Loss of Sea Ice in the Arctic Ocean Essay Example

in the ocean and they come from land. For the majority part of the year, the sea ice is usually covered with snow. The Arctic sea ice maintains the Polar Regions temperature and assists in controlling the world climate. The sea ice has a bright appearance and it is for this reason that it reflects back into space 80 percent of the sunlight that strikes its surface. When the sea ice starts to melt in the summer, it opens up the dark ocean surface and in place of reflecting the 80 percent sunlight, the ocean takes in 90 percent of the sunlight.

Consequently, the ocean warms up and the Arctic temperatures continue to rise further. Minimal temperature raises at the poles results to even greater warming as time passes on. This makes the poles the most susceptible places to experience climate change on earth. In light of scientific measurements equally, the depth and the coverage of summer sea ice in the Arctic has illustrated a striking reduction over the past thirty years. This phenomenon is constant with the observations of an arctic that is warmed up. The shrinking of the sea ice can speed up global warming patterns and to alter the climatic patterns.

The extent of the sea ice is the size of the ocean where some sea ice can be seen. Normally scientists describe a threshold of lowest amount concentration to illustrate the ice edge the most commonly used cutoff mark being at 15 percent. Scientists employ the use of the 15 percent cutoff mark since it gives the most constant and accurate figure between the grounds observed figures and the satellite. Scientists have a

tendency to concentrate on the Arctic sea size more intimately than other attributes of the sea ice since satellites measure the size more precisely than they do with other measurements such as depth. The day there is minimum Arctic sea ice each year is when the sea ice size is at its lowest. This usually takes place in the last days of the summer melting season.

The summer melt season typically starts in March and concludes at the last week of September. The minimum sea ice has been taking place later in the present years due to a prolonged melting season. Conversely, the formation of the ice and the melt are confined processes particular to a specific area of the Arctic sea. In some areas sea ice is found to have already been forming before the date of the sea ice minimum and ice in other areas will continue even past the date of the minimum.

The differences in the changes in time of the sea ice minimum size are particularly vital for more of the energy produced by the sun reaches the earth’s surface at the Arctic summer as opposed to the arctic winter. As stated earlier the sea ice reflects back most of the sun’s radiation back to space while the opened up ocean water takes in most of the energy emitted by the sun. This is to say that the declining sea ice at the sunnier summer period has a tremendous effect on the arctic’s general energy stability. Assessing the winter sea ice is vital for the comprehension of the state of the sea ice. Scientists have discovered that the Arctic sea has been

improving less in the winter which translates that the sea is weak by the time the summer melting seasons comes.

This can be explained by the heat that was absorbed by the underlying ocean water when the sea ice melted during the summer. Getting dependable measurements of sea ice as it changes was hard and tricky until the advent of the satellite era which commenced in the early years of the 1970s. To observe the Arctic sea ice employed the use of NASA Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-Earth Observing System instrument. The satellites go through the polar region sometimes each day to collect data.

The researchers then develop the data into images for purposes of investigation and publication. Reliable satellite data relating to sea ice started late in 1978 with the commencement of NASA’s Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) satellite. Once scientists make a comparison of the average sea ice conditions among the years they usually make use of a reference period of 1979 to 2000.The reference period makes it possible to have a constant contrast of changes in the size of sea ice over a specific amount of years. The reason why scientists usually don’t incorporate the data from 2000 onwards is for the reason that during that time there was a drastic reduction in the size of the sea ice.

The loss of sea ice fastens global warming and endangers animals and the people residing in the Arctic and increases the global security issues. The polar ice melts every summer and rebuilds in the winter in a freeze-thaw cycle that takes place in the Arctic but has been greatly interfered with over the years by the impacts

of global warming. It is not only the summer sea ice that is declining at a faster rate in the Arctic but also is the regular depth of the sea. Previously the Arctic sea ice build was up to 3 meters equivalent to 10feet thick over some years. Currently, the ice has a buildup of only one year hence making the Arctic sea ice exposed to melting in the summer. Scientists suggest that the Arctic Ocean may be ice-free in summer in just a few years to come.

The impacts of consequences are accelerated warming from the polar reflectivity. The lost sea ice opens up the surface classically altering the ocean surface from one that is greatly reflective to one that takes in the majority of the sun’s energy. The loss of ice results to further warming of the ocean surface leading to more shrinking of the ice. This results in a repetitive fierce cycle as a result of the global warming. Another consequence is accelerated warming as a result of higher arctic temperatures.

The shrinking of the Arctic sea increases regional temperatures consequently reducing the rate at which the formation of sea ice in the winter and moving more heat from the ocean to the air. This is because when the high air temperatures speed up the disintegration of the ice on land which is known as permafrost on the nearby lands. This could release vast supplies of carbon usually trapped in the permafrost for thousands of year’s further causing changes in the climatic conditions and patterns. Scientists are worried about the methane and carbon dioxide that is emitted from the permafrost that is rich in

carbon, and this could cause more warming by inducing already present greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Frozen methane is also present on the seafloor as methane hydrates. However there is a lot of doubt on the amount of carbon that is held by the frozen deposits and how fast they are melting.

