Antarctica is losing a lot of mass from it's thinning glaciers, but does that mean it's losing more than its gaining?
As an avid lover of Nature, Space and Science. I decided to write something that I truly care about and am worried about.
Global Warming.
Some people truly believe that global warming is just a myth, and is not true. Even though the evidence is everywhere, This year July 2016,
Was The Hottest Month Ever Recorded
And all this is happening and people still deny that this so called "Global Warming" is even real.
Below is a graph of the temperature from 1880 to present
Just a few quick points on what will happen if the heat keeps on rising.
The Glaciers Will begin to melt even faster than they are at the moment, rising sea levels.
Cities, could disappear under the oceans, creating our own city of Atlantis.
Possible countries that will disappear.
Please view the above photo full screen to read it correctly.
Good bye house in the Bahamas.
Climate Change
As seen above, we experienced our hottest month ever on record. With Climate change comes many more problems like -
Droughts
In my country South Africa, we are experiencing one of the worsts droughts in many years.
Animal Extinction
Due to the change in weather conditions, animals will begin to go extinct. Take for example the Polar bear, as the polar ice caps melt, there is less hunting ground for the polar bears. With this comes starvation. Its harder to raise young.
There are tons more things that will happen if we keep going the same way.
Combating global warming.
It all comes down to going green. Try get as much renewable energy into your house, get solar panels, try riding a bicycle to work instead of driving(And its healthier for you;) ) If you truly cant ride a bike to work because of the massive distance then try going for a fuel efficient car, or even going hybrid or full electric.
Even just replace all the bulbs in your house with. LED Light bulbs use 80% Less electricity then normal tungsten light bulbs.
OK, I don't want to end off on a negative note so let me share with you something positive about global warming at the moment.
Even though our ice caps are melting,
A new NASA study says that an increase in Antarctic snow accumulation that began 10,000 years ago is currently adding enough ice to the continent to outweigh the increased losses from its thinning glaciers.
“The good news is that Antarctica is not currently contributing to sea level rise, but is taking 0.23 millimeters per year away,” Zwally said. “But this is also bad news. If the 0.27 millimeters per year of sea level rise attributed to Antarctica in the IPCC report is not really coming from Antarctica, there must be some other contribution to sea level rise that is not accounted for.”
I hope you guys enjoyed my write up, if you enjoy nature, space and science. Please follow me @warrensteem
Sources :
http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/GlobalWarmingEffects.php
http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/nasa-study-mass-gains-of-antarctic-ice-sheet-greater-than-losses
https://weather.com/news/climate/news/july-2016-warmest-global-temperature-record
https://twitter.com/ClimateOfGavin
There is a xkcd comic that does a good job showing the global temperature across the different eras of human history and how it gradually increases and decreases due to natural warming and cooling events. The comic goes all the way until modern times (today even). Check it out!
https://xkcd.com/1732/
This is an awesome find! ty :)
The Time Span is the Key
More than anything else, time is the key factor in understanding global warming. The earth doesn’t run on human time frames – like most planets it runs on much longer cycles. If we look at the past 2000 years, it’s true that the temperature is at the upper end of it’s range right now. But 2000 years is insignificant to a planet – the sort of time span we need to be looking at is half a million years
The patterns of warming and cooling become clearer the longer the time span we look at – in fact over 500,000 years the temperature chart looks almost like a heartbeat. Yes, it’s been hotter, and it’s been colder, and it’s managed to do both without any help from humans…
Over this time frame the key factor in temperature change appears to be variations in the shape of earth’s elliptical orbit – when we orbit closer to the sun the earth gets hotter.
Approximately every 100,000 years Earth’s climate warms up temporarily. These warm periods, called interglacial periods, appear to last approximately 15,000 to 20,000 years before regressing back to a cold ice age climate. At year 18,000 and counting our current interglacial vacation from the Ice Age is much nearer its end than its beginning.
http://www.frot.co.nz/design/sift/global-warming/
Nasa Study
ignore that...everyone know it's getting warmer. The science is settled..
a longer view of things....oops. Is FimbulVinter coming?
there is conflicting info coming from some gov't sources. i would recommend looking at all of it, rather than cherry picking only what you want. keep looking, if you are intellectually honest, there is a predictable conclusion. i'm sure you'll do what is right.
Thank you!
I don't remember which archipelago exactly, but it may be the Samoa (Solomon?) Islands who are actually disappearing at the time we speak. Several islands have already been invaded by the ocean...
Yup...they are subsiding...the islands are sinking NOT the water rising. They tend to do that when the freshwater is pumped out...in Atlantic City NJ, however..notice the tidal gauge?
In New Zealand....
Oh interesting! thanks for the precisions!
I have been reading that global warming is a myth, that our melting glaciers, etc. are caused by the heating up of the liquid core of our planet. We are not always told the truth about these things, unfortunately.