Polar Ice Caps Melting

Are the polar ice caps melting? You can find opinions that vary; some say yes while others say no. The truth is that our polar ice caps appear to be melting and that can be a dangerous thing for our planet even if scientist can’t come to an agreement as to why they are melting.

Get the Facts on Global Warming

According to Wikipedia, a polar ice cap is a “high latitude region of a planet or natural satellite that is covered in ice.” Further, the size, shape or the amount of ice does not define an ice cap. What does matter is that the ice cap must be solid landmass with ice covering it.

All of the Earth’s ice caps are formed from water, which differ from the ice caps on Mars where they are made of both water ice and carbon dioxide. Ice caps form due their high elevations and lack of solar radiation. Sadly, the Earth’s ice caps have transformed over the past 12,000 years and yes, they are melting.

Zfacts, a website dedicated to global warming and other environmental issues says the polar ice caps are melting because the release of methane gas, which is a warming gas, and the slowing of the Atlantic Conveyor that brings warm water from the Gulf Stream to the North Atlantic.

While some scientists offer that certain areas in Greenland and Antarctica are abundant with ice caps due to increased snowfall, they are still melting at an alarming rate. Most global warming experts say that during the latter part of the twenty-first century, the melting will speed up due to the greenhouse effect. In addition, all this melting ice is filling our oceans at an alarming rate, which could cause tropical storms, flooding, and hurricanes during storm seasons, especially in coastal regions.

The Times Online states, “the ice caps are melting so fast that the world’s oceans are rising more than twice as fast as they were in the 1970s.” A study by Anny Cazenave of the National Centre for Space Studies located in France shows the melting effect is also due to thermal water expansion. Cazenave’s studies show that by 2010, the Thames River in London could rise by eight to thirty-five inches.

Bill Blakemore of ABC News in a report as far back as 2006 found that the Earth is melting at both ends, which could harm coastal towns. Even the naysayers who say the ice caps are fine can’t deny the facts from the National Academy of Sciences, that tells us the Earth’s surface temperature rose one-Fahrenheit degree in the last century.

All of this melting is thought to be directly related to humans and greenhouse gases. Things like carbon dioxide, nitrous, and methane gas are all contributing factors. Jay Zwally, a NASA glaciologist says, “the warming ocean comes underneath the ice shelves and melts them from the bottom, and the warmer air from the top melts them (polar ice caps) from the top.” Still others argue the ice caps are melting due to human damage to the ozone layer.

Even if some don’t believe that global warming and the greenhouse effect are the main causes of our polar ice caps melting, Olay Orheim, the head of the Norwegian Polar Year Secretariat, states, “We must take action now.”

Mr. Orheim says we must reduce greenhouse gas emissions and all countries must work together to help reduce climate temperature increases by lowering carbon footprints, better controls on emissions, and discontinuing toxins released into the air that are ruining our ozone layer.

Global warming continues to be a debate from both the scientific and political communities. Does it exist? If it does, when will we see the full effect? Most scientists do agree to find out more about the polar ice caps melting will require additional space satellites and technology to monitor climate changes and the Earth’s atmosphere.

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