The Effects Of Global Warming On The Ocean Temperature

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

The issue is that the sea water levels are rising as a result of warming oceans caused by climate change. The burning of fossil fuels has put lots of “greenhouse gases” such as methane into our atmosphere, causing more heat to be retained on the earth from the sun and overall warming the earth. The oceans absorb about 80 percent of the excess heat. Thermal Expansion is in effect as the sea levels rise. Polar ice caps and glaciers are melting due to global warming which is adding to the rising sea level. (National Geographic, 2017)

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 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.

When I think about the effects for global warming I think the idea that most people think about is what its doing to the climate. Not the other issues at hand, whether it be the melting of the ice caps or how it affects ecosystems. An important issue that I think really matters that other people don’t understand is what affect does climate change have on the oceans. The world is covered in about 70% water and climate change must have a large impact on the ocean in someway. I think the ocean is one of the most important ecosystems that needs to be addressed and conserved. We live in a world that exploits natural resources at a tremendous rate and the ocean being one of the largest of that. From overfishing

Massive glacier melting creates sea level rise. All the melted ice eventually ends up in the

Due to warming effect most of the glaciers along the margins of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are shrinking which has contributed to global sea-level rise. Globally, ice losses had contributed 1.8 mm/yr rise in sea level but this can increase if the retreat of ice shelves and tidewater glaciers additionally enhance the loss of grounded ice and initiate the large-scale collapse of vulnerable parts of the ice sheets (Pritchard et. al, 2009). This shrinking of ice sheets are due to warming of earth systems.

Our planet has two glaciers of continental size, one being present on Antarctica and the other on Greenland. Observations made by scientists over the last thirty-five years all agree upon the notion of shrinking, and or retreating of the ice sheets. The melting of ice sheets has powerful implications for the millions of people who depend on glacial melt for drinking water and the millions of people who will be displaced by the sea level rise occurring as a direct result of the melting. The observations of ice melting also show that the rate at which the ice is melting is accelerating. Mountain glaciers around the world are also on the retreat. Some instances of particular mountain glaciers may show expansion, but studies done by

Climate change has also had a major impact on snow and ice. There are strong warming’s in the Arctic causing glaciers to melt and ocean levels to rise. James Balog, the photographer from Chasing Ice, had taken pictures of a glacier in the Arctic and went back six months later and discovered that more than half of the glacier had melted. It had such a significant height change, that, James questioned if it was even the same glacier he had photographed the six months before. The average

Climate change has become a large topic of interest especially in the last few years. While climate change will have many wide reaching effects the focus of this paper will be on oceans. One of the more obvious effect of climate change on the oceans will be warming of the water. From 1971 to 2010 the upper ocean defined as 700 meters and above warmed, it may have also warmed prior to that time but data was not very well kept or consistent during those times. While the water close to the surface could have the greatest warming, it cannot be ruled out that warming is also taking place at greater depths (Rhein et al. 2013).

Oceans are huge components of the climate system. The big cause for most climate change on Earth is the atmosphere and the oceans are an essential factor. Even though they do not respond to the climate changes they do have a role in the climate system. Earth is a big planet with at least 71 percent covered with water and 96.5 percent is located in the Earth’s oceans. There is an extreme interaction between the atmosphere, ocean and ice. In the past, ocean circulation has strongly impacted the climate sway of ice ages and oscillations of the circulations could have been the subsequent cause of some climate variations.

Do you wonder why each summer lasts longer and gets hotter and hotter? Do you wonder why our sea levels are rising? Do you wonder why animals are going extinct? Global Warming is to blame for all of this. Especially the melting of the polar ice caps and ice sheets as a result of global warming. The polar ice sheets are where the vast majority of Earth’s ice is stored including the main ice sheets covering Antarctica and Greenland. These ice sheets are dome-shaped and cover solid land masses and are estimated over 50,000 square kilometers (12 million acres) in size (National Snow and Ice Data Center). Polar ice caps on the other hand are smaller than ice sheets covering less than 50,000 square kilometers. However, taking both into consideration they are both melting faster than ever before according to scientists and climatologists which is causing problems throughout each corner of the globe for people and animals. Even though these large bodies of ice are mainly located in Antarctic, Greenland, and inside the Arctic Circle (Rignot & Thomas 2002), they wreak havoc for many areas including but not limited to the coastal areas.

Recent scientific research has revealed that the sea water from below and the meltwater from above have been slowly seeping under the ice sheets (Leal and Kovaleva, 22). This has resulted to lubrication of ice streams and causing them to move quickly into the sea. In addition to that, the rise in temperature is causing the ice shelves that extend from Greenland to melt from below and then break off.

The polar ice caps that we see today have taken centuries to form and they ve been melting from time to time in order to form lakes and rivers that are essential not only for animal and plant life, but for humans as well all over the world. Furthermore, as precipitation takes its toll the ice caps that melt gets replaced by fresh snow that is later on over time converted to ice. Thus it is safe to say that the melting of the polar ice caps is a normal occurrence, however it becomes a problem when the ice caps melt at a fast rate and turning into water faster and in more quantity than the fresh snow replacing it.

Climate change has also had a major impact on snow and ice. There are strong warming’s in the Artic causing glaciers to melt and ocean levels to rise. James Balog, the photographer from Chasing Ice, had taken pictures of a glacier in the Artic and went back six months later and discovered that more than half of the glacier had melted. It had such a significant height change, that, James questioned if it was even the same glacier he had photographed the six months before. The average annual