The Pros And Cons Of Glaciers

Climate change has become a major issue in global environmental politics as it has been shown to have a correlation with issues such as deforestation, biodiversity loss, and desertification. As Chapter 45 states “The 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found consensus in the scientific community that greenhouse gas emissions have significantly increased because of human activity and, further, that the modest temperature increases we have already experienced are “very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations.” Due to this report awareness was brought to almost everyone of how serious human activity was to the global climate. In 2009, it was declared that “If global warming is to be limited to a maximum of two degrees C. above preindustrial values, global emissions need to peak between 2015 and 2020 and then decline rapidly”. To me this sounds foreboding and it is something that deserves our full attention immediately. To try and get a better understanding of how serious climate change is, I’m going to try and interpret chapter 45 which deals on climate change through 5 different paradigms of International Relations.

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

We have already begun to see the effects of these rising temperatures. From melting glaciers to severe storms, these environmental issues will only continue to worsen as emissions of green house gases increase. Glaciers in Alaska, Peru, the Alps, and many more are melting at rapid speeds. The Himalayan Glaciers have been among the most affected by global warming. The glaciers provide drinking water to forty percent of the world’s population. However, over the next fifty years as these

Environmentalists believe that climate change is a significant issue that the government needs to work on it. Scientists have explained that many events including drought, flooding, severe weather, rising sea levels, acidifying rains, and wildfires have affected people’s lives and the planet due to climate change. Climate change is caused by increasing heat in the atmosphere. The consumption of fossil fuels and other emissions are trapping carbon dioxide in the air, which increases the temperature and the more carbon dioxide humans produce the more the environment rises in temperature (Meyer, 2017). The hotter temperature affects environment, economy, health, and security. For example, people who live near coal mines are at higher risk to get asthma than other places, or fishermen suffer from ocean acidification because their income is heavily relying on fishing (Frank, 2012). These two examples indicate that climate change is threatening the environment and can create disruptions.

Glaciers are one of the most fundamental phenomenon on the planet, and much of their purpose and impact on earth has been well documented and published. Ice sheets, Ice Caps and Glaciers trap nearly 90% of the world's fresh water, and are replenished by snowfall each year. Their existence on this planet dates back 650,000,000 years and yet they are always moving, always shifting and always melting. Before, human existence and even during the brief era of humans, ice dominated all of the earth's landmass and have regulated, created and altered many of the landscapes around the world.

There are people that do not believe that climate change is occurring. We can analyze why some deny climate change, use specific methods of persuasion, and use social media platforms to spread the word of how humans are impacting our planet. Using specific facts, we can attempt to educate and persuade others to realize just how severe human impact on Earth truly is.

One of the current issues in the world is the receding glaciers in Bolivia, and they are affecting the community quite heavily. The glaciers have receded 43% between the years of 1986-2014, and with the current warming they are continuing to recede. One of the main problems this is causing is a risk of the water supply in the region. In Bolivia, they use melted glacier water for many things such as irrigation, drinking water, as well as hydropower. The article explains that around 15% of the water they use is from the melted glaciers, with that number coming close to doubling when they are in a dryer season. This also causes problems for the lakes and rivers in parts of Bolivia. Some of the melted glacier water finds its way into rivers, lakes, and other bodies of water, and quite a few bodies of water have dried up due to these receding glaciers.

The global mean surface temperature is projected to increase by around 0.3 to 4.8 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial values by the end of the 21th century. Therefore, if we continue to not check the anthropogenic emissions, the increase may be around 8 to 10 degrees Celsius, which is incredibly damaging to various ecosystems internationally. It is difficult to determine the possible aftereffects of the ice sheets melting because the equilibrium-response timescales of them is longer than both the atmosphere and ocean. The ice-sheet/ice-shelf model shows that if the atmospheric warming increases 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius above the present temperatures, the Antarctic ice shelves will collapse and trigger a centennial scale response –a never-ending

Climate change conspirators/deniers is a problem to today’s population. Climate change is defined as any irregularities in earth’s weather (NASA, 2017). Individuals who deny the scientific facts that are climate change is an interesting subset of the population. Climate change conspiracy theories typically challenge the scientific proof and ultimately claim that climate change is a hoax. The reasons these individuals give vary. For one, a major claim is that climate change is natural and not a result of human behaviour/consumption patterns. Another main argument is that the science is not reliable. Despite both, and hundreds of other arguments against climate change being proven wrong, these deniers continue to believe that climate change does not exist. The primary conspiracy theory that will be focused on is the belief that climate change is a sham. Two research questions that would help understand why individuals choose to believe this conspiracy theory are: are there any common demographics among climate change deniers; and, how is this belief perpetuated in the media?

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

Mauri Pelto, a glaciologist, studied a glacier on Mount Baker, in Washington State. The glaciers are melting, as the planet becomes warmer. “At the rate it is losing mass, it won’t make it 50 years,” said Pelto. Glaciers from Mount Baker and the North Cascades are getting smaller. Over the past thirty years, seven glaciers have melted. An estimate was made that the 116 glaciers that they studied in Alaska have lost a total of 75 billion metric tons of ice. There were 150 glaciers in Glacier National Park in 1850. Now, there are only 25."They are losing volume at a faster rate than ever before," Pelto said. "If you cannot sustain a glacier at a place like this in the Lower 48 states, there is no hope."

The five Great Lakes (Lake Erie. Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, Lake Ontario. And Lake Superior) in North America are the largest group of freshwater lakes in the world.

Glaciers are large bodies of ice that are constantly moving. They cover 10% of the Earth's surface and are stretched across 40 different countries, among which are Greenland, Canada, Iceland, US etc.

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.

You can see the dramatic effect of climate change. You see that back in 1941 the ground was completely cover by ice and then as climate change began to happen it caused a melting of the glacier by 2004. This once magnificent site of ice and rock now became the water and rock due to the