica's ice sheet. The snow is just enough to neutralize sea level risings from the melting that occurs in the Western Peninsula. None the less, the Western region is still in trouble. The widespread loss of ice there links to climate change, but even if we cut back on our use of emissions, there are more factors at hand. "Intensified circumpolar winds and currents have driven warmer water from offshore onto the continental shelf and under the floating ice," states NASA in a heartbreaking article about the Larsen C ice shelf collapse. The ice has been melting for decades, yet as bigger record-breaking shelves break off it just proves that in some time, Antarctica will be without ice, wiping out major coastal cities such as New
Global warming is a major ecological concern today. It is being caused by man’s ever
In his essay, “Global Warming is Eroding Glacial Ice,” Revkin is arguing that global warming is constantly changing the ...
It is predicted that the effect of permafrost melting will be that the ocean levels will rise and will significantly increase the temperature and accelerate the rate at which global warming occurs. Permafrost covers 24% of the land in the Northern Hemisphere (Insert Citation), if this was to melt 1700 gigatonnes of methane and carbon dioxide (Insert Citation), powerful heat trapping gases, would be released into the atmosphere increasing the amount of greenhouse gases by 200%.
People are responsible for higher carbon dioxide atmosphere emissions, while the Earth is now into the Little Ice Age, or just behind it. These factors together cause many years discussions of the main sources of climate changes and the temperature increasing as a result of human been or natural changes and its consequences; even if its lead to the global warming, or to the Earth’s cooling. In their articles, “Global Warming Is Eroding Glacial Ice” by Andrew C. Revkin and “Global Warming Is Not a Threat to Polar Ice” by Philip Stott, both authors discuss these two theories (Revkin 340; Stott 344). Revkin is right that global warming is taking place. Significant increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is due to human activities combined with natural factors such as volcanic emissions and solar radiation – all together they lead to climate changes and temperatures rising. At the same time, other factors such as deforestation contribute to environmental changes for some glaciers not less than air pollution. However, during global warming not all regions of the planet are affected in the same way, local warming and cooling are both possible during these changes.
“Climate Change Will Force the Relocation of Populations” by Oli Brown states that melting glaciers will increase the risk of flooding. Oli Brown works for the Human Development Report Office. Not only do melting glaciers add water into the ocean it also loses it 's effect on the sun rays. Some States in the United States would be under water or flooded. For examples Florida, New York and New Orleans would be the states affected the most. If sea levels rise, people will have to move inland.
Mikhail Veritsky from Yale University set out to discover if an increase in Carbon Dioxide, a manmade greenhouse gas, would lead to the depletion of the Antarctic ice sheet. To predict this they create a numerical experiment using an atmospheric general circulation model connected to a 3D ice-sheet model. They found that even doubling the Carbon Dioxide concentration did not show any significant changes in the ice sheet. This implies that an Antarctic collapse of ice as a consequence of increased greenhouse gases is unlikely (Verbitsky & Saltzman, 1995).
The freshwater from the glaciers would run eventually to the sea, causing sea levels to rise, and also reducing the levels of salt found in the sea. This is in fact disastrous for thermohaline circulation, which carries warm currents to Svalbard from The Gulf Stream, and takes cold water back around to e warmed again. The cold water travels back along the surface of the ocean bed around America, because it has sunk near Svalbard. It sinks due to the levels of salt here. The addition of salt makes the water heavy, dropping to the bottom. When the added glacier water reduces the salt levels, it would, in effect stop thermohaline circulation completely. This would mean that, eventually, warm places would get even warmer, without the cooling sea water, and Svalbard would get even colder, without Gulf Stream water warming the East side of the islands.
Various glaciers in Alaska and other parts of the United States have shrunk dramatically. If temperatures continue to rise, the ice will continue to melt, and some glaciers could disappear completely, which causes sea levels to rise. There are many animals, birds, and seafood that depend solely on glaciers for survival. With an increase in sea water temperature, and increasing sea levels, sea-plants that these fish thrive on will be lost, lowering the number of seafood, which in-turn will make survival of many species difficult. The arctic is source region for cold ocean currents and with no ice it will have no density and temperature distinctions, which pushes the ocean currents. If the ocean current heat transfer mechanism powers down,
Jacob, T., Wahr, J., Pfeffer, T. W., & Swenson, S. (2012). Recent contributions of glaciers and ice caps to sea level rise. Nature, 514-518. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature10847
Thesis statement: The global warming and the resultant climatic change is due to uncontrolled human exploitation of earth and its resources thereby emitting large volumes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
In talking about global warming, we need to learn what causes the greenhouse effect. Rays from the sun are taken up and absorbed by water vapor that is natural in the atmosphere. The United States emits the largest man made greenhouse gases in the world. As Americans we must realize the responsibility to reduce the emissions. (Gore, Albert) Water Vapor is eighty percent of greenhouse warming. The last twenty percent results from other gases that are in very little amounts. A huge absorber of the sun’s heat rays is carbon dioxide. Us as humans release a lot of carbon dioxide. When fossil fuels are burned, they release big amounts of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is on the increase in our atmosphere due to car emissions. Approximately eighty percent of CO2 increases because of man’s use of fossil fuels. When there is more carbon dioxide in our atmosphere the more sun rays are absorbed. In result to this happening this will cause the earth and the earths atmosphere to warm. When the earth is warming, water temperatures will start to get warmer. Oceans and lakes will get warmer in result f...
The polar regions are most affected and vulnerable to the warming temperatures because the poles are covered in ice. The world’s ice sheets are melting faster than ever and temperatures in the Arctic region are rising twice as fast as anywhere else on Earth according to the NRDC. This will have a serious impact on people, wildlife and plants in that region. The National Climate Assessment has said that “By the year 2100, it 's estimated our oceans will be one to four feet higher, threatening coastal systems and low-lying areas, including entire island nations and the world 's largest cities, including New York, Los Angeles, and Miami as well as Mumbai, Sydney, and Rio de Janeiro”. Polar bears are in great threat as the ice sheets melt because they use the ice to travel across the land and hunt. As the sea-ice platforms move further apart, the swimming conditions become more dangerous. The U.S Geological Survey done by the National Wildlife Federation predicts that by the year 2050, two thirds of all polar bears will disappear. Researcher Bill Fraser has tracked the Adelie penguins in Antarctica and reported the numbers have fallen from 32,000 to only 11,000 over the last 30
As we approach the future we are faced with many global problems. Most of these problems arise because we have caused them ourselves. We need to face these problems and find a solution. Global warming, although most often overlooked in importance, is a crucial problem of the future directly related to human activities. Global warming is caused by gases humans release into the atmosphere called anthropogenic gases and by deforestation. Anthropogenic gases include carbon dioxide, methane, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrofl...
The movie cited the cause of the global climate change to be the rise in temperature due to greenhouse gasses. The warmer temperatures caused the polar ice caps to melt, and the increased amount of freshwater in the ocean disrupted the North Atlantic Current. The North Atlantic Current is what is responsible for the warm temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere. With the current disrupted the Northern Hemisphere went into an ice age. In real life, the polar ice caps are melting, but at a rate not even close to that of the one represented in the movie. Even if the ice was melting at a quicker rate, the chance that it would throw off the North Atlantic Current is slim to none. Also, there is no way that the ice would melt so quickly that a change that drastic would be made.
Global warming is a serious problem with two major effects: increasing sea level and degradation of wildlife. Increase in sea level affects the entire landmass of the earth. According to NASA, the polar ice cap is melting at the alarming rate of nine percent per decade. Arctic ice thickness has decreased 40 percent since the 1960s (Oskin). The amount of water is more than the land on our planet.