Shrinking Arctic Ices

By: Alexandria Carbonaro

What’s Happening?

• The Ice in the Arctic is shrinking at and alarming rate!

Why is this happening?

• Global warming

• Increasing albedo

• Increasing seasonal ice

• Decreasing older thicker ice

Global warming

• Global warming has and continues to cause temperature changes.

• When temperatures increase in the arctic, more ice melts.

• When more ice melts, there are more melt ponds in the arctic.

• Melt ponds have low albedo and therefore are not good!

Albedo?

• Albedo is the amount of solar energy reflected from Earth back into space. • Measured on a scale of 0-10.• Black is lowest (0) on the scale and white would be highest (10)• The ice in the arctic has high albedo and reflects solar energy back into space (cools

of the Earth)• When there more ice, solar light reflects back into space; cooling the Earth off.• When there is les ice and more dark sea or melt ponds, solar energy gets absorbed

into the Earth and makes it hotter, melting more ice faster and faster

Melt ponds?

• Melt ponds are pools of melted ice and snow that form on the sea ice when it is warmed in spring and summer.

• Melt ponds have low albedo which causes ice to melt even faster

• More solar energy is absorbed instead of reflected

Seasonal Ice?

• The arctic has ice that is supposed to be permanent and seasonal ice to protect it.

• Seasonal ice is created over the thinker permanent ice so when summer comes it melt instead of the thicker ice

• There is starting to be more and more seasonal ice and less and less older thicker permanent ice that the arctic needs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqjO8rwB-GI

Effects now?• The melting arctic ice is

affecting native people, wildlife and plants.

• When the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf splintered, the rare freshwater lake it enclosed, along with its unique ecosystem, drained into the ocean.

• Polar bears, whales, walrus and seals are changing their feeding and migration patterns

• Differences make it harder for native people to hunt animals.

• Birch bark beetles are breading faster in the warmer weather in Alaska

Polar bears

• Population sizes decreasing • Sea ice platforms moving farther apart and swimming conditions

more dangerous (drowning)• Fewer hunting opportunities and increased scarcity of food • Did you know? Polar bears kill cubs to bring females back in heat

like lions; but recently there have been cases of cannibalism spotted

Other Wildlife

• Early sea-ice breakup prematurely separates ringed and harp seal mothers from their pups before the pups are big enough to survive

• Seabirds that forage near glaciers and sea ice are losing their feeding grounds and resting places, while thawing permafrost threatens to drain their wetland breeding habitat

• Ocean water is changing, turning more acidic from the CO2 intake• The Arctic Ocean is becoming corrosive to shell-building creatures like plankton and

clams more quickly than temperate waters. • Marine ecosystems could collapse as we know them by 2050

Effects To Come?

• And along Arctic coastlines, entire villages will be uprooted because they're in danger of being swamped.

• Global warming will be increased and sped up (no more cooling blanket)

• Sea levels will rise all over the world

• Weather patterns and food production all over the world

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F5DbzRS5DI

Solutions?

• We need much cheaper non-fossils ways to create energy

• Less oil• Save Energy• There are new cars that do not use fossil fuels

and many other appliances and energy resources

• Generate energy from wind and sun• Build appliances that use less power• Go green• The list is endless. Will you take the challenge?