Greenland's Melting Ice Spells Danger For The Future
We've all heard the stories about how bad things would be if the ice caps melted, but how bad?
Well, if the entire Greenland ice sheet melts, sea levels would rise by six metres.
Six metres is a lot. That's more or less the same height as an adult giraffe. Should the ice caps melt and sea levels rise this much, the damage would be catastrophic.
The problem is, the Arctic is warming more than twice as fast as anywhere else on Earth.
Last year, melting ice in Greenland raised global sea levels by 2.2m in two months. 600 billion tons of ice lost in a matter of months.
A lot of this ice was from land-based glaciers. This is worse than melting sea ice because melting ice from glaciers has a direct impact on sea-level rise. Thus, imperilling coastal communities across the globe.
Multiple issues arise from melting ice caps aside from rising sea levels. Ice is a habit for lots of species such as polar bears and penguins.
With ice coverage shrinking, their existence is called into question. Another less-known impact is what's known as the albedo effect.
The ice caps reflect sunlight back into space. Light surfaces reflect more heat than dark surfaces. So the ice caps play a vital role in moderating the planet's temperature.
Shrinking ice caps mean less heat is reflected, accelerating warming, which causes more ice to melt. It's one of the many cascading effects of climate change.
Unfortunately, we're at the mercy of the elements if we don't rein in our emissions. To stop the ice caps from melting away, we have to act now.
If we don't, the ice caps may be gone for good.