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Protecting the Polar Regions From Melting Ice

Paper Type: Free Essay Subject: Environmental Studies
Wordcount: 1986 words Published: 15th May 2019

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Should We Protect Environment from Climate Change in The Polar Regions?

Thesis Statement: We should protect environment from melting ice in the Polar Regions because if the glaciers of Polar Regions keep melting, we will lose the earth’s ecosystems.

These days, reckless destruction of nature by human being has brought ecological catastrophe. For this reason, the Earth has gotten many problems such as destruction of the environment. Melting ice in the Polar Regions is the most important among other problem. Many people are not particularly concerned about melting ice in the Polar Regions because it is too huge. A lot of people out of apathy increase the problem that present the Polar Regions condition. Causes of melting ice in the Polar Regions are destruction of the environment. Thus there are several phenomena like greenhouse and increase carbon dioxide. This situation bring bad thing that increase the temperature, rapid sea-level rise and destroy wildlife habitats. We should protect environment from melting ice in the Polar Regions.

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Glacier is that polar and alpine regions of the compressed stack of them are a long time ago to move lower by gravity and weight. Ice shelf ice is made up by large chunks of ice. 10persentage of the entire area of ice in Antarctica are labeled as ice shelves.

The present Arctic condition is not good because of climate change. “The Arctic is one of the places where conditions are changing the fastest of any climate system in the world,” says Edward Blanchard-Wriggles worth, a UW doctoral student in atmospheric sciences. “Current trends are so strong that it takes five years to establish a new mean” (Science Teacher 16). The Arctic is melting so many animal lose their habitation because the Arctic is made up enormous masses of ice. Thus many Polar animals can move possible. However according to NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), North Pole glaciers are melting down very quickly. They are losing their resting area so several kinds of animals is die from a drowning accident. And global warming is also contributing to the rise in sea levels by melting the glaciers of Polar Regions, and inhabitants of coastal area are losing their homes. Some scientists predict the area could be largely ice free in summer within years.

In response, the Antarctica is not different from the Arctic. The Antarctica is more serious than the Arctic because Antarctica is a continent of land, surrounded by seas. “Melting at the base of Antarctica’s fimbul ice shelf is driven by warm surface water, as well as intermittent pulses of warmer, deeper water ( Brown 143). Why is melting the natural and anthropogenic factors are factors. The Earth’s axis of rotation is about 20.5 degrees, this is now always constant, but gradually changes to that. Earth’s orbit is an ellipse rather than a circle, do not schedule too. In other words, changing the amount of incoming solar energy the Earth’s temperature may increase did not. Anthropogenic factors are global warming. Of course not cause global warming, environment al issues, but it is not melting because of environment pollution. Melting of glacier is caused by factors that did environmental problem. Global warming emissions from human sources of greenhouse gas such as water vapor, carbon solar rise in global temperatures is as a result. “The research involves the Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers on the West Antarctic ice sheet, two of the five largest glaciers in Antarctica. Those two glaciers are important because they drain a large portion of the ice sheet. As they melt from below, they also gain speed, draining the ice sheet faster and contributing to sea level rise. Eventually that could lead to global sea level rise of as much as 6 feet, though that would take hundreds to thousands of years” (Vince Stricherz). It is serious situation because melting of Antarctica is getting faster and faster. Now the Antarctica area is remaining 40persentage of the previous area.

Global warming is the biggest cause of melting ice in the Polar Regions. It is kinds of environment pollution. Thus what is the global warming? It means that Earth’s average temperature is about 15degree in the ground to maintain controlled from solar radiation energy. Over the past 20 years, there were 0.5degree a rise in temperature but the mid-21st century predicts 1degree a rise in temperature. This is called global warming. The global warming generates to increase carbon dioxide. Increased carbon dioxide not only warms the climate but it also dissolves in sea water making it more acidic. The global warming has been made, as increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere absorb radiant energy released to outer space. This is the greenhouse of short-wavelength, which come from outside as the greenhouse effect is long wavelength of light reflection off from the surface, but passage is by absorbing the light of the internal temperature. Carbon dioxide can be called as a main cause of the greenhouse gases, but Chloro Fluoro carbons, nitrogen oxides, and methane gas are also other causes of them.

Due to destruction of the Antarctic ozone, global warming continues to accelerate, so that the glaciers are being melted at the high speed. Because ozone is the thing made by sunlight, the ozone density over the South or North Pole is lower than other latitudes, especially circulation of atmosphere in the winter stratosphere of the southern hemisphere makes a circle around the South Pole. This circulation of atmosphere prevents the middle stratosphere’s air containing lots of ozone from flowing into the center of the South Pole. This phenomenon is similar to that the eye of typhoon is separated from the outside. At the air of Antarctic stratosphere separated in this way, formation of ozone stops during winter without solar energy. Therefore, climate changes; and ecosystem is destroyed gradually.

