 Glaciers in Retreat Glaciers are more than just magnificent landscapes of ice and snow - they provide water for millions of people, animals and plants - but unless we break our addiction to fossil fuels, we risk destroying them. Retreating glaciers and ice sheets are visible signs that global warming and climate change are real. Greenpeace reports that the glaciers on the island Svalbard - about 600 km / 375 miles off the coast of northern Norway - are rapidly disappearing. They began an almost continuous retreat starting around 1900. The name Svalbard means "the land with the cold coasts" but the coasts are getting warmer. Although glacial melting may be more dramatic there, we can see that it fits the pattern of glaciers around the world. The blame can be put on human activity. Our addiction to fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) releases greenhouse gases and pollution into the atmosphere, and this is what is causing temperatures to rise, and our future to melt before our eyes.
Click pictures for more information and credits. News Story: "Warning Signs in the Arctic" Library: Arctic, Glaciers, Ice Environment/Atmosphere Links: Arctic, Glaciers, Environment Arctic Maps & Weather Reports |
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DICTIONARY: Just "double-click" any unlinked word on this page for the definition from Merriam-Webster's Student Electronic Dictionary at Word Central. |
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ARCTIC LIBRARY & GLOSSARY: Check this section for an index of the rest of the things you really need to know about the Arctic. |
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ARCTIC MAPS & WEATHER REPORTS: Maps of the Northwest Passage, explorers' routes, iceberg sources, Nunavut, the Arctic by treeline, temperature... |
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ARCTIC LINKS: Even more information! Links to sites related to the Arctic and "Iceberg: the Story of the Throps and the Squallhoots". |
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GUIDE TO ARCTIC SUNRISE & SUNSET: How much sunlight or darkness is there in the Arctic on each day of the year? |
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