How warm is the air? Warm enough to melt glaciers and ice caps. The ablation, removal of snow and ice by melting or evaporation, is causing upheaval in the world of climatology, glaciology. Some experts believe that glaciers and ice caps are not melting at a quick enough rate, and will not be losing a significant enough amount of mass in the future, to be of alarm. Alarmists believe that glaciers and ice caps are decreasing at a rate that these fragile crystals of nature cannot sustain. No matter which side these experts are on, glaciers and ice caps are deteriorating because of natural causes, predominantly, and human imposed causes. Furthermore, this is relevant to the average human as steps can be taken to avoid the tragic loss of nature’s beautiful glaciers and ice caps, and if they are lost, humans will suffer from it. The statistics point to one deduction; glaciers are melting. This is based upon the study done by Mernild on the Northern Hemisphere ice caps and glaciers. The overall average of mean change in surface …show more content…
There are two main contributors that point to the permanent loss of GIC, the Ice-Albedo feedback and the mirroring effect. The Ice-Albedo feedback states that once ice has decreased, there is more open water which is vulnerable to heating factors, and the openness will cause the ocean to continue warming (Singh and Singh). If the water continues increasing in temperature, then the water will not be able to reach a freezing temperature for the ocean water and the glaciers to refreeze. Equally important is how the Arctic ice is a mirror. The ice reflects sunlight back into the atmosphere to cool the Earth (Singh and Singh). John Sauven, the director of Greenpeace UK, released a statement saying (EXPRESSING, ARTICULATING) that the result of losing such a large amount of ice will lead to extreme natural phenomena, including raging temperatures (Singh and
In the essay, “Global Warming is Eroding Glacial Ice,” Andrew C. Revkin argues that global warming is the primary cause for many of the world’s natural disasters; including flash floods, climate change, and the melting of the polar ice caps. He includes multiple accounts of expert testimony as well as a multitude amount of facts and statistics to support his theory that global warming is a threat to the world. However, in the essay “Cold Comfort for ‘Global Warming’,” Phillip Stott makes the complete opposite argument. He argues that global warming is nothing to be worried about and the melting of the polar icecaps is caused by the interglacial period we are currently in. After reading both of these essays and doing extensive research on both viewpoints, I completely agree with Revkin that global warming is an enormous threat to our world today. My research not only helped me to take a stand but it also showed me the invalidity in Stott’s essay.
It is an unquestioned fact that the climate is changing. There is abundant evidence that the world is becoming warmer and warmer. The temperature of the global land average temperature has increased by about 8.5 degrees centigrade from 1880 to 2012 (Karr, et al 406). The one or two degrees increase in temperature can cause dramatic and serious consequences to the earth as well as humans. More extreme weather occurs, such as heat waves and droughts. The Arctic Region is especially sensitive to global climate change. According to the data in recent decades, the temperature in the Arctic has increased by more than 2 degrees centigrade in the recent half century (Przybylak 316). Climate change has led to a series of environmental and ecological negative
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%.
However, climate change is happening. The global average land and sea temperature has increased over the twentieth century, with the North and South Poles being particularly affected (Learmonth, et al., 2006). In turn, this has caused ice cover to decrease and sea levels
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.
In the movie “Ice and sand” it talks about the polar ice caps. These ice caps are located at the north and south poles of the Earth, and take up a large potion of the earth’s water. Ice caps fluctuate from year to year, growing and shrinking with weather changes. Greenhouse gasses are causing these ice caps to melt more and more every year though. If the ice caps were to melt completely, it would raise our ocean level ten to twenty stories about what it is now. This would send places like Nova Scotia, Vancouver, and New York completely under water. Scientists are not really quit sure what will happen with green house gases, whether they will cause a flood from melting the ice caps, or whether it will send us into another ice age. If it were to send us into another ice age, only people in very southern countries would be likely to survive due to the extremely cold whether.
As the world becomes continually warmer, the effect of climate change in the arctic regions becomes more intense. Within the past 50 years, arctic regions in Canada have experienced warming of 2 to 3 degrees Celsius (Fergal & Prowse, 2007). One of the most important areas in the Canadian arctic is the Cryosphere (Appendix A), which is the area consisting of season snow cover, permafrost glaciers, and sea ice (Fergal & Prowse, 2007). This area is significant because it has provided a stabilized surface for building pipelines, as well as provides access to northern communities (Fergal & Prowse, 2007).
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,
The negative side of global warming is that it leads to melting of ice. The world's glaciers, especially Arctic glaciers are melting faster than new snow and ice can supplement them. During the melting of Arctic ice opens over the dark surface of the water or soil and balance change reflects less and absorb a greater amount of heat, therefore, large areas of ice melt rapidly (News, global warming). There is evidence, which will support this argument: scientists from the University of California in San Diego investigated satellite observation data for the Arctic for 1979-2011 years. Since the 1970s, the area covering of the ice has decreased by 40 % and the region has warmed up to 2 degrees (News global warming).It means, that global warming affects to the wildli...
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
Furthermore, this analysis must take place amidst serious gaps in the existing research and technology concerning the developing climatic conditions. For these reasons, global warming stands as one of the most daunting policy issues facing our world today. This is compounded by the debate over the very existence of climate change. While countless sources of empirical evidence testify to the very real presence of climate change the world over, considerable denial of the phenomenon still exists. The argument has been made that evidence of climate change is a gross overstatement, or in some cases, a complete fabrication.
Haines states that “warming is likely to be greater at the poles than at the equator” (99) so the effects will be seen there first. According to “Global Climate Change”, in the last 134 years of tracking temperature, 9 out of 10 of the hottest years have been in the 2000s with 2015 being the warmest ranked year so far. That’s a fact I’m willing to accept just thinking back to the temperatures last summer. Artic sea ice has been declining at an unbelievable rate in the last few year due to these abnormally high temperatures. September is when the ice is at its lowest point, and being measured from 1981 to 2010, it is declining at a 13.3 percent per decade (“Global Climate Change”). This big quantity of ice is melting into the oceans and displacing water, raising the sea levels and risking flooding. Since a majority of big cities and towns are located near the water, flooding imposes a major threat to many areas and
There are many different glacial landforms created by glacial erosion, one of these landforms is U-shaped valleys or glacial troughs. This glacial landform has many distinct characteristics. One of these characteristics is that it has very steep valley sides caused by the glacier as it moves down the valley eroding the sides of the valley by the processes of abrasion and plucking. Abrasion is when the boulders and moraine carried by the glacier rubs and erodes the valley side as it physically moves down the valley. Plucking happens when the water in the glacier freezes inside of the cracks in the individual rocks on the valley side then the water freezes and as the glacier moves the rock is plucked or torn from the valley side producing the steep side to the valley.
Glaciers have disappeared due to increasing in global temperatures because of which the water level had drastically increased and its causing flood all over the world
The earth is a complex system, which continues to evolve and change. Climate change and global warming are currently popular in the political agenda. But what does “climate” really mean? The difference between weather and climate can be conveyed in a single sentence: “Climate is what you expect; weather is what you get.” Based on research of the geologic record, we know that climate change has happened throughout Earth's history and at present, ever-increasing evidence points to the roles that humans play in altering Earth systems. The Earth and its atmosphere receive heat energy from the sun; the atmospheric heat budget of the Earth depends on the balance between incoming solar radiation and outgoing radiation from the planet; which has been constant over the last few thousand years. However present evidence seems to suggest that the recent increase in temperature has been brought about by pollution of the atmosphere, in particular the release of huge amounts of carbon dioxide, mostly through Anthropogenic Forcing (human activity) and other various internal and external factors. I...