The Melting of the Polar Ice Caps Research Paper

The Melting of the Polar Ice Caps - Research Paper ExampleWithout a doubt, the solid grounds climate has changed over the days. Though most of these changes could be attributed to variations in the orbit of the earth which lead to changes in free energy from the sun that reaches the earths surface, current trends suggest that most of these effects argon as a result of anthropogenic activities and processes over time. With the advent of technology, data collection and analysis are rarely inconclusive. This becomes possible through the use of satellites that go round the earths orbit in successions collecting a wide array of discipline on the earth and the ever dynamic climate. The study and analysis of this climatic data has always given evidence to the occurrence of global melting (Patterson 19). rapid increase of temperature over time is an example. Temperature increase has mostly been experienced in the 1970s. The warmest 20 years got recorded to have occurred after 1981, whi le the warmest 10 years got recorded in the past 12 years. Though the 2000s experienced a stint of solar output reduction that led to a sharp solar minimum especially between 2007 and 2009, surface temperature kept rising. Most of this unprecedented heat gets absorbed by the water bodies. Lakes and oceans take up most of this energy with the upmost 700 meters of ocean water indicating thaw of about 0.302 degree Fahrenheit in 20 years (Vardiman 12). Ocean acidification is also an indication of global warming to some extent. Due to the Industrial Revolution, the acidity of the surface water has risen by over 30 percent. This becomes largely attributed to the rampant emission of green mark gases like methane and carbon dioxide into the air, which gets later taken up by the surface water. Recent trends have shown that the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by the topmost shape of surface waters is increasing by over 2 billion tons each year. The concept of how green house gases cause g lobal warming gets largely misunderstood. The largest bulk of green house gases gets taken up by carbon dioxide. These gases do not prevent radiation from getting to the earths surface due to the short wavelength of light. Upon reaching the surface of the earth, some of the radiation gets absorbed by the earths surface and surface water bodies. What gets go away of the radiation gets reflected back to the standard atmosphere. When solar radiation gets radiated back to the surface, it usually has a longer wavelength. As a result, it cannot penetrate the green house gases in the atmosphere thereby getting trapped. This leads to increase in atmospheric temperature (Maslin 99). Carbon dioxide atmospheric concentration levels have risen from an average of 270 split per million (ppm) to the current 380 parts per million (ppm), a sharp increase of 30 percent. Methane gas also contributes to global warming. It is much lethal compared to other green house gases and exists in turn down co ncentrations in the atmosphere. The melting of glaciers gets directly attributed to global warming. Though melting of glaciers is a natural process, the rate of glacial melt has been increasing rapidly. The fresh snow that gets make is not adequate enough to replace the rapidly melting snow. The size of the glaciers keeps reducing. As surface temperatures keep increasing, it is only natural that the