Humanity, who becomes more and more aware of the changes in the climate, has dragged the nature that it destroyed with its own hand into an unavoidable disaster. Climate change, which we see in the news, read in the newspapers and unfortunately become accustomed to, continues to reach scary proportions day by day. Melting of the glaciers is just one of them.
While the rapid melting of the ice masses on the planet accelerated the studies on this issue, one of the most striking of these studies was the research led by Romain Hugonnet from France-based Toulouse University According to the results of the search, approximately 270 billion tons of ice have melted in the two decades since the beginning of the 21st century. One of the conclusions is that the melting glaciers increased the sea level by 20%. Study team member Robert McNabb states that “This water is like covering the island of Ireland with 3 meters of water every year”.
So why are melting glaciers so important?
The melting of the glaciers means that we will face bigger problems than we anticipated in the coming years. Because the water from melting glaciers flow into the ocean, causing sea levels to rise. Rising sea levels will cause floods in many other parts of the planet, negatively impacting billions of people in India, Bangladesh and China, as in the US Gulf and Northwest coast. Another harm that the melting of ice masses will cause to human beings is that the melting ice masses cause an absolute drought by mixing freshwater reserves with seawater. On the other hand, as the climate of the planet, glaciers reflect the Sun energy better than land or water, causing the acceleration of global warming, meaning that many animal species such as polar bears, seals and foxes may disappear. Therefore, as Stephan Hawking said, "We have presented a deadly gift to our planet like climate change."
R.A. Burçin Çakır
Sources:
https://www.ntv.com.tr/dunya/arastirma-eriyen-buzullar-son-20-yilda-deniz-seviyesini-yuzde-20-artirdi,IMTSEPB8IEa44lHefgNrtA
https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-illustration-ice-cream-earth-melts-global-warming-concept-image66736099