Increased carbon dioxide is one of the problems causes of melting ice in Polar Regions. Carbon dioxide has increased by 1.5ppmv every year; and it seems that the rate of increase also has risen noticeably since 1980. In other words, average degree alteration of the concentration of Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was in less than 10% before industrialization for one hundred thousand years, but almost increased by 30% in two hundred years, compared before with after industrialization after 19th century. As the change of the world population, economy, technology, and social trend, it is expected that the concentration of greenhouse gases will be changed considerably for many years to come. According to forecast of PCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), regarding Carbon dioxide which influence mostly on the atmosphere, under a condition that the world population becomes double by 2100, and that economic growth rate be retained 2~3%, seventy hundred million tons of total carbon dioxide emissions in 1990 will increase by two hundred million tons in 2100; the concentration in the atmosphere will be more than double by 2030, more than three times by 2100. Moreover, if the carbon dioxide emissions freeze like the level of 1990’s, the time when the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere is double can be postponed, but it was reported that the concentration will increase continuously for next two centuries. Due to this growth of carbon dioxide, the air temperature already increased by 0.3~0.6degree from 1860’s to 1990’s; sea level also grew 10~25cm. Furthermore, it was expected that this changes is getting more noticeable exceedingly, compared with earlier 1900. In accordance with IPCC’s prediction, the air temperature will have increased by 1~3.5degree averagely; sea level will have grown by 15~95cm approximately from 1990 to 2100. Given that the air temperature changed in less than one degree for ten thousand years before industrialization, it can be said that this seriousness of the climate change caused by global warming is so big. As trade winds is getting weaker, the sea surface temperature in the middle pacific ocean near the equator is higher than the normal temperature (23~27degree); so that it is known that the frequent occurrence of El Nino phenomenon is also deeply related to the enhanced greenhouse effect. Depending on whether preconditions is realized or not, there might be a change of accuracy of results; but as this abnormal temperature and the growth of sea level are significant changes, numerous changes that a human-being has never experienced can be brought down by destroying the physical and ecological balance which have been retained so far.

As global warming and carbon dioxide are increasing, glaciers have collapsed from every quarter. The melted ice is flowing into the ocean at transcending speed. The reason why sea level grows is that glaciers are white; white color reflects heat very well, so that the heat which the glaciers absorb will be decreased if the glaciers are melted. Therefore, thermal expansion happens because seawater absorbs the heat. For instance, if all of the Antarctic glaciers melted, sea level would increase by 60m. However, this old great ice wall has withstood offenses of global warming many times. Few years ago, scientists thought that the glaciers were so huge and dense that it was not too dangerous forthwith. Nevertheless, according to recent research, it can be predicted how high sea level becomes by simple calculation. The ocean will be wide with a growth of sea surface temperature for next one hundred years. If the entire world mountain glacier melted, sea level would increase more than 30cm. Thus, it is predicted that sea-level will increase by about 1m for the next one hundred years. It seems that the increase is not very noticeable, but more than one hundred million people are still living in lower than 1m’s sea level altitude. Many cities should invest an astronomical expense to establish a line of shore defense.

According to climate change receive threat the Polar Regions ecosystem. Animals and microbial receive the highest damage. For example, polar bear lost their rest area as glaciers disappear. The polar bear will die out because it is getting more difficult for them to hunt prey. The microbial in Antarctica not differ because they decrease their number of an individual. If food chain is broken by environment, the Earth ecosystem will have a great damage.

In conclusion, the Polar Regions is damaged their ecosystem by people out of apathy. We should protect from climate change in Polar Regions because our place to find peace is on the road to extinction. So that’s problem we will solve in the future. Many people participate to protect from climate change in Polar Regions. There is some several remedy such as conserving electricity, planting a tree in order to reduce carbon dioxide and using transportation, etc. we can protect our hands. We should have interest in this problem.

Works Cited

“Arctic sea ice (Headline Science: Current News in Science Research)(climate change and the condition to the Arctic sea ice).” Science Teacher. 78. 8. (2011):16-16. Print.

Brown, Culum. “Climate Change: Why Antarctica is melting.” Nature. 487. 7406. (2012): 143-143. Print.

Melbourne-Thomas, and Andrew Constable. Etc. “Testing Paradigms of Ecosystem Change Under Climate Warming in Antarctica.” PLoS ONE. 8. 2. (2013):1-9 Print.

Philip L. Munday, Mark I. McCormick and Nilsson Goran E. “Impact of Global Warming and Rising CO2 levels on Coral Reef Fishes: what hope for the future?” Experimental Biology, 13 August 13: 1. Web. 1 June 2014.

Vince Stricherz. “Tropical Sea Temperatures Influence Melting in Antarctica” LexisNexis Academic. 6 June 2011: 1. Web. 29 May 2014.

 

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