The Shrinking Polar Ice Caps
June 20, 2012 2 Comments
NASA has recently released pictures that depict how the Arctic’s sea ice is disappearing at an extremely fast rate. The size of the Arctic’s floating ice cap has diminished massively over the last 30 years, losing around 15-20% of its mass per decade.
These images from space show a comparison of the snow-and-ice capped planet earth from above the North Pole in 1980, and present day 2012:
The 1980 Floating Ice Cap Holding Giant Amounts of Water
The Ice Caps in 2012, Showing a Dramatic Shrink of Ice
NASA believes these images give evidence to the theory that we are in a period of global warming. The rapid disappearance of older ice makes the Arctic sea even more vulnerable to further decline in the summer. Scientists have also discovered a periodic nine-year cycle where sea ice extent would first grow for a few years, then shrink until the cycle started again. The sea ice hit a historical minimum in 2008, bounced back slightly with more ice growth, but has been in rapid decline in 2012.
via DailyMail
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I’d love to show this to my conservative dad, who insists that there’s no such thing as global warming. But he would say that the images are a liberal plot to try to scare people into giving up oil, coal, and any other power producing companies. He is, of course, full of crap about politics, the economy, ecology, women’s roles, and I could go on all night. I think I will send this to him after all — Thanks for posting!
I’d love to show this to my conservative dad, who insists that there’s no such thing as global warming. But he would say that the images are a liberal plot to try to scare people into giving up oil, coal, and any other power producing companies. He is, of course, full of crap about politics, the economy, ecology, women’s roles, and I could go on all night. I think I will send this to him after all. Thanks for posting!