The Effects of Global Warming and Climate Change on Greenland and Ice Research Paper

The Effects of Global Warming and Climate Change on Greenland and Ice Melting - Research Paper Example Climate change in Greenland and the surrounding areas can be measured as per the remaining ice cap and the sea level. There are three key effects of climate change in Greenland consist of melting of the ice cap, thinner ice in the sea and permafrost. There are fears that if the ice cap continues melting at the same rate at some point there will be no more ice in green land (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, 1). The effects so due to the ice cap meting far include glaciers spitting large amount of icebergs into the ocean. Moreover, there are lakes that have recently been forming on the ice leading to water plunging in the ice sheet leading to sliding of water to the seaside. The rate at which ice is melting at the green land cannot be compared with the ice gained or formed during winter (Church et al 136). This means that a lot of water remains in the sea even after solidification during winter. The question many people ask is whether human beings are purely to blame for the occurrence of global warming and its effects (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research 1). However, since many countries today have signed Kyoto protocol it is clear that they have accepted that human activities have many negative effects to the environment (University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1). This is mainly because emissions of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere have led to temperature rise, which has led to melting of the ice. The ice cap at Greenland is essential to humanity existence in various ways one major role that it plays is regulating temperature, as almost ninety percent of the sunrays that hit the ice cap are reflected back. This ensures that the temperature in the atmosphere as well as in the ocean is regulated. Thus, if the ice cap melts then this regulation will no longer be available making the ocean and atmosphere be warmer (Witze, 799). Although, it may take many generations for all the ice to melt down, this is not a consolation since there would be many n egative effects caused by the excess fresh water in the ocean resulting from the melted ice. Studies have proven that it is possible for all the ice to melt, hence if the current global warming rate continues. This is because it is the significant rise of temperature, which has caused the increased melting of the ice. Greenhouse effect causes most of the damage relating to global warming, as carbon dioxide absorbs heat from the sun making it impossible to be reflected back to the sun. This leads to the atmosphere becoming hot and given that the warmth is trapped in the atmosphere, the rise of temperature occurs. There are many effects of melting of Greenland ice; one is that it leads to loss of water bodies this is because the enclosed lakes in the ice are freed when ice melts. The other effect is to the animals that live in the ice caps this is because, over the years, they have adapted to the climate of Greenland and have created their eating habits and migration patterns. However , hunting for food becomes hard without the ice and high sea level. Global warming may cause melting of ice in Greenland, but it also causes global warming (Witze, 800). This is because loss of ice leads to sun rays being absorbed by the ocean increasing ocean temperature, which leads to increase of temperature in the atmosphere, which leads to increase of warmth leading to more ice melting. Rising of the sea level is one of the aftermaths of climate change in the Greenland since when the ice melts the fresh water ends up in