Most of us are not only aware but have accepted the concept of human-caused climate change. This has led many to look to areas of their lives that they can change, to help them become more sustainable.
For the most part, this takes place with changes in purchasing. People are now purchasing solar garage doors, local foods, and products made from reclaimed or recycled materials. Many have made changes in their lives in the hopes that through the collection of individual change, we can do something to stem the damage we have wrought on the environment.
We have long looked toward scientists to help clarify the state of the environment and to get a grasp on the extent of the damage. And a recent report in Science magazine had some pretty scary news.
One of the greatest concerns with climate change is the melting of the polar ice caps. This melting has the potential to shut down the current that keeps much of Europe hospitable as well as leading to an increased sea level.
An increase in sea level could have a catastrophic effect on those who live in coastal cities, and sadly, a great many of the world’s population centers are in potentially vulnerable areas. This is why scientists have really been focusing on historical trends of the melting of ice caps in order to make accurate predictions for the future of our climate.
The models and predictions are only as good as the data used to run said models, and it looks like, from the recent scientific data, that some of the assumptions we have made about the ice caps might be, well, wrong. First off, they found that the retreating of the ice sheets during the end of the last ice age occurred some 5,000 years earlier than was previously thought. While many have been incredibly concerned with the rapid increase in the melting of glaciers, it has been thought that due to the remoteness, the Antarctic sheet would be protected from the melting more so than the northern ice sheet.
What we have found, though, is that historically both sheets retreated at roughly the same pace, thus throwing that theory out of the water and leading many to think that sea levels could rise much faster and far sooner than had been previously been predicted. The new data will have to be added to the models, which could drastically change global predictions for the future of our climate.
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