A year or so ago I started my course for Environmental Science at the Open University and I had an assignment to calculate the sea ice melting. I predicted it with such accuracy that my numbers weren’t far off from Scientists that have been studying the ice sheets for decades. It made me realize that not only is global warming real, but it is accelerating thanks to us. We need to open our eyes and realize that we are not the only ones living on this planet and the animals need us to protect them from ourselves.
Here is a small quote from what I wrote in my assignment;
Arctic Sea ice is melting at its fastest rate in the last 1,500 years and we’re living in a crucial time during that. The sea ice is needed to regulate weather patterns on the planet as well as the habitat of animals. Such as Polar Bears for feeding and Seals for breeding as well as others. The ice in the 8th century was at the size of around 1.0×107 km2 whereas it was less than 8.0×106 km2 in the year 2000. The main cause for this is the rise in sea surface temperatures rising due to the increased heat being stored in the darker, deeper waters beneath and around the ice sheets. As more ice melts, more heat is stored and the whole cycle begins to get worse before the great freeze comes in the winter. Jeremy Mathis, director of NOAA’s Arctic research programme has said that the Arctic is going through the most unprecedented transition in human history. Emily Osborn, the NOAA scientist said that the Arctic sea surface temperate was 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the 1982-2010 average in some areas.
Edward Turrall – The Open University Student 19/12/2017
Now if you read that and think it’s nothing to worry about, you have another thing to read and think about. I’ve got some numbers below, they might not be 100% accurate but they get the point across and show what we have done to our planet.
Data from the graph shows the following data for the years 1980 and 2006
1980 – 8.0 x 106 km2 and 2006 – 6.0 x 106 km2
| -2.0 x 106 km2 |
| 26 years |
Which comes to -0.0769” 106 km2 or around -76,900 km2.
Now in all honesty if these numbers don’t really say anything to you then read them again. We have lost 77 thousand square kilometers of Arctic Sea Ice in just 26 years. And it doesn’t stop there. We have lost a further 770 thousand square kilometers in just TEN years from 2006 to 2016.
We need to protect our planet, or we wont have a planet left to live in.
But, let’s look at the real prediction I made in that assignment and then a link to an article that was posted in 2019.
Many people think that the loss of ice in the Arctic is what contributes to the rise in sea level. However, what they do not know is that the ice on the Arctic is floating ice that forms on the surface of the water during the colder months. This is not the case in Greenland as the ice is fresh water from Glaciers that were left behind after the last ice age. The rise in sea level across the glove would be a disaster if these glaciers were to melt. So far, from the year 2000 to the year 2010, more than a total of 1,600 – 2,700 billion tons of ice melted, which is contributing to the predicted sea level rise of half a metre to a metre by the year 2100. Which would affect over 150 million people worldwide.
Edward Turrall – The Open University Student 19/12/2017
And here’s the link; https://www.newscientist.com/article/2203700-sea-level-rise-could-hit-2-metres-by-2100-much-worse-than-feared/
Climate change isn’t a myth.. it’s reality and the sooner we face it, the sooner we can start to fix it.
Thank you all for reading.