Turning a blind eye. Humans tend to turn a blind eye on the ice. As one of the greatest threats faced by our mother Earth and our environment, what do you know about its effect on glaciers?
Glaciers
Glaciers are essential to our ecosystems and society. Glaciers affect water worldwide, especially water availability. With the amount of glaciers melting rapidly, this is affecting downstream water levels, river flow rates, the temperature of water and killing aquatic creatures. But, do you know how global warming impacts glaciers?
The Process
As the Earth warms, the melt line moves upwards and the glacier melts faster and faster at the bottom which shortens the glacier and reduces its mass. Lastly, the melted water flows into streams and rivers and ends up in the oceans which causes the accelerating sea level rise.
Consequences Of Long-term Sea Level Rise
“What’s so bad about sea levels rising?” you might ask. In a long time, these consequences and impacts will show themselves.
One of the most concerning effects are the coastal areas. Coastal towns and cities have always been at the edge of land, dangerously close to the water. More than hundreds of people live in these coastal areas and communities. Long term sea level rise is slowly swallowing them, consuming them. Hundreds of millions of people would lose their homes if this continues on, putting humans in grave danger.
Apart from impacting humans, wildlife populations are also threatened. Soil erosion and glacier melting is causing our wildlife population to suffer. Polar bears are losing their habitats and food sources. Saltwater will begin to seep into many subterranean aquifers causing our drinking water to be contaminated. According to some sources, this bad effect is already showing itself. Places such as Florida and Bangladesh are already facing issues with seawater contamination.
The economy such as the tourism industries will experience change. As the sea level rises, it will consume places like Hawaii and Phuket. Humans will experience loss and we will lose the chance to visit these beautiful places.
There are more consequences than the ones I’ve stated, all caused because of us humans turning a blind eye on the current issue, on global warming.
Simple Actions Make Great Changes
Luckily, there are actions that us, normal human beings can do. Just simple actions such as taking public transportation, applying the 3R’s strategy and saying no to plastics can make big changes.
Don’t turn a blind eye just because you think we have all the time, because the impacts aren’t big enough yet. Think about the thousands of lives that will be affected. Together, we can ameliorate the world for a brighter and greener future for each and everyone of us. If you’re reading this right now, remember, we can make a great change.
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