Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA)

Meltdown: The Scoop on Glaciers (Part 1)

Informações:

Sinopsis

Glaciers and ice sheets play an important role in the global environment. They are storage systems of most of the world's fresh water, dramatically alter the landscape and sea level, affect ecosystems and provide us with unique records of climate and atmospheric conditions that go back hundreds of thousands of years. Global climate change has caused widespread accelerated glacier retreat, which has negative effects on fresh water availability, causes global sea level rise and affects climate and ecosystems at the local and global scales. In order to understand how glaciers affect life on earth, it is important to understand how glaciers work and what causes them to change. By being informed about natural systems such as glaciers we can understand why some changes in nature happen fast while others take longer, and why snapshots do not always reflect the big picture. This presentation will address recent measurements and predictions of glacier shrinkage and sea level rise, as well as local and global effects