Polar Ice Caps: A Fleeting Look at the World (Research Project: Exploratory Essay)

Polar ice caps are melting, and the world is a stage set for a drama unlike we have seen in the days of our memory as a global community. The polar ice caps are in a sense an early warning device of things to come as a whole for our planet, and it is in this early warning device that we are being given the signs that things must change in our day to day routines or the earth is going to suffer a very major climate change, possibly resulting in widespread death and destruction. Although most people believe there is no direct link between the melting polar ice caps and global climate change, there is, because the melting polar ice caps contribute to the overall change in ocean temperature which has the potential to alter the marine ecosystem as a whole, as the ice caps shrink it is accelerating global warming in effect changing weather patterns and affecting food production worldwide, and because it has the potential to change ocean currents which help to regulate the different climates of every region on earth.
The polar ice caps intrigue me, as do glaciers, and their interrelation to the world and the global community that is unknowingly dependent on the way our world has its own system of checks and balances. The polar ice caps act as a very sensitive region where the slightest global climate changes can be felt first, giving us a look at things to come. This subject has always intrigued me, in fact leading me to start researching a large magazine article about a year ago that someday I would like to have published in a climbing magazine, giving an eye-opening look to climbers (who happen to have other reasons than just climate change) to perhaps start being more responsible caretakers of such a fragile world.
According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), “…the contraction of the Arctic ice cap is accelerating global warming. Snow and ice usually form a protective, cooling layer over the Arctic. When that covering melts, the earth absorbs more sunlight and gets hotter. And the latest scientific data confirm the far-reaching effects of climbing global temperatures.” This information supports the fact that melting polar ice caps mean more than just rising ocean levels, which is another problem in itself, it means that the global climate of the earth is possibly about to make an abrupt change. This change will have far-reaching effects on not only the environment, but also on the global economy. Industries from around the world will feel the effects of global warming, from commercial fisherman off the coast of Russia to farmers in the heartland of America.
Another interesting point of view on the controversy of global warming is the idea that humans are not to blame, but instead it is some sort of natural phenomena associated to either a natural cycle of the earth or the result of something else as of yet undetermined. In an article published on National Geographic News’ website, one scientist, Habibullo Abdussamatov, says that “Simultaneous warming on Earth and Mars suggests that our planet's recent climate changes have a natural—and not a human-induced—cause…” This side of the argument on global warming also intrigues me. I would like to research more about the idea of this natural cycle and the possibility that perhaps global warming is just a natural process of the earth, perhaps one of it’s checks and balances. Robert Essenhigh, a professor of Energy Conservation in Ohio State's Department of Mechanical Engineering was quoted in an article on Science Daily’s website as saying, “Many people blame global warming on carbon dioxide sent into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels in man-made devices such as automobiles and power plants. [However] Essenhigh believes these people fail to account for the much greater amount of carbon dioxide that enters -- and leaves -- the atmosphere as part of the natural cycle of water exchange from, and back into, the sea and vegetation.”
The varying viewpoints in this controversial subject excite me. I seem to be an environmentalist at heart, yet there is a large analytical side of me that wonders how much truth there is to the idea of global warming as just a natural process of the earth. I would like the opportunity to expound upon my research into this fascinating subject, and be allowed to link the idea of global warming and polar ice caps into the problems facing the oceans in several different ways. I know this subject closely relates to my Position Essay, however I will be sure to incorporate much more data and research into this project compared to the position essay, I will also link the research to oceans as requested by the criteria for the Research Project.

“Global Warming Puts the Arctic on Thin Ice.” Natural Resources Defense Council.
22 Nov. 2005. 11 Feb. 2008. http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/qthinice.asp.

Kate Ravilious. “Mars Melt Hints at Solar, Not Human, Cause for Warming, Scientist Says.” National Geographic. 28 Feb. 2007. 11 Feb. 2008.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070228-mars-warming.html


“Global Warming Natural.” Science Daily. 15 June 2001. 11 Feb. 2008. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/06/010615071248.htm.