This year it is believed that more ice will melt in the arctic than ever before. By March 7, there were 5,650,000 square miles of ice covering the arctic. This was 463,000 less than the average ice coverage in 1979-2000, making it the lowest it has ever been. The total ice is just a little bit bigger than Texas and California combined. Some people may ask why this is happening. There are some scientists believe all of the ice melting is connected to all of the green house gasses produced by humans, that is being put into the atmosphere. Some scientists even think that in the following years the earth might reach a point where there no ice in the arctic during the summer.The lowest levels of ice ever have been recorded over the last seven years. A research scientist that is with the snow and ice data center, named Walt Meier said, “I’m not surprised by the new data because we’ve seen a downward trend in winter sea ice extent for some time now.” Some scientists believe that the arctic acts as a cooling agent for the whole world, by cooling air and water that pass through. This action is essential to keeping the earth in check, and also helps with the reflecting of solar radiation back up into space. The increased melting of ice in the summer months causes more surface area on the water for the sun to be absorbed. This causes more warmth to be absorbed into the water creating a warmer surface temperature in the water; this makes the ice melt even faster.
This theory of excessive melting can be explained further by Walt Meier. He states that with the rising surface temperature and increased melting of ice in the summer, the ice in turn does not have enough time catch up during the winter when it normally freezes all over again. This is a reason of why scientists are seeing less ice in the arctic.
Some things that we could do to help the environment are to cut down on things that emit green house gasses. This seems to be the main problem associated with ice melting. Most automobiles, machinery, and factories have to run by emitting harmful greenhouse gasses. Although there is not an immediate solution to the problem it is something that can be worked on to help the environment in the future. I personally think that if this is really happening then it could be a serious problem. There could be flooding issues and animals could die if there is no ice in the arctic to support life anymore. There should be steps taken towards helping the environment. After all it is where we live and want to continue living, so we should take care of what we have.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110324104143.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110324104143.htm
It's interesting to think of an iceless arctic, but as haunting as that seems it is highly improbable that people are the driving force behind melting ice. One valid question to put a yet another nail in the coffin of anthropogenic global warming might be; How did the vikings flourish, living in such northern regions such as Greenland, despite being an agricultural community? It begs an answer, either the Earth has been through this cycle before or we need to start reinstating pirates on the open seas: http://tinyurl.com/yde2uem
ReplyDeleteI believe that this a problem that is continuously overlooked by many people. Most assume that it is the artic so it will always be cold and the ice will just come back. Well, obviously polar bears and other artic animals are having a hard time surviving lately so something must be going wrong. I would really like for a solution to this problem to be made as quickly as possible.
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