{"id":143224,"date":"2021-10-26T19:55:44","date_gmt":"2021-10-26T14:25:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=143224"},"modified":"2021-10-26T19:55:44","modified_gmt":"2021-10-26T14:25:44","slug":"cop-26-greening-of-polar-ice-should-top-agenda-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/cop-26-greening-of-polar-ice-should-top-agenda-heres-why\/","title":{"rendered":"COP 26: Greening of polar ice should top agenda; here\u2019s why"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Synopsis<\/strong>: Greening of the poles must be a top priority for the upcoming COP26 meeting<\/p>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Researchers at NASA, using 29 years of data from Landsat satellites, have observed extensive greening around Alaska and Canada, which were snow-covered lands.<\/p>\n

For the past several decades,\u00a0the Arctic has been warming twice as quickly as the rest of the world<\/strong> and undergoing tremendous transformation.<\/p>\n

Arctic Sea ice reduced by around 39% in the last 38 years. Over the same period, ice in Antarctica also reduced by 6.2%.<\/p>\n

What is the reason behind greening of polar ice?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

As per scientists, this is occurring because Arctic summers are getting warmer every decade.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why is Arctic region is getting warmer?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Sea ice has a bright surface meaning about 80% of the sunlight that strikes it is reflected into space.<\/p>\n

–<\/strong> Melting of sea ice<\/strong>: The sea ice melts and exposes the deep, dark ocean water because of rising temperatures.<\/p>\n

– Heating of sea water: <\/strong>Now, instead of reflecting 80% of the sunlight, the ocean absorbs 90% of the solar radiation. The seawater heats up and Arctic temperatures rise further, amplifying the rate of warming.<\/p>\n

The resultant warmer air and soil temperatures provides a habitable climate turning the region greener.<\/p>\n

Rapidly rising temperatures in the Arctic have led to longer growing seasons and shifting soils<\/strong> for the plants.<\/p>\n

What is the impact of greening?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Greening will convert the \u2018net reflective\u2019 ice caps to \u2018net absorptive\u2019, tampering with the global energy balance and accelerate polar ice melting.<\/p>\n

Scientists have observed the grassy tundra transitioning to scrublands and shrubs becoming larger and denser<\/strong>.\u00a0The Arctic faced several other adverse impacts in its zone because of climate-induced greening.<\/p>\n

Impact on biodiversity<\/strong>: The reindeer populations declined with the increased growth of summer pastures. Many non-edible shrubs grew, which eventually led to the disappearance of the reindeer herds from the region, threatening the biodiversity of the region.<\/p>\n

How is Antarctic region being impacted by greening of polar ice?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Like the Arctic, the Antarctic is also greening because of the irreversible melting of sea ice, which is green in colour.<\/p>\n

In 2016, it was discovered that marine ice has 500 times more iron than the ice above it<\/strong>. This iron comes from the rocks under the Antarctic ice sheet which, when glaciers pass over them, are ground into a fine powder.<\/p>\n

The ice-bound iron oxidizes in contact with seawater.<\/p>\n

The resulting iron oxide particles take on a green hue as light scatters through them. The green ice only becomes visible when an iceberg capsizes and flips over from excessive melting and is disjointed from the main body.<\/p>\n

Thus, melting of sea is leading to the greening of polar ice in both Arctic and Antarctic.<\/p>\n

What is the way forward?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The effects of climate change (greening of the poles) are trans-boundary in nature. Thus, it is reasonable to assume that the only solution could be integrated international negotiations and frameworks.<\/p>\n

These are required to set standards for nations and businesses to achieve global average temperature standards at the earliest, before the warming crosses the tipping point.<\/p>\n

Source<\/strong>: This post is based on the article \u201cCOP 26: Greening of polar ice should top agenda; here\u2019s why<\/strong>\u201d published in DTE<\/strong> on 25th Oct 2021<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Synopsis: Greening of the poles must be a top priority for the upcoming COP26 meeting Introduction Researchers at NASA, using 29 years of data from Landsat satellites, have observed extensive greening around Alaska and Canada, which were snow-covered lands. For the past several decades,\u00a0the Arctic has been warming twice as quickly as the rest of… Continue reading COP 26: Greening of polar ice should top agenda; here\u2019s why<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10328,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[216],"class_list":["post-143224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704864079},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143224\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}