How Melting of Arctic Sea Ice Affect Global Warming
The world warmed by about 0.7°C in the 20th century. Every year in this century has been warmer than all but one in the last century (1998). If carbon-dioxide levels were magically to stabilize where they are now (almost 390 parts per million, 40% more than before the industrial revolution) the world would probably warm by a further half a degree or so as the ocean, which is slow to change its temperature, caught up. But CO2 levels continue to rise. All this affect the ice pack in the Arctic. As temperature rises, ice melts. This causes many problems.
A change to the reflectivity on the surface of the earth; which is called the albedo, affects the amount of …show more content…
Unusually cold, fresh water has been increasing in the Labrador Sea in recent years. There are many possible expectations for this, including the GSA, which drifted into the Labrador Sea in the late 60’s and early 70’s, and the possible disappearance of sea ice bridges further north, allowing drifting and melting sea ice to enter the Davis Strait and the Labrador Sea from the north. In every situation, a persistent freshening trend threatens the continued functioning of the Labrador Sea deep water formation.
The Ocean Conveyor seems to have operated fairly reliably over the past several thousand years. However, after much research and examination of ice cores from both Greenland and Antarctica shows that this has not always been the case in the more distant past, and abrupt climatic changes associated with large amounts of sea ice in the North Atlantic and rapid changes in thermohaline circulation may have occurred repeatedly in the past.
Mathematical modeling suggests that a continuous freshwater source about twice the size of the GSA would be enough to permanently prevent deep water formation in both the GIN and Labrador Seas. Moreover, a continuous freshwater source only half the size of the GSA would be enough to shut down the Labrador deep water