Climate Change on Ice Glaciers

 

Climate change has been seen to have many effects; most of the known effects are the effects climate change has on ice glaciers. Ice glaciers are made up of snow compressed into large ice masses over many years; thoughts of remnants from the last ice age. Some of the ice glaciers are small like football fields and others are hundreds of kilometers long. Ten percent of the world’s total land area is filled with these glaciers; the big areas are Antarctica, Greenland, and the Canadian arctic. While only ten percent of our land is filled with ice, during the ice age 32% of our land was filled and 30% of our ocean as well.

  

In 1894 William Ogilvie photographed a nice picture of the Mendenhall glacier a photograph of a landscape where you are able to see a very pleasing glacier. In 2008 Gary Brasch photographed the same landscape but the beautiful glacier that was seen in 1894 no longer was as visible. The last measurement for this glacier was in 1911 and since then it has thinned and retreated 2,800 meters or over 9,000 feet. Much of the melting is due to human activities; much of the melting has been seen since the industrial revolution. The carbon dioxide and other greenhouse emissions have raised temperatures significantly and many scientists say that the Arctic could be completely ice-free in the summer of 2040.

Glaciers going away could have a really bad effect on human lives. Many glaciers around the world provide drinking water. China, India, and other Asian continents are fed water by snowmelt from the Himalayan, but in the late summer, the water comes from the melting of the ice glaciers. There are also beverage companies like Icelandic water that count on the glaciers to be able to sell their products. They sell Glacier water which is old water that is formed more than seventeen thousand years ago. The companies are monitored so that they don’t take all of the glacier water and ice. In 2015 a Chilean man was arrested for stealing 5 tons of ice from Jorge Montt glacier in Chile to sell to restaurants in Santiago. 

As well as it affecting humans it also affects animals. Many of the animals seen in these arctic regions hunt, give birth, and travel on the ice. Having the ice melt affects many of the creatures in a bad way. One of the most popular and affected animals is the polar bear. The Polar Bears have been seen to go longer days and even weeks without any food. Not having the right amount of food can cause impacts on fat stores; their fat stores are what they need to keep warm in really cold temperatures. Not having enough food also weakens reproductive success. If a polar bear cannot have a healthy cub then the cub could die in the womb or even immediately after birth. If the polar bears are not able to reproduce successfully then it could lead to the extinction of them.

 

Having glaciers melt also has an effect on the world. When the ice melts it adds to the rise of sea levels. The sea levels rising increases coastal erosion as well as elevates storm surge. Many of the cities and states near an ocean can have more hurricanes and typhoons around. In Greenland, it has been seen that the ice sheets are disappearing 4x faster than in 2003. These ice sheets melting have been contributing 20% of the current sea-level rise. The Arctic has also been warming up twice as fast as anywhere else on earth; making ice decline 10% every 10 years.

To work on it scientists are today are building seafloors. They are erecting barriers of rock and sand to halt the slide of undersea glaciers. These sea floors buy time for if climate change takes hold.  Even with significantly curb emissions in the coming decades more than ⅓ of the worlds remaining glaciers will melt before the rear 2100. 95% of the oldest and thickest ice in the Arctic is already gone. Just like scientists, we can also do things at home to help. At home, we can utilize alternative energy sources and not fossil fuels. Some of the alternative energy sources can be solar panels, wind turbines, electric cars, and biofuels. There are also many individual solutions like driving as little as possible. A way to reduce your driving could be using public transportation or carpooling. Another individual solution is to save some power at home; like taking shorter showers, turning off the lights, and unplugging electronics when they are not being used. 

The melting of the glaciers is absolutely normal; what is not normal is the rate at which they are being melted. When the ice melts it is counteracted by the snow that falls and is compacted into ice and restores the melted area of the glacier. However, global warming is melting the glaciers faster than they can be replenished. Having these glaciers gone can affect people that depend on the ice and its water and the animals that have a habitat on the ice.