Various glaciers in Alaska and other parts of the United States have shrunk dramatically. If temperatures continue to rise, the ice will continue to melt, and some glaciers could disappear completely, which causes sea levels to rise. There are many animals, birds, and seafood that depend solely on glaciers for survival. With an increase in sea water temperature, and increasing sea levels, sea-plants that these fish thrive on will be lost, lowering the number of seafood, which in-turn will make survival of many species difficult. The arctic is source region for cold ocean currents and with no ice it will have no density and temperature distinctions, which pushes the ocean currents. If the ocean current heat transfer mechanism powers down, …show more content…
Rapid melting of the ice will release dangerous green house gases like methane back into the environment. This will brings rapid climate change. Methane is over 20 times more effective than Co2 in keeping the heat in. Because of severe droughts and floods the agriculture will suffer. Farming will be affected and this will cause food crisis. There are many places that depend solely on the flow of water from melting glaciers to provide them with electricity. If this water is reduced or stops, the production of electricity will stop too. The majority of glaciers surveyed in Alaska are melting. Thinning rates in the last several years are more than twice those seen in previous years. Half the water flowing into the oceans, globally, due to the glaciers, is because of the ice melting in Alaska. The largest number of glaciers in the tropics is in the Northern Andes, but these are receding rapidly and losses accelerated during the 1990s. Glacier melting has become very rapid in the European Alps since 1980, and 10 to 20% of the ice in the Alps was gone in less than two years. Half the amount of Europe's Alpine glaciers has vanished since 1850. Within the next hundred years, 50 % of those left, will as
Glaciers can be classified into many categories. First they are divided into either Alpine or Continental. Alpine glaciers are those that are found in mountainous regions and Continental, such as Greenland,...
The freshwater from the glaciers would run eventually to the sea, causing sea levels to rise, and also reducing the levels of salt found in the sea. This is in fact disastrous for thermohaline circulation, which carries warm currents to Svalbard from The Gulf Stream, and takes cold water back around to e warmed again. The cold water travels back along the surface of the ocean bed around America, because it has sunk near Svalbard. It sinks due to the levels of salt here. The addition of salt makes the water heavy, dropping to the bottom. When the added glacier water reduces the salt levels, it would, in effect stop thermohaline circulation completely. This would mean that, eventually, warm places would get even warmer, without the cooling sea water, and Svalbard would get even colder, without Gulf Stream water warming the East side of the islands.
The reason for this is that national park doesn’t have a rescue team for high altitude to provide. Glacier Bay national park has three different types of climatic zones. Along the Gulf of Alaska coast, there tends to be more temperatures more mild with precipitation, but not much snowfall. In the upper region of the national park, there’s much colder temperatures with a lot of snow. The lower portion of Glacier Bay has more mild temperatures and is usually rainy throughout the year.
Glaciers have drastically changed over time because on average, “glaciers worldwide have been losing mass since at least the 1970s”. The melting of glaciers has been contributing to the rise in sea level because the glaciers have been shrinking faster in the last decade. Three of the major glaciers in the us have shown an overall drop in mass since the 1950s and 1960s and an accelerated rate of decline in recent years. An ice cap covered Mt. Hood during the Ice Age, from about 1.8 million years ago to about 10,000 years ago. These ice caps covered the Oregon Cascades, a series of mountains in Oregon, with glaciers going down on the east and west sides of the range. These glaciers melted into smaller glaciers as the weather proceeded to get warmer...
First, global warming has an immense impact on Arctic Sovereignty as the rise of greenhouse gases thrive in Canada along with other countries. Within 20 years, the polar ice caps of the Arctic have melted twice as fast compared to before. The loss of Arctic ice can furthermore pose a threat to shipping, as navigating the Arctic becomes increasingly challenging. Finally, climate change threatens the extinction of numerous animal species, namely the polar bear. Hence, global warming poses a major challenge to Arctic Sovereignty and Canada along with other members in the Arctic Council must prevent it.
Also I learned this information and problem from two different reliable sources and the more sources you look at the greater the chance of the information being right. I had one main reaction to what I learn about the glaciers at the park and that was I didn’t really believe it at first, because how can a big mountain of ice shrink so much that the glacier will be gone for future generations. One of the main questions that I had was “how”. After reading the article I got a better understanding of the problem and actually agree to what the article has to say.
The negative side of global warming is that it leads to melting of ice. The world's glaciers, especially Arctic glaciers are melting faster than new snow and ice can supplement them. During the melting of Arctic ice opens over the dark surface of the water or soil and balance change reflects less and absorb a greater amount of heat, therefore, large areas of ice melt rapidly (News, global warming). There is evidence, which will support this argument: scientists from the University of California in San Diego investigated satellite observation data for the Arctic for 1979-2011 years. Since the 1970s, the area covering of the ice has decreased by 40 % and the region has warmed up to 2 degrees (News global warming).It means, that global warming affects to the wildli...
