Category Archives: Issues in Science

Glaciers are consistent bodies of moving ice sheets that usually exist in high latitude areas and high mountain areas. They are formed by huge amounts of high-density ice that have been condensed and refrozen. 97% of total glaciers and 99% of total ice amount on earth are contained in the Antarctic ice sheet and the Greenland ice sheet that are located in the Polar regions. The ice contained in these ice sheets is the largest fresh water bank on earth such that it has the ability to change the climate throughout our world.

Credit: http://www.onlyonesolution.org/albedo.html

The melting ice sheets throughout the world have drawn much attentions from the news media in recent years. The public has noticed that climate change has become one of the major troubles that human beings are facing. Also, it has been reported that the average thickness of glaciers on earth has decreased by 11.5 meters since 1980, and this phenomenon is caused by people using fossil fuels recklessly. Additionally, energy companies are still searching and drilling for more oil and gas in the Arctic and this will make the climate issue worse.

Credit: http://climatechangeconnection.org/

Credit:NASA Climate 365 project, http://climate.nasa.gov/climate_resources/4/

Scientists have been collecting temperature data since the 18^th century. According to those data, our planet is getting warm constantly since the industrial revolution. Many people still hold the viewpoint that the increasing density of greenhouse gases is the main reason for Global Warming. However, scientists have found that the change of greenhouse gases’ density does not match the exponentially increasing trend of the average temperature. Meanwhile, glaciologists have claimed that the ice contained in the Polar regions has the ability to affect the global climate. In fact, as so much ice sheets have disappeared in the past few decades, lots of area on the surface of earth have turned from bright color of ice into dark color of water. Since dark colors can absorb heats faster than bright colors, our earth is now absorbing much more heats than in the past. Consequently, the melting glaciers have much greater influence on the climate than the greenhouse gases.

Credit:NASA, http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/mandias/global_warming/global_cooling.html

Last but not the least, the melting glaciers can result in much more serious consequences than just higher temperature. Melted sea ice produces a huge amount of water as ice sheets are the biggest water bank in the world. Also, it has been reported that about 40% of total glaciers have melted in the past four decades and the sea levels is rising slowly since 19th century by 0.1-0.15 m every 100 years. Many people still think that it does not matters since rising sea levels seems not so dangerous and it’s coming very slow. However, the rising sea levels may destroy many cities throughout the world.

Credit: The daily conversation from Youtube

In my opinion, the melting glaciers is just the start of  the disaster that may cause human’s extinction. Also, the masses have not fully realized the trouble that mankind is facing. Our planet will survive in extreme weathers as it has survived for 4.6 billion years. But we may be the generation that decides if human being can still live on earth. Therefore I suggest that everyone should start to think the changes that people need to make in order to protect our world.

Yitao Gu