Alpine Glaciers Research Paper

According to the International Water Management Institute environmental research organisation global water stress is increasing, and a third of all people face some sort of water scarcity. Where demand exceeds supply and no effective management operates, there will be conflicts between the various players involved.

Ehrlich says, “The retreat and disappearance of glaciers-means we’re burning libraries and damaging the planet…” (89). The author includes this deep thought burning quote to the reader to explain that there is a problem with the loss of all this environmental information these ice masses hold. Ehrlich makes this inference to repulse and further engage the reader into this natural disaster. Then follows step by step the effects melted glaciers would have upon the Earth. She starts with the Albedo effect, continues to the loss of ice and snow, and finishes with, “our sources of fresh water will disappear” (90). This addresses the effects aspect, but also appeals to audience, due to the fact that humans cannot live without freshwater. The author uses the human items of an air conditioner and sponge to dramatize the consequences of contraction glaciers.

The picture shows Antarctic, the ice is usually covering all of the water but climate change caused some of the ice to melt. This is impacting living organisms because it is changing their natural habitat to something very different. If the ice melts it will flood homes and animals habitats around it.

Adding to this predicted outcome scientists also predicted and proved that in a warmer environments there will be more rain than snow because of the temperatures, like the amazon rainforest for example. Although more rain than snow may seem like a good thing for some but it can cause us to have more frequent water shortages in reservoirs and treatment plants. When snow and ice collect on the tops of mountains and freeze together, when the temperature warms up it results in water being released at a slow but continuous rate, the water released then flows into reservoirs which then hold the water for storage. When rain falls, reservoirs and treatment plants fill quickly to their capacity which can result in excess water runoff that can’t be stored. Because rain flows faster than melting snow, there will be higher levels of moisture in the soil and the groundwater replenishment are less or if not at all likely to occur. Areas that rely on snowmelt as their primary freshwater source could and will experience water shortages, And possibly result in having low water supplies by summer’s end.

Heavy precipitation events that historically occurred once in 20 years are projected to occur as frequently as every 5 to 15 years by this late century. Short term droughts are expected to intensify in most regions. Longer term droughts are expected to intensify in larger regions in the Southwest. Flooding may intensify in many U.S regions. Climate change is affecting the groundwater availability also. Sea level rising and storms surges are expected to compromise the sustainability of coastal freshwater and

Farge has been tracking glaciers in Glacier National Park for 25 years. The degrading ice fields are measured and photographed often. A once famous Boulder Glacier has been left to slush, with the same still happening to many Glaciers. In the park 50 glaciers existed in the mid nineteen fifties, now only 25 are left. In 1977 Gore made a speech on Grinnell Glacier about climate change. With the once 15-20 foot drop they were worried about falling ice. Today, the drop isn’t even to your kneecap. Cloud Glacier Peak is predicted to die in 2035. The decline has led to a loss of homes for many species. Animals that live near glacier edges enjoyed the conditioned temperatures, are now losing that. With the loss of these Glacier sea levels are rising

The facts presented about the fast rate at which glaciers are wearing out are really scaring. With glaciers like Columbia Glacier melting at an alarming rate of 80 feet per day and it current thickness only standing at 1,300 feet after wearing down for the last 5 years, there is reason for humanity to be wary of the trends the world warmth is taking. The increasing temperatures are causing all these occurrences which are affecting both humans and animals.

The difference between an ice sheet and a glacier; an ice sheet or continental glaciers is a chunk of glacier ice that is the largest and the thickest type of glacier that can be almost unbelievable. They are massive and can cover large islands and the land surrounding it as it can be greater than 50,000 kilometers wide. If melted, they contain enough water to raise sea level about 66m (216 ft.). Glaciers are smaller and move on average, a little slower but have remarkable ability to carry a huge volume of water in a stream. A glacier ice forms, where the depth of the snow increases, as the snow accumulation exceeds, a deep snowpack forms as it is compressed into ice under great pressure it then begins to flow down the mountain. When the glacier gets to a point where the melting begins the rate of accumulation dwindles and stops.

There are several type of glaciers which are Mountain , Valley Piedmont ,Tidewater , Cirque , Rock glaciers and so on .Glaciers are the visible evidence of climate change in the world and directly related to climate. Climate change is a modification of long-term climate parameters in a region of the globe or on the Earth in its entirety. The notion of climate change is now associated with global warming that began around the world a few decades ago. Its length changes in response to climate change with time delay. Climate rules the glacier behavior and any change that happens in climate is reflected in the glacier. Glacier responds to this change in terms of mass balance, runoff, melting and length. This paper studies what happened in regards of climate change, the driving forces of this change and the effects of climate change on glaciers and it will be based on the video and others links . First , the climate change of the planet is now a certainty. Many observations attest to the rise of atmospheric and atmospheric oceans, widespread melting of snow and ice, and of sea-level rise. In particular, eleven of the last twelve years (1995-2006) are among the twelve warmest years never been recorded since the

What causes the melting of glaciers is global warming and the heat which is continuing to rise. Global warming is causing the heat to rise over these years, because we are burning more fossil fuels and greenhouse gases, which invent more heat that gets trapped in the atmosphere of earth. The three sources that contributes to the problem I’m investigating are: The Consequences of Global Warming on Glaciers and and Sea Levels, Global Warming puts the arctic in thin ice, and lastly Global Warming is causing rain to melt the Greenland ice sheet.

It provides graphs and illustrations of the glaciers and the alteration they’ve experienced because of the temperature rise. It goes on to explain in full detail of the causes and consequences of global warming on Earth. He wraps up the article by providing options to deal with the crisis which is to mitigate, adapt and suffer and the steps needed for each action to be implemented. The source

A glacier is a balancing act between snow buildup and loss. As the ice moves down the slope, it passes a point where snowfall no longer accumulates, and it begins to waste. Over time the glacier begins to end; either at some point on land where the mass of ice cannot move forward any further, or into the water as a tidewater glacier. These glaciers generally lose a lot of their mass by calving; chunks breaking off in the water. Although a small portion of the total surface ice, glaciers hold a significant amount of water, and are particularly fragile with short term climate changes when compared to ice sheets. Ice sheets are large, continuous heat-sinks that should take a while to feel any impact from rising annual temperatures – however, ice sheets have their own potential instabilities. Glaciers make up a fraction of the total ice mass and it is divided up into a multitude of glaciers, so is going to react to changing temperatures on a shorter time frame than the ice sheets. What’s more, up to about 0.4 meters sea level equivalent of water might be entering the oceans sooner than later, although the inventory of worldwide glaciers is limited so the exact amount of ice is not known. A change in the seasonal flux of water into the local environments is going to be felt by a good number of

The polar and mountainous regions of earth are especially vulnerable to climate change. Many glaciers now on the

The glaciers in Greenland and the arctic are melting due to the rising temperature causing the water level to rise.

To determine how climate change has affected water resources, we have first have to look at the amount of water in the last decade and how that has changed today. According to Cornea and Roca (2011), the estimated amount of water present in the world is about 1.4 billion cubic kilometres (p.427). However, due to global warming, the researchers suggest that “rising in global temperatures has led to the intensification of the hydrological cycle,