REPORT16

Due to global warming and the increase in the temperature, many ice caps throughout various places have been melting. These are threats that will danger the whole world for many reasons. Although in the years to come some wealthy places will be able to pay for ways to protect their houses, other places that are less wealthy will not have this privilege. It’s believed by scientists that in the upcoming years, Florida is in danger because of water flooding the costal cities and thus damaging fresh water supplies. This would end up being a major concern to the people living in this region. This problem could also lead to massive migration involving hundreds of millions of people. Although this is predicated to be close to the end of the century, it is still a problem for our children and our children’s children. “ice melting is 30 years ahead of where the models predict” says Nicholas D. Kristof in the New York Times. This is a big threat across the globe and there are various causes by us that this is happening. First off, the ice is melting because of temperatures rising. This is due to thermal expansion. The greenhouse gases are increasing which cause the heat to be trapped in the atmosphere. This energy is transferred to the water causing it to expand and melt. Also, the ocean currents tell us that since the past years the there has been a height variation of two meters. Scientists are able to get this information mainly by monitoring the sea levels. There are around twelve stations around small islands in the south specific that are dedicated to monitor the sea. Until the 1990’s we were not able to use satellite technology in order to monitor and record the sea level changes. Not only is this a danger for us as humans, but many other animals are affected by the ice caps melting. For example, there have been many new cases of polar bears being stranded floating on a tiny piece of ice that has been melted away from their home. Also, once on these pieces of ice, they are forced to travel long voyages to find fish resulting in their death. Models anticipated a loss of 2.5% of ice per decade but in reality it’s realized that there is actually a loss of 7.8% per decade. West Antarctic and Greenland are two major places where the ice is melting rapidly. They alone have enough ice to raise the water by 40 feet (if it was all melted). As the temperatures rose in the Andes, the glacier on top of a mountain vanishes. These will melt in the course of time, and countries are in danger. Especially places like Bangladesh, which are low-lying countries who will not be able to build sophisticated sea defense systems. There are a various ways that might help solve this crisis that is becoming a large problem in our world. For one, by using Hybrid cars one would be reducing air pollution, which is a huge factor of global warming. Although there are not many Hybrids being produced, the more people that have one the better it will be. Also, we are using up fossil fuels faster then they are being produced, and this is a concern. For example, Darfur has a devastating effect on local environment because they do not use stoves, and instead burn fossil fuels. Not only this but because they are burning their fossil fuels at large quantities, the people in the community have to make long voyages to find wood. Also, because of the rise of temperatures there has been reports of lakes shrinking and loss of supply of water. While the temperature melts the glaciers and rises sea levels there is a huge depletion of fresh water in many places. In conclusion because of global warming and rising temperatures, disasters are starting to occur with the rise of the sea levels. It is predicated that in the future there’s a possibility that New York City will even be under water. Although it’s very predictable that we have the money to finance a defense mechanism that will protect New York, the other places will not be so lucky. Also, because of this flooding there could possibly end in destroying many supplies in the area. It’s tremendously important that we do the most possible that we can do to help prevent any more melting of the glaciers. By burning less fossil fuels and using less energy, global warming will be stopped and thus the temperature would not be so high and the glaciers would stop melting.