Melting Away: The State of Our Planet

By: Melina Farahmand 

Founder & Owner of Past Present Future Co. 

For a Better World. For a Brighter Future.

Author of From Dust to Breath: Finding Our Place in the Circle of Life

What do you believe is humanity's greatest threat? Terrorism? Economic collapse? Food shortages? Natural disasters beyond our control? Now, what if someone told you that all of the above could happen as a result of one threat alone, and that threat being climate change? People often undermine the collateral damage this phenomenon has had and will continue to have on the state of the planet. What is even worse is that many of those people don't understand the science behind the destructive force, which has been intensified by human ignorance and greed.  

Climate change, humanity's greatest enemy, is a very complex topic with many underlying consequences that have grave effects on the way our planet operates and functions. Despite the fact that over 97% of the world's scientists believe in it (and acknowledge human behavior being the cause of it), a fact that NASA has reiterated on numerous occasions, there are always people who have doubted its existence. This is due to a combination of not knowing the facts, individual ignorance, and lack of education. In order to understand the effects of climate change on the way the planet operates one must first know what it is. There tends to be some confusion regarding the meanings of climate change and global warming, respectively. Uncertainty or using the two terms interchangeably contributes to misleading reports and unfounded claims. Global warming is the rise in the Earth's global temperature, whereas climate change is the term that refers to all of the effects caused by global warming (Mead). Some of these effects include but are not limited to glacial retreat, sea-level rise, changes in agricultural seasons, an increase in droughts, more natural disasters, mass extinctions, more extreme weather changes, food shortages (Mead). These issues should not be ignored by the general public and should not be taken lightly. Part of the problem is that people are not taking the threat of global warming seriously. But what exactly causes global warming and how do humans contribute to it?    

It all starts with the greenhouse effect, a natural phenomenon that keeps the planet warm enough to sustain life. The sun emits energy to Earth, some of that energy is reflected back into space, but most of it absorbed and re-emitted as heat. Greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and water vapor) are the factors of the equation that absorbs the heat and warms the planet (NASA). Warmth is essential to sustain life on Earth, but too much of it can cause irreversible damage to the Earth itself. The burning of fossil fuels by human beings (at the rate that we do) not only contributes to the heat being trapped in the atmosphere, but also results in the gradual increase in the global temperature over time. That combined with deforestation, and other human activities all contribute to global warming— Global warming is, in fact, being caused by human ignorance and greed, and only humans can address the issue they have generated. According to Mrs. Mead, "Over the past 250 years, humans have caused a net accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, primarily due to the release of carbon in fossil fuels during combustion (burning)." The evidence supporting human-caused global warming is overwhelming, however, little has been done to try to off-set carbon emissions in developed countries. 

One group of scientists known as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), was brought together by the United Nations to gather data on the issue and release reports to the public periodically. This has been crucial in climate research, and their most recent report discusses in detail the issues humanity will be facing. The specific issue brought up in their report that will be the focus is the polar regions, and how the rise in the Earth's temperature has had drastic consequences on its functions. Snow has a high albedo or reflectivity, and most of the energy from the sun is reflected back into space (Mead). The ice caps serve as the thermostat of the Earth. As they begin to melt, their purpose is diminished because they can no longer sustain the freezing temperatures in the Arctic. Instead, the rising temperatures caused by global warming drive the poles to heat up and melt, not allowing them to keep the rest of the planet cool, creating a positive feedback loop. Melted ice-caps also contribute to the rising ocean levels, an entirely separate issue.  The polar regions are essential in our planetary system, because they "reflect sunlight, keeping the polar regions cool and thereby moderating global climate" (NASA, 2019). The data presented by NASA in 2020  also shows that each year there is a decline in ice mass measurements by roughly 145 gigatons per year. 

Credit: NASA-JPL/Caltech

The melting of the polar regions also affects weather in general, specifically the jet stream. According to researchers with The Guardian, “The chain of events that links the melting Arctic with weather to the south begins with rising global temperatures causing more sea ice to melt. Unlike on the Antarctic continent, melting ice here exposes the dark ocean beneath, which absorbs more sunlight than ice and warms further. This feedback loop is why the Arctic is heating up much faster than the rest of the planet. This narrows the temperature difference between the Arctic and lower latitudes, which is crucial because it is the temperature gradient between them that drives the jet stream wind, which streaks around the pole at up to 250mph and about 8km above the surface” (Carrington 2016). Once again, the ice melting exposes a dark ocean below (which absorbs the heat from the sun), creates additional melting, which is the positive feedback loop. This occurrence alters the jet stream, the fastest wind process/path on the planet (Mead). Both the Southern and Northern hemispheres have their own jet streams, respectively. With the polar regions having different temperate patterns due to climate change, the jet stream is weakening; “Research suggests that this reduction in the temperature difference is robbing the jet stream of some of its strength, making it wobblier and contributing to more temperature extremes” (Berwyn 2018). When the jet stream is weakened, that makes room for a polar vortex and other hazardous weather events to transpire. In fact, the National Geographic stated in 2019 that, “Studies also have linked the warming Arctic with more severe winter weather in the United States, even though other reports note that on average, winter cold snaps are actually getting warmer because of climate change” (Nunez 2019). In conclusion, global warming creates a warming arctic which generates disruptive, and sometimes dangerous weather changes on Earth. 

Even if science is not someone's preferred subject to discuss, the study of the planet and how it functions is imperative knowledge for people to possess. When we understand how the earth functions, we can then understand how our actions get in the way/affect those operations. Climate change is real and a very dangerous threat, failure to act now will lead to consequences. There is only one place for all of us to call home, and we must do a better job of preserving what is left of it and protecting life on it. Future generations are counting on all of us to save our ever-changing planet. Failure to do so in time will result in more catastrophic events to occur, and we will not be prepared to manage those hardships. In the words of President Obama,

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time, we are the ones we've been waiting for."

Indeed, we are the change we seek, and it is up to the current generation to create a sustainable world, one that respects the land that has been provided for them, and one that will be caretakers of it. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nywnud-ifWc&feature=emb_title

Works Cited

Ahmadabad Heat Action, et al. “5 Ways Climate Change Will Affect You: Wild Weather.” 5 Ways Climate Change Will Affect You: Wild Weather | National Geographic, www.nationalgeographic.com/climate-change/how-to-live-with-it/weather.html.

Berwyn, Bob, et al. “Polar Vortex: How the Jet Stream and Climate Change Bring on Cold Snaps.” InsideClimate News, 4 Mar. 2019, insideclimatenews.org/news/02022018/cold-weather-polar-vortex-jet-stream-explained-global-warming-arctic-ice-climate-change.

Carrington, Damian. “Arctic Ice Melt 'Already Affecting Weather Patterns Where You Live Right Now'.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 19 Dec. 2016, www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/dec/19/arctic-ice-melt-already-affecting-weather-patterns-where-you-live-right-now.

“Climate Change and Land.” Special Report on Climate Change and Land, www.ipcc.ch/srccl/.

“Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet.” NASA, NASA, climate.nasa.gov/.

Mead, Emily. "Climate Change Unit" Environmental Science. Louisville High School, California. 2018-2019. 

Nunez, Christina. “The Jet Stream, Explained.” Jet Stream Facts and Information, 8 Mar. 2019, www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/weather/reference/jet-stream/#close.