Global WarmingEssay Preview: Global WarmingReport this essayThe Arctic is a highly sensitive region, and its being profoundly affected by the changing climate. Many scientists believe that global warming is the cause. Average temperatures in the Arctic region are rising twice as fast as they are elsewhere in the world. Satellite photos have shown that the Artic region is shrinking in size since the 1970s (Global Warming: The Silent Threat). In the last two decades, temperatures have been rising in the Arctic at a rate 20 times faster than the warming that occurred over the previous century, and the thickness of the ice sheet has decreased by about half (down from 15 feet in the 1980s to 8 feet in 2003). Springs are coming earlier, and fall is arriving later, which combined with higher summer temperatures year after year contribute to the gradual shrinking of the permanent ice sheet (Cox 14).
The Arctic is a sensitive region, and its being profoundly affected by the changing climate. Many scientists believe that global warming is the cause. Average temperatures in the Arctic region are rising twice as fast as they are elsewhere in the world. Satellite photos have shown that the Artic region is shrinking in size since the 1970s (Global Warming: The Silent Threat). In the last two decades, temperatures have been rising in the Arctic at a rate 20 times faster than the warming that occurred over the previous century, and the thickness of the ice sheet has decreased by about half (down from 15 feet in the 1980s to 8 feet in 2003). Springs are coming earlier, and fall is arriving later, which combined with higher summer temperatures year after year contribute to the gradual shrinking of the permanent ice sheet (Cox 14).
However, it is hard to say just how much warming is hitting the Arctic region. To find out how much, we were interested in studying the Arctic as a whole, as is done by many climate alarmists, so we used the latest available satellite record, obtained from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OHChCA). When it was done in March 2010, the most recent year for which figures are available, it produced results which were comparable to those produced in the global combined average ice sheet thickness (at the end of 2009). During that same period, data from satellite stations have shown much warmer Arctic temperatures (Cox 15). The extent of warming in the Arctic decreased by around 5 % over the previous decade (Cox 12) and has increased in part by another 5 % (Cox 11). The Antarctic Ice Sheet is also affected by a warming effect. The last satellite data produced, from March 2009, showed that the Antarctic ice sheet shrunk 7 times faster than was previously believed. The trend is consistent with the assumption that warming has been primarily responsible.
The Arctic remains an important ice sheet source for human exploration, and has been a particularly important place in the solar system. But it has also been the subject of a study that was launched earlier this year in collaboration with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. While this study focuses on ice from Greenland, the results have been applied to the other parts of the ice sheet too, as well (Chibak 19).
Because Greenland has not yet become a much-discussed target location for research, it was chosen as an important location for Arctic research for its ice sheet. But in the past year, the scientists who were instrumental in this project took some drastic steps to prepare the ground for this kind of research. These included a new method of mapping ice from Greenland’s ice sheet for large ice crystals, new models (called “supermappings”) to measure changes in the volume and shape of the ice at locations around the Greenland Ice Sheet, and special operations to simulate the changes in the temperature of Greenland’s atmosphere (Cox 20). For this study, the scientists in the Arctic conducted a miniaturization of a computer program so that they could visualize the melting of ice on an ice sheet using standard models (Cox 21). That means, these models are less likely to exhibit an upward or downward tilt since they were chosen for their high accuracy, better quality imaging of the ice sheet from Greenland. However, the new models are also much more accurate at simulating the ice sheet’s structure—which is why they were chosen at the start of the study. There are at least three reasons why you would want to work with a computer program that maps ice in Greenland: Firstly, many models are more accurate at simulation and have lower power consumption. Secondly, climate forecasts need to be accurate as well (Cox 22). Thirdly, the satellite measurements can show changes in the distribution so that climate models only reflect what you can find from satellite imagery—they are much more accurate than data sent by satellites through ice recharges (Cox 23). These results suggest that there was a need for a much more systematic approach in the Arctic. By working with several instruments, the scientists in the Arctic were able to obtain results which are more accurate and
The Arctic is an ocean that lies between North America, the South and Europe. The sea is also thick, but with less buoyancy. At its centre lies the Beaufort, which is one of several frozen outcrops in the Beaufort Sea. The Beaufort in particular is most likely to grow larger, especially as Arctic temperatures continue to reach record highs that would last well into the 2030s (Climate News 2010).
