The ice caps are melting at an alarming rate and this mostly due to global warming. The reason why there is global warming is that there is a hole in our ozone layer, which protects living organisms from the harmful rays of the sun. Pollution from factories, cars, and other material that runs on fossil fuels is the main reason for pollution. When the rays of the sun hit the ice caps, the ice caps start to melt and then that causes the sea level to rise, which will cause cities to flood more often. If the ice caps keep melting, some cities might even go underwater because of global warming. If the ice caps keep melting it can also expose humans to diseases that have been frozen for hundreds of years. Many animals will lose their habitat because of the melting ice caps, they will have to move to a different area, and they could cause great destruction because they might become invasive species or they may perhaps die off and become extinct. To …show more content…
Companies that commit these crimes should have a punishment that is harsher because they are affecting people in the surrounding area and also they are contributing to making the hole the ozone bigger because of the toxic chemicals that is spewing from their factories. When they pollute the air they are contributing to making the hole in the ozone layer bigger, and that will cause the sun’s rays to melt the ice caps at an even faster rate.
In conclusion, ice caps are an essential part of the earth and without it the earth will drastically change forever. Some living organisms will become extinct because those organisms depend on the ice caps to protect them some ways to stop or even slow down the melting of the ice caps is by enforcing the laws and punish people if they do not follow these laws. The diseases that have been frozen away for hundreds of years will occur again because the ice is melting
Scientists predict that everyone on this Earth will not live to see the ice melt. Future generations will have to face the consequences of harmful greenhouse gases found in
Climate change will cause the air in the arctic to get warmer which melts the permafrost in the ground. The Sea ice will melt due to higher temperatures of the air and ocean, ending in rising sea levels and the melting of glaciers. You might think we have lots of time before this happens but in reality each year we lose about twice the size
Rising temperatures are causing melting glaciers, which cause rising oceans. Rising oceans will envelop entire coastal cities, killing or displacing millions of people. Our food sources will dwindle; entire species of animals will become extinct as we destroy their homes to rebuild; and as our population skyrockets, an unimaginable number of humans will be left homeless, starving, and sick.
warming and many of the world's glaciers and arctic ice sheets are slowly melting and pouring
According to Hassol, these climate changes are being experienced especially intense in the Arctic, “Arctic average temperature has risen at almost twice the rate as the rest of the world in the past few decades” (8). These trends aren’t stopping anytime soon. The ongoing increases in concentrations of greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere are causing an acceleration in these climate trends according to Hassol. Climate change is going to have major impacts on the earth, for example the sea ice melting. Hassol talks about how this could be seen either positive or negative. For the creatures in the Arctic like the seals and polar bears, the sea ice melting is very harmful to them. However, the reduced sea ice could increase marine access for shipping and offshore oil extraction. However, an increase in those activities would just further complicate the
Other species are being affected by this global warming. Especially, the animals that survive on ice like polar bears. Impacts of global warming include the melting of ice in the Antarctic; this is due to the rising temperature of the ocean surrounding the ice which then causes melting. However, some people argue that the ice caps are growing rather than shrinking so they completely devalue the issue of global warming. This is not necessarily true, since the heat from the ocean causes the ice to melt but the melted ice (turned into fresh water) also freezes immediately after it melts. So it is still an issue that is supposed to keep an eye on. The ecological impacts of ice melting would be the reduction of small ice caps which polar bears land
Because the atmosphere is warming, the air and water temperatures are too. This causes the arctic ice to melt, and this is a problem because the ice is the polar bears habitat (U.S. Department of the Interior). Polar bears use the ice to hunt seals and other sources of food, and now that there is less ice, their food source is slowly diminishing. Because of this, many polar bears are slowly starving. Another impact of the arctic ice melting is that the polar bears are not able to move around as swiftly. They used to be able to move around land masses because ice connected them, but now they are not able to move as much. Because of this, the polar bear is an endangered species and has taken on the role of the global warming
Wow, the facts in this article were pretty scary. The trend with glaciers is that they are rapidly decreasing. It states that the Columbia Glacier in Prince William Sound in Alaska is the world's fastest-melting glacier. It moves 80 feet a day into the ocean. Also, the thickness of this glacier is usually 3,000 feet but over the last 25 years it reduced to only 1,300 feet. Global warming is responsible for glaciers to weaken until they collapse. The article also points out that summers in the Arctic could be no longer icy in 100 years, which would endanger the polar bears. As temperatures increase, glaciers recede and the faster glaciers melt, the faster seas will rise. The loss of glaciers also has consequences for park ecosystems and the
The documentary Chasing Ice examines the effects of climate change and how it is occurring now. Many people believe that climate change is not real, but this documentary shows visual evidence on how various glaciers are melting in places around the world. James Balog, American photographer who explores the relationship between nature and humanity, started filming these glaciers and formed a team. He planted various cameras in locations such as Alaska, Iceland, Greenland, and Montana. The cameras would take pictures every hour so that he would create a time lapse of how the glaciers are melting because of climate change. The documentary explains that all of this will lead to mass extinction and the loss of various plants and even pollinators. Climate change also contributes to the increase of forest fires, storms like Hurricane Sandy and typhoons. One interesting quote that explains how climate change is happening is “Ever since glaciers have entered the ocean, hundreds of thousands of years ago, ice has always calved off. But what we’re seeing now is the Greenland ice sheet thinning out and dumping ever more ice and water into the ocean” (Chasing Ice). Because of human innovations such as vehicles and other inventions, they are creating gas emissions that are harmful to our climate. The documentary explains how even our carbon dioxide levels are higher than ever recorded in history. This is all happening because of humanity and the toxic gases that are affecting the world.
