Global Glaciers Gone, Forever

 By; Hannah Meadows 

    Glaciers and sea ice are melting more every hour, the article I chose explores this issue. The World Wildlife Fund discusses in the article, “Why are glaciers and sea ice melting?”, why glaciers are so important. 

    Ice, such as glaciers, act as a protective layer for the Earth. The white color of the ice reflects excess heat back into space to keep the planet cooler. The article explains the theory that the Arctic remains colder than the equator because the majority of the heat is from the Sun is reflected back. Glaciers around the world have been proven to be from several hundred to several thousand years old. These older glaciers provide important scientific evidence of how the climate is changing. This is another reason glaciers are so important because without this evidence we wouldn’t know how much the planet is warming each year. Glaciers need to stay intact because rapid glacial melt influences ocean currents. The World Wildlife Fund states that as massive amounts of very cold glacial-melt water enters ocean waters it slows ocean currents. As ice on land melts, sea levels continue to rise. 

    Not many people know there is a difference between glaciers and sea ice. Sea ice forms and melts only in the ocean, compared to glaciers, that are only formed on land. Icebergs are big chunks of glaciers that break off and fall into the ocean. When glaciers melt, the runoff from the glaciers goes into the ocean and causes the amount of water in the ocean to rise. However, when sea ice melts, it does not directly affect the level of the water. Sea ice actual triggers are very disastrous affect. The article explains that when sea ice melts, it depletes the available ice for walruses and polar bears to hunt and changes weather systems around the world by altering jet streams.

    People do not realize, even if you don’t live anywhere near glaciers it will have catastrophic affects on everyone if glaciers continue to melt. People who live in costal regions will be whipped out from rising ocean levels and it will start with flooding which will cost billions of dollars to fix. If that problem does not already seem bad enough, the ocean water temperature will continue to increase which means fish who thrive in colder conditions will migrate and countries who depend on fish for a food source will starve. Lastly, the weather patterns will continue to change which means even more storms, these storms could be so bad they cause flooding that wipes entire houses away and causes worldwide power outages. Climate change needs to come to an end because glaciers are becoming even more sparse. The future of the world with no glaciers is not a good future.

Link to Article: https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/why-are-glaciers-and-sea-ice-melting