There are several types of ice on the ice sheet, but the ice sheets that the ice sheets cover are mostly of low-lying or semi-low-lying (Grafton 2011, Korn, Leach, & Rieckx 2014). The largest types of ice are called sub-crustal ice. Sub-crustal ice is more likely to be of higher ice mass and volume than other ice sheets, because it makes up about 30 to 50% of the total ice mass at the surface. It is the most intense as well as the most diffuse ice on the Earth (Cox 11) (O’Neill & Stokes 2015), due to its high melting speed. However, sub-crustal ice is also extremely hot and hard.
Some of the fastest ice-sheet growth on Earth stems in the form of stratigraphically formed ice shelves that form about five times as fast as land (Geofferson 2011, van Eijk, & Reimer 2016). Subcrustal ice sheets consist of three types of subcrustal rocks, about half of which have thicker top layers and about half of which have thinner layers (“Arctic sea shelf ice shelf” and “Arctic shelf subsurface ice shelf”) that are much harder to break in the summer (Stokes 2015). The fastest subcrustal ice is that on the Antarctic ice shore, at about 100 kilometers (60 miles) high, which grows at about the same rate as Antarctic ice shelves, but is not as fast as land. If ice is grown at a rate that is significantly faster than land, however, subcrustal ice will rise in size over time. As a result, there is less ice on the Earth’s surface, but as ice rises, it is also more dense relative to the Earth as a whole, with the densest ice now growing faster (Rieckx et al. 2014).
There have been some important changes in climate since the beginning of the industrial revolution, but these changes are not as dramatic as those of the Industrial Revolution. To understand the trends occurring in the natural climate of Earth’s history I will first need to understand what is known about the past six hundred years.
The Arctic Climate of 1812 (A1).
Alaskan ice mass reached a record volume in 1850 when the original ice sheet was created. The Arctic ice was formed almost entirely on the seafloor off the coast of Alaska. Ice over the Atlantic Ocean (or to use an example, the Arctic sea floor) was found at about 4 cm deep at the Arctic coast. It was estimated that at that depth between 8 to 12 000 years ago, sea levels could reach a mass of almost six to nine times greater than any previously studied sea level rise. The ice sheet gradually shrunk in size until it reached a total mass of about eight to
The Arctic is an ocean that lies between North America, the South and Europe. The sea is also thick, but with less buoyancy. At its centre lies the Beaufort, which is one of several frozen outcrops in the Beaufort Sea. The Beaufort in particular is most likely to grow larger, especially as Arctic temperatures continue to reach record highs that would last well into the 2030s (Climate News 2010).
There are several types of ice on the ice sheet, but the ice sheets that the ice sheets cover are mostly of low-lying or semi-low-lying (Grafton 2011, Korn, Leach, & Rieckx 2014). The largest types of ice are called sub-crustal ice. Sub-crustal ice is more likely to be of higher ice mass and volume than other ice sheets, because it makes up about 30 to 50% of the total ice mass at the surface. It is the most intense as well as the most diffuse ice on the Earth (Cox 11) (O’Neill & Stokes 2015), due to its high melting speed. However, sub-crustal ice is also extremely hot and hard.
Some of the fastest ice-sheet growth on Earth stems in the form of stratigraphically formed ice shelves that form about five times as fast as land (Geofferson 2011, van Eijk, & Reimer 2016). Subcrustal ice sheets consist of three types of subcrustal rocks, about half of which have thicker top layers and about half of which have thinner layers (“Arctic sea shelf ice shelf” and “Arctic shelf subsurface ice shelf”) that are much harder to break in the summer (Stokes 2015). The fastest subcrustal ice is that on the Antarctic ice shore, at about 100 kilometers (60 miles) high, which grows at about the same rate as Antarctic ice shelves, but is not as fast as land. If ice is grown at a rate that is significantly faster than land, however, subcrustal ice will rise in size over time. As a result, there is less ice on the Earth’s surface, but as ice rises, it is also more dense relative to the Earth as a whole, with the densest ice now growing faster (Rieckx et al. 2014).
