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Melting Antarctica

There are about 24 million cubic metres of ice on earth, which make up the polar caps of the Arctic and Antarctic, glaciers and ice fields of the mountains. If we do not change our lifestyle, everything will melt away in 5000 years at the latest, causing sea levels to rise massively.

 

The temperature will rise from an average of 15°C to 27° C. As a result, the ice will melt faster until sea level rises to more than 65 metres.

Global consequences of the rise in sea level in the simulation

 

In Europe, Denmark and the Netherlands must expect to lose entire regions. Even cities like Venice and London will then no longer exist.

 

In North America, entire cities on the east coast, such as New York, Washington D.C. and Miami will also be wiped out. The entire east coast and Florida will be under water.

 

In South America, the Amazon will overflow its banks and flood Buenos Aires and most of Paraguay.

 

Africa suffers less from the water masses but more from the rise in air temperature. Nevertheless, with rising sea levels, Cairo and Alexandria are also a thing of the past.

 

Asia is also being hit hard, as the east coast of India is falling victim to the water. Even the coastal metropolises such as Tokyo and Shanghai do not have a rosy future.

 

In Australia, 80 percent of the population lives on the coasts. In the future there will be no more of them. Problem: A huge lake will also form in the middle of the continent.

 

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Note of The-Environmentalist:

 

In the short term, if the speed of ice melting remains the same, a rise in sea level of 5-6 m can be expected within the next 2-3 years.

 

Furthermore, it is still unknown what further consequences this massive melt will have. Unknown viruses and bacteria are released, which can have unforeseen effects on flora and fauna.

Antarctica

The warming on the Antarctic Peninsula has already exceeded 1.5°C compared to pre-industrial temperatures. Because of the rising temperatures, algae are spreading at the South Pole, colouring the ice green or red. A new study in 'nature' shows that the algae areas are increasing despite the snowmelt and play an important role as carbon stores. Green algae grow both under and on the snow. They are microscopically small, but when they appear in large numbers, they discolour the snow landscape. 

 

In addition, a red coloured landscape is visible in the Antarctic. The Ministry of Science in Kiev cites an alga growing on snow as the reason for this. According to the ministry, climate change is contributing to the rapid proliferation of the microscopic algae called Chlamydomonas nivalis. According to the researchers, this also accelerates the melting of snow, since the reddish surface absorbs more sunlight than white snow, which reflects the light more strongly. These colour carpets may extend over hundreds of square metres and are even visible from space.

Pink Ice Copy
Alps

The dark snow in this glacier in the Alps shows clear traces of dust particles. Simple physics: the darker a glacier is, the faster it melts.

Also the recent bushfires and their impact on our environment, especially air pollution, were unprecedented in Australia's history. In total, the fire from 2020 extended over an area of more than 120,000 km². It was observed that the dust particles from the ash circled the earth several times.

These dusts, among many other dust particles, blacken glaciers. These impurities are clearly visible on tidewater glaciers.

Perito Moreno Glacier,

located in the Los Glaciares National Park in southwest

Santa Cruz Province, Argentina

 

These dirt particles are clearly visible on and in the glaciers.

The surrounding water gets dirty / grey.

Melting Ice
Feb4 copy
Feb13 copy

In only 9 days!

 

On 6 February 2020, weather stations recorded the hottest temperature on record for Antarctica. Thermometers at the Esperanza Base on the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula reached 18.3°C, around the same temperature as Los Angeles that day. On 14 February 2020, temperatures of 20.75°C were reached. The warm spell caused widespread melting on nearby glaciers ...

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