Global Warming is not an alien concept to anyone. The Earth is getting hotter day by day due to serious impacts of global warming, leading to “Greenhouse effects”. Apart from causing numerous environmental issues like ozone depletion, reduced agricultural yields and much more, one of the primal daunting issues is melting glaciers and ice caps far up north and south poles. Researchers support that many glaciers all around the world are melting rapidly and are unlikely to slower down.
Over the globe, it was proved that the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere had increased from 316 ppm in 1958 to 385 ppm in 2008, which evidently is a lot for causing severe change in the climate. The polar ice caps that are standing have taken ages to form and accumulate and have now been melting from time to time to form lakes, rivers, and also as a source of freshwater for the living up there. However, it is posing problems after this melting started at a much faster rate, and in more quantity than actual fresh snow replacing it. As they reduce in stability, strength and size, they are eventually breaking off and causing higher sea levels among other life-threatening hazards.
The melting of ice caps is a dire problem not only for the human race, but also for a large chunk of species found in the aqua kingdom. There are plenty of animals, birds, and even fishes that depend on polar ice caps and its temperatures fir their survival. There are fishes depend on food such as phytoplankton and sea-plants that are underwater near the ice caps and there are birds such as snow owls that depend on these fishes near the ice caps and animals and humans who depend on certain birds for food. They are all connected. As sea water temperatures get warmer and sea levels rise, the sea plants in which these fishes feed off and live on will eventually die out and disappear which in turn will lead to the increase in the death toll of fishes and birds will reduce due to lack of fishes to feed on. This has evidently started to disturb the whole ecosystem.
Furthermore, excessive flooding and reduced agricultural output is a major blowback for the industries. Areas that are usually affected by melting of ice caps are those that depend on freshwater heavily. When ice caps melt, there is less fresh water for the crops and pastures to survive. This has made lands dry and the world has started seeing a temporal shortage in agricultural output. Also, this melting causes excessive flooding which is very dangerous for the people and animals that are living in those areas as it would destroy homes, habitats, and lives. Polar ice caps and ice glaciers on higher altitudes melt faster which form new lakes and raise river water levels as well causing floods. This is also a cause of concern as when these river water levels rise and lakes burst, they lead to major disasters destroying everything crossing its path.
The melting of the polar ice caps is not only limited to specific parts of the world. The rapid melting of the ice is a global concern and its consequences affect the whole world in every continent, especially when it comes to global warming. Melting of polar ice caps is a global consequence, one that has many concerns and should be dealt with immediately because the polar ice caps are still melting and sea levels are rising, effecting us all over the world as mentioned above. Unfortunately nothing can be done about the rapid melting of the polar ice caps at the moment but global warming is a major factor in the rapid decrease of the ice caps and everyone should contribute to reduce global warming as a first step by paying attention in saving our environment, trees, flora, fauna, reducing our biggest enemy-plastics and lastly, shifting to a permanent alternative by reducing, reusing and recycling.
