The Vanishing Arctic Ice Cap

For the past few years, there has been a lot of heavy debate on the subject of “Global Warming”. Does it really exist, or is it just a result of the natural progression of the world and human events? This topic has even hit the political scene amidst discussion among our prospective presidential candidates.

I for one, have always believed, and will always continue to believe in the fact that humans are directly exacerbating Global Warming as we cause temperatures to increase through our exponentially increasing emissions and the inevitability of the greenhouse effect.

gw

Even though for the global temperature has virtually stalled for the past decade or so, climate change in the Arctic is much faster and has negatively effected the lives of millions of animals and their habitats. Already, the Arctic region is warming at a rate almost twice the global average. This is because as the Arctic loses more ice and water, the remaining rock and water is exposed to solar energy and absorb more of it. Thus, things heat up faster and sadly… get warmer. Since the 1970’s alone, the Arctic Sea has decreased by almost 14% and data predicts that by 2040, we will witness that last of summer sea ice in the region.

 

All of these horrible repercussions have already started to negatively affect animal life not only in the arctic, but all throughout the neighboring lands and the world at large. Due tan increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, the world’s bodies of water are 30% more acidic than they were at the time of the industrial revolution. And the Arctic Sea, being much more colder in temperature, has acidified twice as fast. This has had devastating effects on existing marine life under the sea. For example, shelled animals in the Arctic have been dying at an exponential rate due to the fact that the acidity of their changing habitat threatens the ability for these animals to maintain their shells. This in turn will kill other organisms who depend on these shelled animals for food by virtually poisoning those who eat large quantities of them.

 

Other species whose numbers are drastically decreasing (and will continue to do so in the coming years) due to climate change are polar bears, seals, walruses, and sea birds.

Polar Bears have a fundamental relationship with the ice caps that they have existed on for so many years. Without them, the species will drastically suffer. The Bears raise their young and scavenge for food on the sea ice. Without this safe refuge, Polar Bears will have a greater difficulty in being able to survive.

Bear

Seals additionally use the ice to seek refuge, rest, and even sometimes look for food. As the ice caps vanish, more and more seals are exposed to predators in the sea below and are at a greater risk of becoming someone else’s meal. Additionally, there are species of seal such as the Spotted Seal who are strictly ice- dependent. That is, they rarely spend time swimming in the water and exist mostly on ice caps. These species are in even more trouble as their home melts beneath them.

Seal

Thousands of additional species also suffer at the hands of global warming. I believe that we should be doing everything in our power to decrease our impact on this harmful change!