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The Pros And Cons Of Climate Change

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One of the world science community’s most debated upon topics is Climate Change (formally called “Global Warming”), and it’s effect on Earth’s Arctic and Antarctic ice caps. This topic has two main points of view, one majority of scientists believe that the Polar Ice Caps have been melting and will continue to melt as a result of humanities careless use of Fossil Fuels and intense production of Greenhouse Gasses, the other majority of scientists see climate change as a naturally occurring event that can be seen dating back millions of years. Only one thing is certain though, according to the NRDC “If this trend continues, summers in the Arctic could be ice free by the end of the century”.
Ice Caps History Earth’s current Polar Ice Caps are …show more content…

The AMSR-E provided scientists for the first time with the ability to observe and record the size of the Arctic Ice Cap. This paved the way for current Climate Change theories, without the ability to accurately measure the size of the Ice Caps, scientists would be almost completely un aware of the possible effects our everyday actions may have on them. From 1976-2006 scientist were able to observe a 30 year period of growth in the Ice Caps, where both the Arctic and Antarctic Ice Caps grew nearly 30%. In 2007, scientists were unable to observe any change in the size of both Ice Caps due to extensive snow coverage. After 2007, scientists began to notice a dramatic reduction in the size of the Ice Caps (more easily observed in the Arctic Ice Cap). In 2012, scientists observed the lowest minimum that the Arctic Ice Cap has ever receded. The reason that the Arctic Ice Cap is used for studying the effects of climate change rather than the Antarctic is due to their surroundings. The Antarctic Ice Cap is surrounded by water, which acts as a shield from other climates (although prominent melting has been observed in the portion of the Antarctic closest to the southern-most tip of South America). The Arctic Ice Cap is surrounded by land, meaning it has a large effect on local climates, and that the local climates have a large effect …show more content…

Open oceans absorb approximately 90% of the sunlight that reaches it, which means that the waters increase in temperature. This reduction in Sea Ice during the melting season has a huge impact on the Arctic Energy Distribution. Instead of having a large amount of energy reflected outwards, the growing ocean in the arctic absorbs a larger portion of sunlight which in turn heats up the waters and continues to accelerate the melting of the Ice

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