The fact that so many people don’t believe global warming is a real problem is dangerous. Global warming, if not stopped, will destroy the human race, as well as many other species of animals. As the ice caps at the poles melt, species like polar bears, penguins, and arctic wolves that must cross the ice regularly to seek out food, shelter, and breeding grounds must swim longer and longer distances over open ocean (See Fig 1). Some drown, and some are simply cut off from food and starve.
Everyday these ice sheets are decreasing in mass. Greenland lost 150 to 250 cubic kilometers of ice per year, between 2002 and 2006. Antarctica has lost about 150 cubic kilometers of ice between 2002 and 2005, and approximately 4 billion tons of ice have been lost per year in the world since 1994. The ice sheets are melting because of the heat being reflected back down from the greenhouse gas emissions in Earth’s atmosphere. This impacts climate because the ice is melting away into the ocean, and causing higher sea levels. The ice sheets in the ocean help keep the surrounding areas cold, and they are melting at extremely fast pace every day. Without them, it will become warm in places meant to be cold, which will end up killing the wildlife living there, and leading to many species extinction. Not only that, but without the ice sheets in the ocean, sunlight cannot be reflected out of the polar areas from the ice sheets, so the glaciers are absorbing the heat and melting faster than ever before. With these melting ice sheets comes sea level rise. It is predicted for the ocean to rise 1 to 4 feet by 2100. Sea level rise also comes from heat hitting the
The melting of the ice caps is the biggest and fastest change to the Earth ever caused by human activity. Alun Anderson, author of “The Great Melt The Coming Transformation of the Arctic”, states that “Temperature rise was always expected to be fastest in the Arctic. White ice reflects sunlight back into space like a giant mirror, but when it turns into dark water, the heat is soaked up instead. The seas then warm, more ice melts, and even more heat is absorbed in a destructive feedback loop that amplifies temperatures.” The disappearance of the ice is by no means the end of the Arctic itself. Humans will not only have destroyed the Arctic but transformed it as well, making it more like the waters of the south.
As the Earth keeps warming, the Arctic's summer sea ice is vanishing at a stunning pace. This rapid melt is expected to have significant environmental and health consequences for the entire world, including sea level rise, affecting agriculture, endangering water and food security, erosion of coastal habitats, increasing intensity of natural disasters, and species extinction. Countries have since responded to climate change by adapting to its impacts and acceding to various international treaties such as the Kyoto Protocol to mitigate green house gas emissions, thereby reducing the rate and magnitude of change.
The melting ice caps are having a dramatic affect on the polar regions of the earth. For example, the average temperature in the Arctic is rising twice as fast than the rest of the world (nrdc.org). The once prominent ice is now melting at a dramatic speed, which is affecting native people, wildlife, and plants. When the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf splintered, the freshwater lake that it surrounded drained into the ocean, along with the ecosystem that inhabited it. Polar bears, whales, walrus and seals are changing their feeding and migration patterns, making it harder for native people to hunt them (nrdc.org). Because of the flooding, entire villages will be uprooted order to avoid being swamped. Also, the Arctic coastlines are beginning to move as well. The melting ice caps are threatening the native peoples’ cultural identity and their very survival. Ice-dependant animals, such as walruses and ring seals will be greatly affected by the melting ice caps (treehugger.com). They have fewer places to rest on, as well as fewer places to hunt. If the ice caps keep melting, their lives will become in great danger. The melting ice caps are not only affecting the Polar Regions, but they are also affecting the rest of the world as well in the form of rising ocean levels.
Last but not least, global warming has caused the polar ice caps to melt. The melting of the polar ice caps will cause the sea levels to rise all over the world. If the sea levels rise just a metre