It is an unquestioned fact that the climate is changing. There is abundant evidence that the world is becoming warmer and warmer. The temperature of the global land average temperature has increased by about 8.5 degrees centigrade from 1880 to 2012 (Karr, et al 406). The one or two degrees increase in temperature can cause dramatic and serious consequences to the earth as well as humans. More extreme weather occurs, such as heat waves and droughts. The Arctic Region is especially sensitive to global climate change. According to the data in recent decades, the temperature in the Arctic has increased by more than 2 degrees centigrade in the recent half century (Przybylak 316). Climate change has led to a series of environmental and ecological negative
Climate Change Reality In 1850, Glacier National Park had 150 glaciers. Now there are only 25 that remain large enough (at least 25 acres in area) to be considered functional glaciers. The park's glacially fed streams provide a constant flow of cold water throughout the summer season, maintaining necessary water levels and regulating stream temperature for fish and other species.
One such outcome would be the possibility of sea levels rising to new heights, or as Denchak (2016) explains, “It’s estimated our oceans will be one to four feet higher, threatening coastal systems and low-lying areas” (para. 10). Another possible negative effect would be a drastic decrease in the earth’s albedo. Scientific experts define albedo as “a measure of how well the earth’s surface reflects sunlight” (Carbon Brief Staff, 2013, para. 3). Additionally, they say that “snow-covered sea ice has a high albedo and reflects 85 [percent] of sunlight. But the open water revealed as ice melts is darker and absorbs more – reflecting just 7 [percent]” (Carbon Brief Staff, 2013, para. 3). This means that as more ice melts, more heat will be absorbed by the ocean, greatly increasing the total temperature of the oceans overtime. Circulation of the oceans’ currents can also be altered from extra seawater added by melting polar ice. Harvey (2015) goes further in detail on the impact of ice on the currents by
Before the Flood. Regarding the growing and receding of glaciers, it could be due to the same natural causes seen over thousands of years, not just human activity. A study in 2013 of ice cores concluded that the current melting of glaciers in Western Antarctica is due to “atmospheric circulation changes [that] causes rapid warming over the Western Antarctic ice sheet” and thus cannot be directly correlated with human-caused climate change (Steig, 2013). Therefore, if we could look nearly two hundred years to the 1830s, we would find that the climate would look a lot like it does currently; glaciers melting just as much as they are today. Christian Schlüchter, a professor of Geology at the University of Bern in Switzerland, found 4,000 year
First, Mr. Al Gore shows some global warming comparison pictures of places over several years. Some rivers become droughty, some snow mountains are melted, some glaciers retreat year by year. Some places depend on the melt water coming off the glaciers, so glaciers are very important. In the following years, because of global warming, many people
“Average temperatures in the U.S. over the last century have already increased by more than one degree fahrenheit.”(NWF). There has been many noticeable changes due this minor change in temperature. These changes in temperatures are causing problems such as when animals migrate or when they go to hibernate. Warmer temperatures cause the animals to think it is earlier than it actually is and can lead them to migrate or hibernate at the wrong times. These increases in temperature are also leading to the melting of ice in the arctic. Many animals, such as polar bears and seals depend on the ice for somewhere to live and survive. This melting of the ice also leads to sea levels rising. The rising of the sea levels also causes loss of habitats because coastlines and beaches are eroded away. Global warming leads to the extinction of animals because many habitats are lost. With the loss of habitats, animals are completely lost and they have to change their whole way of life in order to survive. If they are not able to adapt to their new surroundings many could become endangered or extinct as the result of lack of food or shelter. Clearly, global warming is adding to the extinction of many
The polar regions are most affected and vulnerable to the warming temperatures because the poles are covered in ice. The world’s ice sheets are melting faster than ever and temperatures in the Arctic region are rising twice as fast as anywhere else on Earth according to the NRDC. This will have a serious impact on people, wildlife and plants in that region. The National Climate Assessment has said that “By the year 2100, it 's estimated our oceans will be one to four feet higher, threatening coastal systems and low-lying areas, including entire island nations and the world 's largest cities, including New York, Los Angeles, and Miami as well as Mumbai, Sydney, and Rio de Janeiro”. Polar bears are in great threat as the ice sheets melt because they use the ice to travel across the land and hunt. As the sea-ice platforms move further apart, the swimming conditions become more dangerous. The U.S Geological Survey done by the National Wildlife Federation predicts that by the year 2050, two thirds of all polar bears will disappear. Researcher Bill Fraser has tracked the Adelie penguins in Antarctica and reported the numbers have fallen from 32,000 to only 11,000 over the last 30
Glaciers have disappeared due to increasing in global temperatures because of which the water level had drastically increased and its causing flood all over the world