Glaciers Cracking in the Presence of Carbon Dioxide

Excessive levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in our atmosphere is causing global temperatures to rise and glaciers and ice caps to melt.CO2 molecules may be having a more direct impact on the ice that covers our planet. The material strength and fracture toughness of ice are decreased significantly under increasing concentrations of CO2 molecules, making ice caps and glaciers more vulnerable to cracking and splitting into pieces. If ice caps and glaciers were to continue to crack and break into pieces, their surface area that is exposed to air would be significantly increased, which could lead to accelerated melting and much reduced coverage area on the Earth. CO2 exposure causes ice to break more easily. The decreased ice strength is not really caused by material defects induced by CO2 bubbles, but rather by the fact that the strength of hydrogen bonds is decreased under increasing concentrations of CO2. This is because the added CO2 competes with the water molecules connected in the ice crystal. CO2 molecules first adhere to the crack boundary of ice by forming a bond with the hydrogen atoms and then migrate through the ice in a flipping motion along the crack boundary towards the crack tip. The CO2 molecules accumulate at the crack tip and constantly attack the water molecules by trying to bond to them. This leaves broken bonds behind and increases the brittleness of the ice on a macroscopic scale. A solution could be control carbon dioxide. A barrier to the solution is how do we control the carbon dioxide. My opinioin to the problem is that we could try to control carbon dioxide. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121010191749.htm