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Chance Stephenson
Hackney
28 November 2016
In this day and age people have equipment or tools for almost everything, no
matter what it is. The problem is how to power all of this machinery. The United States of
America and other countries rely on methods, such as burning fossil fuels to power all of
the machinery humans use in their everyday lives. These methods are very harmful to
the environment and cause global warming. In addition to these issues, there are other
factors that contribute to harming the environment. In the past fifteen years, scientists
have studied the effects humans have had on the polar ice caps. Because the
destruction of the ice caps is caused by global warming, people must reduce
their carbon footprint. There is an abundance of research on how the polar ice caps
are melting. In a matter of time there will be no polar ice caps and the outcome could be
catastrophic. People must attempt to reduce their carbon output to save the polar ice
Climate change is a real issue and it will affect the ice caps. Using measurements
between 1979 to 2000 the polar ice caps have had record-low ice levels in the sea and
record setting highs in temperature (Geggel). This means that in a matter of twenty one
years, the ice caps have been more affected by climate change than it has ever been.
The reason the icecaps are melting is the record high temperatures.The sheets of ice
regulate the temperature by reflecting the sun's rays back into space cooling down the
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earth (Geggel). The ice caps are very important to the world. It cools down the earth by
reflecting the back rays of sun. This mean that if the ice caps were to melt, the earth
would go through a major climate change, more so than the changes that have occurred
so far. This would affect man and his surroundings. Jennifer Francis is a research
professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University in New
Jersey. She is explaining that climate change is real and it is not just happening in the ice
caps. "The loss of the sea ice, the increased melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet, the
thawing of permafrost, the changes in the weather patterns, the rising sea level it's all
consistent with their expectations for the response of the climate system to increases in
greenhouse gases," Francis said. "It's been totally expected. What's not expected is how
fast it's been happening" (Geggel). It is happening everywhere, as she stated in the
example of Greenland. She also explains that it must have to do with the increase in
greenhouse gases, which is carbon dioxide. By connecting the increase in carbon dioxide
and the climate change people have had in the past couple years, she has made a
relevant and crucial connection. Some statistics are, our analysis shows that livestock
and their byproducts actually account for at least 32,564 million tons of carbon dioxide
per year, or 51 percent of annual worldwide GHG emission (Anhang). A very large
number of carbon dioxide is produced by livestock. All of this research supports that the
ice caps are being affected by climate change and that climate change is being caused
The ice caps are melting away at a very fast speed and climate change is coming
at a very alarming speed as well. Santas Sweltering article on the topic of ice caps
melting says Birkel an Arctic scientist said the broader background is that the climate
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is warming, (and) the Arctic is warming very much so, more so than any other part of the
globe,(Geggel). Birkel is saying that the world is warming but it happening especially
fast in the arctic where all the ice caps are. According to Lahra Geggel, in 2000 the North
Pole was thirty-seven degrees fahrenheit warmer than its has been in the past ten years
(Geggel). This is very alarming that a whole thirty-seven degrees has increased in North
Pole. The amount of increase in temperatures in different parts of the world could be the
difference between wearing a winter coat and wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Satellite data
tells us that West Antarctica is not melting on the surface as much as it usually is said to
be, but is losing a large amount of mass do to the warmer waters surrounding it
(Conway). The ice caps aren't melting on the surface as much as usual but is
disappearing without showing obvious melting. This can be dangerous because the ice
caps are going away fast and making it where people can overlook the melting because
it is in such in an abnormal spot. Research shows that Gravity data collected from space
using NASA's Grace satellite show that Antarctica has been losing more than a hundred
cubic kilometers (24 cubic miles) of ice each year since 2002 (Conway). Over twenty
four cubic miles of ice is disappearing each year. This is a very fast pace of melting. This
is larger than the size of New York which is 22 cubic miles. Understandably, one New
York sized ice is gone after each year and all of these sources show that the the ice cap
Humans are the reason that there is global warming. An article on why carpooling
can save the world says Governments are responding with incentive programs for those
who use green transportation and with faster-moving carpool lanes on major highways
and interstates (Gibbons). Some governments realize that the burning of fossil fuels are
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harmful and they are trying to reduce the amount that people burn. About two of the
three people who carpool are doing it so that they can reduce their carbon footprint
(Gibbons). Along with the government, the average person knows that it is bad to burn
gasoline at that the rate people do so they carpool to try and reduce their carbon
footprint. An article on human made carbon dioxide and how it affects the environment
says Livestock (like automobiles) are a human invention and convenience, not part of
pre-human times, and a molecule of CO2 exhaled by livestock is no more than one from
an auto tailpipe (Anhang). All of this carbon dioxide is bad for the environment and
people need to reduce the amount of the the carbon footprint not by just carpooling, but
also by reducing beef consumption. The amount of carbon dioxide humans make directly
or indirectly cause the offset of balance of carbon dioxide to the amount of carbon
dioxide that can be taken in by plants (Anhang). The amount of the carbon dioxide
humans produce must be reduced to equal to the amount that plant can naturally take
up. Thes information tells us that people must fix the bad habits that they have of
producing so much carbon dioxide, in order to save the world that humans and animals
share.
There has been damage to the ice caps, but people can prevent further damage. If
people will realize that climate change is real, it is coming fast and that it is up to us to
fix it, then people can prevent the ice caps from melting away. Then maybe people can
Works Cited
Controversies.
Conway, Erik. "Antarctica Is Melting." Can Glacier and Ice Melt Be Reversed?, edited by
Geggel, Laura. Santa's Sweltering: North Pole Soars 36 Degrees Above Normal. Live
Gibbons, Jonathan. Reduce your carbon footprint and help make carpooling cool again
Terrell, Rebecca. "Are the ice caps melting? The phrase 'the ice caps are melting!' is