![]() | Vanishing Ice: Glaciers, Ice Sheets, and Rising Seas Subjects: Climatic changes -- Arctic regions; Glaciers -- Climatic factors -- Arctic regions; Ice sheets -- Arctic regions; Sea level -- Climatic factors -- Arctic regions; Cryosphere -- History; The Arctic is thawing. In summer, cruise ships sail through the once ice-clogged Northwest Passage, lakes form on top of the Greenland Ice Sheet, and polar bears swim farther and farther in search of waning ice floes. At the opposite end of the world, floating Antarctic ice shelves are shrinking. Mountain glaciers are in retreat worldwide, unleashing flash floods and avalanches. We are on thin ice--and with melting permafrost's potential to let loose still more greenhouse gases, these changes may be just the beginning. Vivien Gornitz is a geologist and former special research scientist with the Columbia University Center for Climate Systems Research and the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Her books include Rising Seas: Past, Present, Future (Columbia, 2013). |
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