Hey! Ice Melting and Oceans Rising! Is it True? This is GreenDustries’ fourth blog following our blog titled “Humans Change the World!” and is part of the series of the same name that started with that post.

With the posting form serious Scientific Sources such as NASA and others to substantiate our articles we are bringing you a new aspect of  “How Humans are Changing the World”. Today we will approach the “melting ice’s poles”: the cause and effects.

“The Marine Echo System is changing in the High Artic. The species that have chosen to live in harsh conditions rely on the cold and ice to survive. Lately there is not a day that goes by without seeing the Polar Ice melting and the ice getting thinner. This seems so far away for those of us who live in a tempered climate. What’s happening at the extreme edges of the planet where they say the things are happening so fast?

What’s happening inside the refrigerator of our planet? For humans and wildlife alike the Artic is a vast region of snow and ice. The ice is shrinking!

Earth is 80% water and decrease in sea ice means a lot! When People talk about “climate change” they do not know that what’s driving it is not the land it’s the Atmosphere, it’s the Thermo condition of the Oceans; it’s the atmosphere condition. Oceans are changing the atmosphere of our planet; we call it “Thermo Change”.

What will happen to the Marine echo system as the climate changes? When the ocean’s water gets warmer it affects humans, animals and particularly the cold-blooded animals like the ones who live in the Ocean. Sea birds are telling us what’s happening; they are excellent indicators of what is going on in the health of the marine eco system. The food they bring back is an amassing tool in telling us about the different temperatures of the oceans. Some of them fly up to 500km to find food to bring to their nest. When what they bring back is studied, scientists can take a closer look at the changes and this tells us a lot about climate change.” Says Matthew McDermott – Science / Natural Sciences

At the “Copenhagen Climate Congress” back in March, the synthesis report produced says that current estimates show that ocean warming is 50% greater than had been reported in the 2007 IPCC report and that sea level rise reported in previous decades had largely been the result of thermal expansion.

However, since 1993 the contribution of melting ice in Greenland and Antarctica (more on these in a moment) has been growing. The exact speed with which these are going to contribute to sea level rise is highly uncertain, the synthesis report says, but the best scientific estimate — based on observed correlation between global average temperatures and sea level rise over the past 120 years — shows that by 2100 we will experience sea level rise of one meter or more. At the absolute minimum sea level rise of 50cm could occur.

The thing to keep in mind is that this amount of sea level rise is only by 2100 and that once set in motion it will continue past that — through 2200-2300 we could easily experience sea level rise in excess of five meters.

What that means in terms of human impact is at minimum 10% of the world’s population will be directly affected by sea level rise.

Back to that Arctic and Antarctic ice melting. Recently we’ve seen a number of very compelling reports of just how fast melting is occurring, particularly in Antarctica — one example being the Pine Island Glacier, which evidence shows is now melting four times faster than it was a decade ago. In fact, previous estimates showed that the glacier would take 600 years to melt, but newer data shows it could be gone in just 100 years.

Two-Thirds West Antarctic Ice Sheet = 3.3 Meters Sea Level Rise What’s more, though it’s not likely to disappear entirely, about two-thirds of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet could well melt — at some point past 2100 — alone contributing about 3.3 meters to global sea levels.

In the Arctic, while this summer may not set a record for ice loss, the trend is solidly towards ice free summers — some scientists saying that we’re 20 years ahead of schedule, based on past predictions, as to when that will occur.

Arctic Ice Melt Triggers Permafrost Melt + Methane Release Perhaps the bigger thing though in a warming Arctic is melting of permafrost and the released of the methane trapped in it. Considering that it appears that melting Arctic ice contributes to permafrost melt farther inland than previously thought, this is really something to be concerned with — even though pictures of polar bears on lone ice floes capture people’s imagination.

In case you don’t know, the thing with methane is that it’s 25 times more potent in terms of warming potential than carbon dioxide. And though atmospheric methane levels had been more or less stable in recent years , they have been observed to be increasing again, with unusually warm temperatures in Siberia being one of the culprits. In one more example of the interwoven and far reaching consequences of climate change, a new study by the National Center for Atmospheric Research indicates that as Arctic sea ice starts melting more quickly, permafrost hundreds of miles inland could also see accelerated melting. This means climatic changes in Russia, Alaska and Canada could occur more quickly and dramatically than previously expected.

Record Arctic Ice Melting, as Treehugger reported, and as many readers are probably aware, the extent of summer melt-off of Arctic ice set a record last year: 30% below average. And from August to September air temperatures over land were 4°F higher than the 1978-2006 average. These two dramatic events were the impetus behind this research, to be published Friday in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The climate models the group used suggest that during periods of rapid sea-ice loss the rate of land warming up to 900 miles inland is 350% greater than the average 21st century warming rates as predicted by other models. This means that areas along the Arctic coasts could see temperatures rise by as much as 9dgr F. or 5dgr C.

When this happens the summer melting of permafrost accelerates so quickly and so deeply that it has the potential to not entirely refreeze the following winter. This in turn can sandwich a layer of defrosted soil between two soil layers, which can hasten the long-term melting in the area. Which in turn will hasten the release of greenhouse gases trapped in the soil and further accelerates the entire process. Via: Reuter – National Center for Atmospheric Research.

“The most important thing we know is that the Earth is warming. Observational evidence, complex modeling, and simple physics all confirm this. The warming may not go on forever, but the Earth has warmed consistently and unusually over the past few decades in a manner that can be explained only when a greenhouse process is overlaid on orbital variation, solar variation, volcano eruptions, etc. The best models available, and simple physics, suggest that the warming will continue, especially while we continue putting more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Estimates of the temperature rise vary, but most fall within the range of 1.5 to 4 degrees Celsius temperature increase over this century for midrange assumptions about mitigation efforts”. -Ian Noble, “The Changing Climate,”

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