There have been some important changes in climate since the beginning of the industrial revolution, but these changes are not as dramatic as those of the Industrial Revolution. To understand the trends occurring in the natural climate of Earth’s history I will first need to understand what is known about the past six hundred years.
The Arctic Climate of 1812 (A1).
Alaskan ice mass reached a record volume in 1850 when the original ice sheet was created. The Arctic ice was formed almost entirely on the seafloor off the coast of Alaska. Ice over the Atlantic Ocean (or to use an example, the Arctic sea floor) was found at about 4 cm deep at the Arctic coast. It was estimated that at that depth between 8 to 12 000 years ago, sea levels could reach a mass of almost six to nine times greater than any previously studied sea level rise. The ice sheet gradually shrunk in size until it reached a total mass of about eight to
Climate and Climate Change: An Interdisciplinary and Practical Approach
In Climate and Climate Change, a new interdisciplinary international group of academic advisers, environmental policy analyst, and research professors examine, review, and critically analyze the climate impacts of human-caused climate change. They focus on human-caused greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, mining, and the fossil fuel industry. The interdisciplinary group uses existing techniques to assess the impact of climate variability from multiple sources—such as soil, livestock, water bodies, marine environments, and water resources—on atmospheric and other physical processes and to develop the principles of equilibrium. The group also considers how to manage atmospheric carbon and increase freshwater supply without increasing the amount of greenhouse gas released. Climate Change in this document is a non-fiction, multi-part package. For more information, get the book at http://climatechangeinsecurity.org/
Global Warming: An Interdisciplinary and Practical Approach
Powell, R. D. (2014). Warming in the Arctic’s Arctic and Climate Change: An Interdisciplinary Assessment. Environmental Science & Technology 19(1), 2–29.
We acknowledge the importance of the Intertipping Program in mitigating changes in climate, including changes in temperatures. In Climate Science & Technology, Powell (2009), has highlighted climate change as a major threat in the Arctic. The international effort by the U.S., Canada, and Australia to develop strategies to reduce heat-trapping carbon emissions to reduce global warming also makes clear that human impact on the Arctic contributes to this warming. We continue to support efforts to increase research and development to better understand changes in global Warming, including warming in the Arctic. As well, we are actively pursuing policies to protect fragile Arctic islands from future impacts. We acknowledge the potential influence of changing global atmospheric temperature on temperatures to adapt to increased temperature variability: that influences may result from changing weather patterns, seasonal changes, oceanic conditions, rainfall, and other influences.
Climate Change in the Arctic: An Interdisciplinary Evaluation
Powell, R. D., Poulsen, J. L., Acker, L., Wiedemann, A. (2013). Effects of Climate Change on Arctic Ice and Satellites at Geophysical Research Letters. Geoscience 39:733–745.
Global Warming: An Interdisciplinary Assessment
Cox, K. (2007). Current Uncertainty: The Impact of Ice Surface Temperature Variability on Ice, Glaciers, and Glaciers Today. PLoS One 5(6), e100615. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.00100615
Global Warming: An Interdisciplinary
Climate scientists since the mid 1970s have predicted that warming would come first and strongest in the Arctic after 1995. The change has been increasingly evident, both to scientists and to indigenous people. In Alaska and western Canada, winter temperatures have gone up as much as 7 degrees F over the past 50 years. Since the mid 1970s, the floating Arctic ice pack has lost an area the size of Texas and Arizona combined. With a shorter season of sea ice, fall storms batter Alaskas Arctic coast as never before, causing erosion that threatens communities (Wohlforth 9). Arctic ice is getting thinner, melting and rupturing. For example, the largest single block of ice in the Arctic, the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, had been around for 3,000 years before it started cracking in 2000. Within two years it had split all the way through and is now breaking into pieces (Global Warming: The Silent Threat).
