Dear MEL School’s Topic Readers,
NASA: 10,000-year-old Antarctic ice shelf
will disappear by 2020
First, take a look at how rapidly and substantially
Larsen B ice shelf in Antarctic Peninsula has lost its coverage. It measured 4,445
square miles in January 1995, went down to 2,573 square miles in February 2002
after the major disintegration, and shrank to 1,337 square miles a month later.
This tells how quickly the ice shelf disappeared once it was disintegrated. It
measured only a half the size after 2015 summer in May.
Ice shelves are very sensitive to
atmospheric warming, and more importantly it affects ocean temperature
significantly. That is because ice shelves are extensions of glaciers and
function as barriers. Therefore if ice shelf disappears, glaciers will diminish
accordingly and consequently global sea levels rises quickly. And this NASA’s
report says it is disappearing much faster than it was predicted before.
What will the most intelligent creature on
the planet do to deal with the problem that they are creating themselves?
Enjoy reading and thinking of the future
with or without decisive and effective actions to solve this problem.
No comments:
Post a Comment