Research Paper On Polar Ice Caps

* As the polar ice caps melt, the sea levels around the world will rise. * When the sea levels did rise, many islands would be lost and, because most of the islands are poor, they may not be able to be evacuated in time. It is predicted that places such as London, Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo and Shanghai, were millions of the world’s population live, will find themselves submerged in icy water. * In 100 years, the sea level has been believed to rise over 6 inches. Scientists have predicted that by the year 2100, the ice caps may be completely melted and the sea level will have risen between 50 inches and 90 inches. This water will spill over coastland and into lakes and rivers. A lot of land and lives will be lost. * Loss of habitats of animals. * As the ice caps melt, many species who live in that area will become extremely endangered or extinct. Species such as the polar bear, penguin and arctic seal will find that their homes disappear into nothing and so will die out. Many eco systems will break down and while some species will thrive and their numbers will become increasingly huge but other animals will die out as their food becomes scarce. * As the cap melts, the impact on animals in the area is readily apparent. The primary problem is the reduction of habitat.
Polar bears are the most obvious animals suffering from this situation. The habitat of the polar bears is the ice flow areas around the edges of the caps. As the caps melt, the flows are disappearing and pulling back to the extent that there is no ice on the shores. The extent of the melting is such that a Russian ship was able to reach the North Pole in 2005 without the use of an ice breaker. This lost habitat is pushing the polar bears to the edge of extinction. Various estimates put the total population at 20,000 and dropping. * Additional water will bring more water vapor or clouds. * This is one of the areas of dispute. Many see this additional cloud coverage as trapping more heat closer to the earth’s surface and causing the temperature to continue to rise. Others see the clouds as shielding the sunlight from ever reaching the earth and creating another ice age. Those who endorse the ice age theory believe that the switch from a near tropical earth temperature to the frozen one will only require a decade or two to occur. Still others, see the melting with the resulting clouds as cooling the earth, refreezing the caps, and averting both the tropical and the frozen earth from occurring . * Increase the temperature of the Earth. * Scientists have discovered that the polar ice caps are one of the Earth’s natural defences against the full heat of the Sun.
It is believed that the ice reflected a lot of the suns heat back into space and so keeping the Earth at a temperature suitable for the habitation of humans, plants and animals. Because the carbon dioxide pollution is trapping the suns heat in the Earth’s atmosphere, the ice caps are melting and no longer have the power and surface area to reflect the majority of the Sun’s heat. This results in the Earth getting even hotter as the full intensity of the sun slowly works its way to the atmosphere and then gets trapped by the carbon dioxide
layer. * Effect to human health and animals. * As the temperatures rise, the polar ice caps feel the effects. They are melting. This could result in disastrous events such as the sea level slowly rising and flooding the land nearest to the coast. Many people will die with the lack of clean drinking water as their lakes and rivers have been contaminated by the salty ice water. The floods will also spread famine and disease, killing millions of people. * The polar ice caps are not just slowly melting but getting weaker. In 1998, another ice shelf which measured 1100 km² broke away and then in 2002 a huge 13500 km² fell into the sea. These figures are very worrying as these huge blocks of ice may have held home to hundreds of animals which will die as the ice melts into nothing far off into sea.