Is Global Warming a Threat to Polar and Glacier Ice?

Global warming is a phenomenon whereby the earth's average temperature increases. Global warming has a devastating effect on the Earth's climate. Scientists are still studying global warming effects, and have not reached a consensus about what will happen in the future. The melting of the polar ice caps and global warming are getting more and more attention lately. If melting glaciers caused by global warming, or it is a natural process - at this moment opinion of scientists and experts is diverge. There are many causes of the melting of the polar ice caps and global warming, some of which are natural. However, the activities of man are responsible for much of the rapid change that scientists are seeing.

Andrew S. Revkin in his article "Global Warming is Eroding Glacial Ice " raises the issue of global warming, its causes and effects. According to Revkin the most serious consequence of global warming is melting glaciers. He argues that global warming is largely a result of human activity. He states that the melting of glaciers up North could cause an increase in flash floods, endangering the lives of many people and damaging the homes. He writes that according to studies an icecap atop Mount Kilimanjaro, which is more than a thousand years old, will be gone in 15 years or less due to the side effects of global warming. Revkin reports that "Kilimanjaro is one of the clearest signs that global warming trend in the last 50 year may have exceeded typical climate shifts" (414). Other icecaps such as Mount Everest and Swiss Alps are slowly melting as well. He quotes research done by Dr. Lonnie G. Thompson who proved glacier erosion and showed some of the effects it was causing to the North Pole. Dr. Thomson said that "other changes could also be contributing to the glacial shrinkage, but the rising warm zone is probably the biggest influence" (415). Revkin in his article provides statistics, which show that in recent decades global warming has increased and to continuing in the years to come. Kilimanjaro has pulled back five-hundred feet a year from 1998 to 2000, which is 33 times faster than the rate from 1963 to 1978 (416).

Philipp Stott in his article "Gold Comfort for Global warming" considers that the temperature change as a perfectly natural event. He argues that climate change is part of Earth's cycle, and that it right on schedule. He believes that people do not have much control over nature. He talks about the collapse of Larsen B ice shelf in Antarctica, the largest single event in a series of retreats by ice shelves in the Antarctica over the last 30 years. He considers this crash "perfect natural disaster" for journalists who are of the view that global warming is a result of greenhouse gas emissions and human activity in the modern world. According to P. Stott, the collapse of ice is a natural process of nature, and icebreakers are falling after a hot summer