According
to an article on the National Geographic website Greenland has had the
fastest ice melt in centuries. It was concluded that on July 8, 40% of
the ice had thawed. Just four days later the percentage was up to 97%.
Most of the thawing occurred in a span of four days. Satellites
monitoring the melting showed that on July 8, about 40 percent of the ice
sheet's surface had melted. By July 12 that figure had jumped to 97
percent. Records have shown that Greenland has had complete melting in
the past, but have they occurred this quickly? As scientist analyze the
data they are deciding if the melt is natural or has any global warming
features. If we continue to see melting in and around Greenland
scientist have said the ocean level could rise by 23 feet. It is
difficult to allocate issues to global climate change. Earth’s
environment has always been changing. Data collected from ice core
samples give a climatic record of events from the past. Ice cores can
reach dates of 800,000 years in the past. The difficulty is comparing
yesterday’s changes with the scale of change we see today. The amount of
pollution generated doesn’t seem to be slowing down, so we may see even
more of these types of events. Data collected from the past few
centuries will help to define what is natural and what isn’t. Regardless
if events are natural or unnatural we do know that we are polluting the
Earth. Preserving the Earth now will ensure a better tomorrow.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/07/120725-greenland-ice-sheet-melt-satellites-nasa-space-science/
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