Future Glaciers Research Paper

Throughout the 20th Century, Glacier Melting has had a great impact all over the world. Glaciers are large sheets of snow and ice that are found on land. While melting glaciers are caused by global warming, glacier melting also impact the temperatures across the globe. Alot of things is threatened by glacier melting. There are many causes to Glacier Melting.

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

Glacier National Park, located in Northwestern Montana, is an astounding spectacle of history and beauty. Not simply just the history of the Native Americans and European-descended settlers that call the area their home, but also the geologic history of the Earth. The region is known for the beautiful scenery that can be seen from anywhere in the park. Large, steep mountains rise out of deep, lake-filled valleys and thick conifer forests open up into grassy, flower filled meadows. The park is also home to a wide variety of plants and animals. Grizzly bears and mountain goats wander through the forests and rocky cliffs while beargrass flowers light up meadows and evergreens rise high above the valleys below. It is for this beauty and scenery that the region was designated a national park for people to enjoy.

Over the years, the topic of climate change is discussed more frequently, and virtually everyone has their own stance on it. The source of the changing climate is believed to be from the excess carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere. Since climate change is such a complex topic, experts are often consulted for their vast knowledge in their respected fields. Climate change can be seen in many different parts of nature, but the documentary Chasing Ice focuses mainly on the glacial movement of various patches of ice in many different locations. The documentary is directed by Jeff Orlowski and follows the journey of photographer James Balog and his crew attempting to obtain evidence of climate change. Balog and his team trek through treacherous terrain and environments in order to set up time-lapse stations that take pictures of glaciers. The pictures were stitched together to create presentations that would show the effects of climate change. Orlowski uses elements of rhetoric in Chasing Ice through the use of facts, data, experts, and the overcoming major roadblocks in an attempt to influence global warming skeptics. Even though the use of these methods connect well, the lack of focus on a specific topic, the absence of acknowledgement of other perspectives, and the dreary delivery of the content prevented the documentary from having any real impact on the intended audience of elderly. As a result, the documentary just

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

Countless beautiful places in the world lie undiscovered by scientists. Fortunately, other places have been found, and now people are capable to safely visit them. Located in northwestern Montana, Glacier National Park has become one of the most eye-catching tourist sites in the country. Capped in white, the glaciers of Glacier Park capture God’s incredible work in the world. Glacier was formally established a national park in 1910, making it the tenth national park of the United States. This Park is undeniably a phenomenal site because of its history, incredible science, and gorgeous hiking paths. Exemplifying God’s marvelous creations, Glacier National Park provides an incredible trip for individuals and families. (110)

Why should we care is a question that many people end up asking. Earth’s average temperature has increased by at least 2 degrees Fahrenheit in the past century and scientists expect it to go up to about 12 degrees Fahrenheit in the next. To us, those numbers seem quite small, but the average temperature a couple centuries ago was 4 degrees lower than it is today, allowing ice caps to stay ice caps. As the temperature increases, ice caps start to melt resulting in the rising of sea levels. With the sea rising, storms are becoming more and more frequent and stronger. High sea levels also cause torrential rains and flooding which threatens us as humans, wildlife and nature.

The Ice Giant, Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun in our solar system and is very unique from the other planets. Discoveries of this ice giant will lead us to a better understanding of our universe. This planet is different because of its tilt, color and a somewhat unique surface. No other planets in our solar system have a significant tilt. In addition to the tilt, it also has odd color and a different surface, but why?

Glaciers have helped define the topography of earth for many years. A glacier is a large mass of ice that has been compacted of snow and ice for a long period of time. The ice age we will be focusing on is the Pleistocene era, which was “a period that began about 2.5 million years ago and ended about 10,000 years ago” (513). This was the most recent ice age where it helped formed our present-day lands. During this time, ice covered about 19 million square miles which was about 1/3 of earth’s land surface (515). Many parts of all the continents were covered with ice and that had a great effect on our topography due to the glaciers it created.

Ice Mountain is a place of beauty and rarity. All four of the systems of the earth, the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere, helped to contribute to make Ice Mountain the rare astounding piece of our collective geoheritage that it has become. Ice Mountain’s creation and uses helps make it one of the most interesting and important mountains in West Virginia that has been impacted by many earth systems throughout history. Ice Mountain is very important to the biosphere. It provides habitats for breeding warblers, thrushers, vireos, as well as several other important types of birds. It also carries several species of arboreal plants from starflowers to hemlocks. Eastern hemlocks help to cool the ice vents, which help to cool the mountain and give it its name of Ice Mountain.

In class, L. Meek discussed about the six properties of Evolved Psychological Mechanism (EPM). The first property is that EPM solved a specific problem of survival or reproduction recurrently over the evolutionary history. Second, only narrow of information is processed according to EPM. Third, the adaptive problem an organism is facing is informed by an EPM. Fourth, EPM also transformed through, leaving some room for decision making for an individual as the output. Fifth, the output of an EPM is the physical activity, which manifest behavior. Last, the output of an EPM is to solve a specific adaptation problem, such as having an EPM to attract food to solve a hunger problem.

The Ice Age was the mark of the extinction of life in that time. What was the end result would lead to many discoveries by man that is still to this day yielding more data, information on what happened in that time. Living organisms being trapped in the asphalt for 11,000 to 50,000 years being perfectly preserved in rocks. The oldest of the fossils according to La Brea Tar Pits museum, that dire wolves, saber-toothed cat from Pit 91 each dated back to 44,000 years old. An coyote from Pit A is dated 46,000 years these dates estimated based on carbon-14 remains of specimens [Tarpits.org]. The whole museum ( and Los Angeles) was a crucial discovery point, the underground reveals hundreds of thousands of fossils perfectly in an protective shell from the Ice Age. In the 19th century a lake was mined at Rancho La Brea in Los Angeles the museum has a vast examples of what transpired with the fossils as the blueprint to history.

Mendenhall Glacier is the most recent environmental victim of a warmer planet. First measured in 1911, the glacier has receded by more than 2900 meters (Braasch, G. 2011). The marvelous thing about glaciers is that they can regenerate their mass through snowfall, but they can lose their mass due to sublimation, water evaporating from the ice, and melting. Sadly, this isn’t the case anymore as the summers out heat whatever the glaciers had tried to regenerate during the winters. Since 1980, glaciers on average have melted 17 meters of water (“NOAA Climate.gov”. 2017). When glaciers melt, the resulting water adds to overall volume of the ocean. According to The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the global average of rising sea levels has been 3.4 millimeters a year since 1993 (“NOAA Climate.gov”. 2017). Before 1993, the average rise of sea level a year was only at

“The Glacier, and with it the Duck, might have moved since then.” Lou Sapienza is the lead organizer of a Coast Guard Operation searching for a missing World War II plane; the Grumman Duck and its lost crew. A challenging problem the party has with finding the Duck is the movement of glaciers since the planes went down close to 70 years ago. Since the 1950s the extent and the movement of the ice sheets have rapidly changed due to Global Warming. Most affected by this climate change is The Arctic, Antarctica and the Greenland Ice Cap. Lou Sapienza and his team of specialists only have a hand-drawn map of where the Duck crashed and an old radar survey from years ago. Their daring task is to predict how the movement of the ice sheet accelerated by global warming might have moved their missing plane. Since global warming is a problem, everyone will be affected by it in one way or another. It is time to act, to confront the problem and find a solution.

Additionally, the glaciers are working as the planet's air conditioning system. They reflect most of the sun's heat maintaining, thus, the planet's climate mild and human friendly.