In my paper, I shall be talking about the melting of ice and snow and the effects it has to the ecosystem. According to his article “Warning Signs”, Malla (2007) explains that melting ice has become the concerns of a lot of scientists and planners of the world’s climate. Melting ice and snow is the slow change of ice to liquid over time caused by the atmospheric temperature. Increase in the atmospheric temperature is what is referred to as global warming. Global warming is as a result of effects caused by green house gases for example carbon (IV) oxide and nitrogen (IV) oxide among other gases. Melting of ice and snow increases the rise in sea level. The sea level in turn affects a wide variety of organisms in the ecosystem, agriculture, water resources and also the way people live in the world at large.
In his article, Malla (2007) goes on to say that the times centre estimated the sea level to have risen from 51 to 140 centimeters by 2100 AD. There has been destruction of the ecosystem in Nepal caused by global warming when a series of glaciers burst in 1964. Melting of ice and snow is the major consequence of global warming posing a threat to the world’s flora and fauna at large. For this reason, the melting of ice and snow has raised great worry to countries in the world including USA and they must respond fast to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases to conquer the threat of melting snow and ice.
How Glaciers are affected by Global Warming
Glaciers are sites made up of snow that has fallen over time and has compressed into masses of thickened ice. Glaciers are significant indicators of change in climate hence they have greatly been monitored over the years using monitoring projects which use laser altimetry to aid in determining the volume of the glacier. The end results of such projects make it very clear that the glaciers of the world are vanishing.
Glaciers often are tourist’s attractions in the areas having mountains; this increases foreign income for the countries having glaciers. Glaciers are used to provide drinking water like in the city of La Paz in Bolivia where the citizens rely on melting glaciers for the dry spell they encounter. In Switzerland some farmers use melting water from glaciers by channeling it to irrigate their land; this obviously generates unlimited income for these farmers. Scientists and engineers in some countries like Norway have worked to generate hydroelectric power from glacial resources. Glaciers offer habitats for a variety of animals like the polar bears.
In the past 100 years, the sea level has been rising due to the melting ice and snow of glaciers, sea ice, ice caps, ice sheets and icebergs as a result of global warming. In addition to this there have been a lot of environmental and ecological concerns posed by this melting ice. Increase in ice cover in the sea has reduced the plankton productivity due to low penetration of the sun. Phytoplanktons which offer the base to the marine food chain have not been growing adequately due to blockage from the sun by melting ice (Adverneg, Inc, 2012). Massive flooding has characterized the places where glaciers have melted. The vanishing of glaciers have caused increase in temperatures in watersheds , destroying habitats for the earth’s biota as well as young fish as they require certain temperatures mostly of below 13 degrees Celsius to grow.
In Bowen’s article, unlocking the Climate of the World’s Highest Mountains (2011), the author points out to how the rise in temperature has led to a decrease in fresh water, reducing the amount of crop yields which poses a threat to the livelihood of human beings. He attributes the increase of global warming to be as a result of the greenhouse gases. He has gone on to talk about how the ice cap in Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa might eventually disappear due to global warming. All these negative effects result to low income generation to countries that rely on glaciers or relevant ice sites to generate income. Farmers may not enjoy the melting water for too long as its long term effects will be flooding which will cause soil erosion.
In his article “fire and ice”, Lenny (2005) talks about how polar bears weigh fifty five pounds less than what they weighed 30 years before warning that by the end of this century, the animals may become extinct. This is just one of the warnings from experts doing a number of studies recently concerning the effects of the change in global climate. The indigenous people who live in Arctic are also in danger of their homes being destroyed as well as the plants and harvests they rely on by storms and melting water.
Conclusion
The effects of global warming causing ice and snow to melt have caused a lot of environmental hazards including the alteration of the watershed and destruction of habitats. The effects are also leading to a deterioration of the world’s economy. Scientists have been measuring the climate change using glaciers as they are very sensitive to the fluctuations of temperature. Some scientists attribute the glacial deterioration to human activities such as industrialization and greenhouse effects which I also agree. According to Pelto (2007), his article “Our Vanishing Glaciers” emphasizes that the remaining two thirds of glaciers may survive if something is done to reduce global warming.
The general public and the government are responsible to reduce the global warming effects for example by finding alternative ways of farming that can be used as an alternative for greenhouses. The governments of each country should also set laws encouraging environmental conservation so as to reduce global warming. The melting of ice and snow is very dangerous to the environment because it threatens the lives of all organisms in the earth. Human beings as well as their respective counties should take action to reduce global warming. This is to prevent harmful long-term effects of melting ice such like destruction of the ozone layer and desertification.