How can a few degrees change the world? A warming of 1.1Ă‘”F over the past century and a further 2.5-10.4Ă‘”F over the 21st century, as projected by IPCC, may appear minor compared to short-term weather changes from night to day and winter to summer. However, in global climate terms, a warming at this rate would be much larger and faster than any of the climatic changes over the past 10,000 years. Global temperatures during the last ice age (about 20,000 years ago) was 9oF cooler than today, but that was enough to allow massive ice sheets to reach as far south as the Great Lakes and New York City (Armageddon to Come).
Rising temperatures are already affecting Alaska, where the spruce bark beetle is breeding faster in the warmer weather. These pests now sneak in an extra generation each year. From 1993 to 2003, they chewed up 3.4 million acres of Alaskan forest. The effects of global warming on the north are not limited to the Arctic. Higher temperatures are already affecting people, wildlife and landscapes across Alaska. Melting glaciers and land-based ice sheets also contribute to rising sea levels, threatening low-lying areas around the globe with beach erosion, coastal flooding, and contamination of freshwater supplies. At particular risk are island nations like the Maldives; over half of that nations populated islands lie less than 6 feet above sea level. Even major cities like Shanghai and Lagos would face similar problems, as they also lie just six feet above present water levels (Armageddon to Come). In Bangladesh, sea level will be about 40 cm higher than today by the 2080s, and this is estimated to increase the annual number of people flooded from 13 million to 94 million. 60% of this increase will occur in southern Asia, and 20% will occur in South East Asia (Sea Label Rise & Bangladesh).
Rising seas would severely impact the United States as well. Scientists project as much as a 3-foot sea-level rise by 2100. According to a 2001 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency study, this increase would inundate some 22,400 square miles of land along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States, primarily in Louisiana, Texas, Florida, and North Carolina (Brokaw).
A warmer Arctic will also affect weather patterns and thus food production around the world. Wheat farming in Kansas, for example, would be profoundly affected by the loss of ice cover in the Arctic. According to a NASA Goddard Institute of Space Studies computer models, Kansas would be 4 degrees warmer in the winter without Arctic ice, which normally creates cold air masses that frequently slide southward into the United States. Warmer winters are bad news for wheat farmers, who need freezing temperatures to grow winter wheat. And in summer, warmer days would rob Kansas soil of 10 percent of its moisture, drying out valuable cropland (Armageddon to Come).
Melting of polar ice and land-based glaciers is expected to contribute to the 3.5 inch to three feet of sea level rise, which is projected the 21st century. Shrinking ice caps may also cause changes in ocean circulation and even storm tracks. The polar ice cap as a whole is shrinking. Images from NASA satellites show that the area of permanent ice cover is contracting at a rate of 9 percent each decade. If this trend continues, summers in the Arctic could become ice-free by the end of the 21st century (Is the Artic Melting?).
The melting of once-permanent ice is already affecting native people, wildlife and plants. When the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf splintered, the rare freshwater lake it enclosed, along with its unique ecosystem, drained into the ocean. Polar bears, whales, walrus and seals began changing their feeding and migration patterns, making it harder for native people to hunt. Polar bears are endangered species and super computers are predicting that they would become extinct by the end of the 21st century or even sooner (Brokaw). Along Arctic coastlines, entire villages will be uprooted because they are in danger of being swamped. The native people of the Arctic view global warming as a threat to their cultural identity and their survival (Is the Artic Melting?).
The melting of once-permanent ice is already affecting native people, wildlife and plants. When the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf split, the rare freshwater lake it enclosed, along with its unique ecosystem, drained into the ocean. Polar bears, whales, walrus and seals began changing their feeding and migration patterns, making it harder for native people to hunt. Polar bears are endangered species and super computers are predicting that they would become extinct by the end of the 21st century or even sooner (Brokaw). Along Atlantic coastlines, entire villages will be uprooted because they are in danger of being swamped. The native people of the Arctic view global warming as a threat to their cultural identity and their survival (Is the Artic Melting?).
