Current Event 12

Megan Barker 5/16/19

Bio C Odd Current Event 12

University of Leeds. "Nearly a quarter of West Antarctic ice is now unstable."

ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 16 May 2019. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190516114601.htm>.

In the Article “Nearly A Quarter of West Antarctic Ice is Now Unstable” from the University of Leeds,  an experiment is described in which scientists were able to discover that nearly a quarter of West Antarctic ice is now unstable, and that much of this is due to climate change. The article begins by explaining how the experiment resulted in the finding that glaciers have thinned up to 122 meters, meaning that they are losing more mass than they are gaining through snowfall. The article also explains that since 1992, the thinning of glaciers is now five times faster than it was. The article then goes on to explain how the study was conducted. 800 million measurements of Antarctic ice sheets were measured between 1992 and 2017 by satellites, allowing causes of melting to be separated by changing weather patterns or legitimate climate change. They did this by measuring surface height change to simulated changes in snowfall, and attributing greater discrepancies to climate change. The researchers were then able to conclude that climate change is the leading cause of much glacial thinning. The article then adds how this has resulted in a rise in sea levels, and how satellites are important in determining how our environment is changing.

Climate change is incredibly problematic and impacts everything on the planet. The damage being done to the Earth through the use of factories, excessive greenhouse gasses, and lack of proper garbage disposal will result in irreversible damage. Although humans have generally believed that they were above animals and other beings throughout history, when it comes to climate change, all are equal. The Earth will be ruined and uninhabitable, no resources will be renewable, and most life will die off of the Earth if nothing is changed. The article proves how serious climate change is, by proving that climate change is the cause of thinning glaciers and rising sea levels.

This article was very thorough and well-explained. It goes through the experiment in a concise way that includes all of the main ideas, and explains the experiment’s significance. One critique of this article, though, is that the article mentions significant “signals of glacier imbalance that have persisted for decades” (Leeds), but fails to explain more about these imbalances. One suggestion for this article would be to include more context and explanation as to what these imbalances are and why they have persisted for decades. Including this detail would help to make the article more clear.