Currently a small amount of methane in the atmosphere can be linked to the melting permafrost. Majority of the carbon in the atmosphere can be traced to human activity for instance agriculture and landfill with a limited amount of carbon dioxide released as expected from the wetlands. Presently global warming is mostly caused by the carbon dioxide emissions. However due to the declining sea ice affects that because the ocean and the land to warm in the Arctic, we might start to experience methane emission into the atmosphere further increasing the rate of global warming. The declining sea ice in the Arctic region The shrinking of the sea ice through melting can result in global repercussions of opening up new shipping routes and discovery of more fossil fuels reserves.

However it is worthy to note that even though the sea ice only covers a little part of the earth’s surface it would pose severe climate-related effects too. Some scholars argue out that effect of the shrinking of the sea ice does not stop with climate only but also has an effect on ecosystems and the people living in the arctic regions. For instance Dr Stephen Vavrus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from the Center for Climatic Research holds the idea that the longer people can stop the declining of the sea ice surface, the more

time people can have in keeping the consequences experienced from that phenomenon at a safe distance. The loss of the sea ice in the Arctic can cause serious harm and even extinction of polar creature’s .This is because the polar creatures rely on the ice for their entire lifecycle as it is their ecosystem and they are threatened by even the slightest increase in temperature in the Arctic regions.

For instance in the South Polar Region some colonies of penguins are relocating to new locations due to their major source of food which is the krill that is small creatures found near the bed of the marine food web. Consequently the krill is also shifting its habitat in adapting to the changing ocean climate which is unfavorable for their survival. Similarly, in the Arctic, the polar bears are forced to swim for extended distances in the open up ocean for the purpose of finding sea ice that is an environment in which their prey the seals are found. The seals use the holes through the ice for the purpose of breathing. The declining sea ice in the Arctic also poses a danger to the native ways of life.

This is due to the changes in the animal and plenty of indigenous ways of life some of which have flourished in the Arctic for many years. For instance, traditional hunting methods have become more hazardous due to the thin ice and also the unpredictability of the dates when ice builds up. Similarly, the declining depth of the sea ice exposes the shoreline to erosion. The area that is affected most is the coastal area, and this erosion is

caused by waves and winds in some extreme cases displacing entire communities to move further into the islands as a result of the collapsing shorelines.

Currently, scientists point to climate change as the major global health threat in the 21st century. This is to say that the effects of global warming affect everybody particularly the elderly, the children, minorities, low-income communities and in some ways both directly and indirectly. As the temperatures rise, the same applies to the cases of illness, death and emergency room visits. In the United States for instance hundreds of heat –connected deaths are seen each year as a result of direct effects and the indirect effects of the heat as a result of global warming. Due to these phenomenon life-threatening illnesses, for instance, such as heat exhaustion, kidney diseases, cardiovascular diseases and heat stroke have become more prevalent.Going by the statistics intense heat kills many Americans each year on a regular basis as compared to floods hurricanes, lightning and hurricanes combined. Rising temperatures also aggravate air pollution by escalating the ground level ozone which is as a result of pollution from factories, cars and other sources reaction with heat and sunlight.

Ground-level ozone is a major constituent of smog, and the higher the temperatures rise, the more of the ground level ozone we have. With this dirt in the air, increased hospital admission frequencies are seen, and even the worst case scenario death rates rise for instance for asthmatic people. Dirtier air is also seen to aggravate the wellbeing of the people suffering from the pulmonary or cardiac disease. In relation to people with allergies, warm temperatures considerably increase airborne pollen which

is not good for people with hay fever. The shrinking of the sea ice also causes the sea levels to rise.

The Polar Regions are mainly susceptible to a warming atmosphere (DeWeaver et al., P190). The standard temperatures in the Arctic are increasing rapidly twice as much as they are somewhere else on earth, and this means that the world’s ice sheets are melting at very fast rate. Apart from this occurrence having serious repercussions for the region's plants, people, and wildlife its most grave impacts may be on the increasing sea level. If the same melting of the world’s ice sheet continues to take place at the rate at which it is at the moment it is projected that by the year 2100 the oceans and sea levels would have risen approximately one to four feet high hence posing a risk to the coastal systems and the low-lying areas, and this entails the entire the world largest cities and island nations. This is possible in Los Angeles New York, Rio de Janeiro, Miami, Sydney, and Mumbai.

To sum up it is clear that the changes in climate pose a danger to the future, and it’s already too late to reverse the course of action that issues to do with climate have taken. This is because the pollution that has already taken place is irreversible for the instance the carbon emission that contributed a huge part in global warming.However the hope that we have is that by decreasing our global emission drastically can make us avoid the severe consequences that climate change would create.

Work cited

1. McMullen, Catherine P, and Jason R. Jabbour. Climate Change Science
   

Compendium 2009. Nairobi, Kenya: UNEP, 2009. Print.