The Ward Hunt Ice Shelf is a symbol of the Arctic’s great strength and resilience. When two or more sea ice sheets die, one of the major melting points will be visible, which will result in a change in the location of a second melting point. In the Arctic, this could be seen as a significant change in our world map from a map of mountains and rivers to the map of cities.
The Ward Hunt Ice Shelf is a symbol of the Arctic’s great strength and resilience. When two or more sea ice sheets die, one of the major melting points will be visible, which will result in a change in the location of a second melting point. In the Arctic, this could be seen as a significant change in our world map from a map of mountains and rivers to the map of cities. In the Arctic’s atmosphere, glaciers can create large icebergs as a result of intense cold winds as these can damage the ice. The resulting destruction of the region’s northern atmosphere will impact and ultimately affect almost all parts of the world.
The melting of once-permanent ice has been happening in the Arctic for thousands of years. A team of scientists studying the melting of ice in the Northern Hemisphere has shown that it happened in several places. It’s now happening in the Arctic. Scientists are studying changes in the extent of melting in the Arctic for the next three decades. The most striking thing about the recent melting is the ability of snow from the west to the north to accumulate and form larger glaciers.
The ice shelf was built by humans using water from the Pacific oceans and then from the sea. It was formed from the water that had melted away from the sea during the ice age. Since then, the ice shelf has melted to about 75 million square kilometers (30 times thinner than today’s Arctic sea ice). The Greenland ice sheet, which once covered an area of 4,700 square kilometers (2,300 square kilometers is today, about the size of our North Pole) is now 3 million square kilometers (3 times thinner) in size. The extent of the icebergy and icebergish layer of land ice is so thin and thick that no amount of energy from space could move it in any direction.
The melting of once-permanent ice is already affecting native people, wildlife and plants. When the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf split, the rare freshwater lake it enclosed, along with its unique ecosystem, drained into the ocean. Polar bears, whales, walrus and seals began changing their feeding and migration patterns, making it harder for native people to hunt. Polar bears are endangered species and super computers are predicting that they would become extinct by the end of the 21st century or even sooner (Brokaw). Along Atlantic coastlines, entire villages will be uprooted because they are in danger of being swamped. The native people of the Arctic view global warming as a threat to their cultural identity and their survival (Is the Artic Melting?).
The Ward Hunt Ice Shelf is a symbol of the Arctic’s great strength and resilience. When two or more sea ice sheets die, one of the major melting points will be visible, which will result in a change in the location of a second melting point. In the Arctic, this could be seen as a significant change in our world map from a map of mountains and rivers to the map of cities.
The Ward Hunt Ice Shelf is a symbol of the Arctic’s great strength and resilience. When two or more sea ice sheets die, one of the major melting points will be visible, which will result in a change in the location of a second melting point. In the Arctic, this could be seen as a significant change in our world map from a map of mountains and rivers to the map of cities. In the Arctic’s atmosphere, glaciers can create large icebergs as a result of intense cold winds as these can damage the ice. The resulting destruction of the region’s northern atmosphere will impact and ultimately affect almost all parts of the world.
The melting of once-permanent ice has been happening in the Arctic for thousands of years. A team of scientists studying the melting of ice in the Northern Hemisphere has shown that it happened in several places. It’s now happening in the Arctic. Scientists are studying changes in the extent of melting in the Arctic for the next three decades. The most striking thing about the recent melting is the ability of snow from the west to the north to accumulate and form larger glaciers.
The ice shelf was built by humans using water from the Pacific oceans and then from the sea. It was formed from the water that had melted away from the sea during the ice age. Since then, the ice shelf has melted to about 75 million square kilometers (30 times thinner than today’s Arctic sea ice). The Greenland ice sheet, which once covered an area of 4,700 square kilometers (2,300 square kilometers is today, about the size of our North Pole) is now 3 million square kilometers (3 times thinner) in size. The extent of the icebergy and icebergish layer of land ice is so thin and thick that no amount of energy from space could move it in any direction.
The Arctic ice melt will have effects beyond the polar region. The contraction of the Arctic ice cap is accelerating global warming. Snow and ice usually form a protective, cooling layer over the Arctic. When that covering melts, the earth