Arctic biodiversity in danger!

There are many areas on this earth that are far away from humans. Even in places that are rarely touched by people, however, human beings have had an impact. They create holes in the ozone layer, emit chemicals into the atmosphere, and cause irregular climates. All of these human impacts change ecosystems that are rarely touched, or are never touched at all by people, but the human impact is still there. As corny as it sounds, the Arctic seems timeless in all of its beauty but even if we don't know it, humans have been eating away at it showing that time is not the only thing effecting the Arctic.

The polar ice cap is already shrinking in size. Images from NASA satellites show that the area of permanent ice cover is contracting at a rate of 9 percent each decade. If this trend continues, summers in the Arctic could become ice-free by the end of the century. When it does, so will most of the plants and animals that depend on it. Furthermore, once the ice is gone, seawater will be able to flow freely around the North Pole. The reduction of the Arctic ice cap is also accelerating global warming. Snow and ice usually form a protective, cooling layer over the Arctic. When that covering melts, the earth absorbs more sunlight and gets hotter. Almost all climate models predict that global warming will be greater at higher latitudes than it will be at the equator. This means that plants and animals living near the North and South poles will be especially hard hit by the greenhouse effect, creating a negative effect on the Arctic biodiversity. Places like the Arctic tundra for example. South of the Arctic tundra, a vast plain that is frozen and snow-covered for most of the year. For several months each summer, however, the top few inches of the frozen soil melt. Because of global warming, most of the tundra could be gone in less than a hundred years. As global temperatures increase, the frozen soil will gradually thaw. Many people worry that as the tundra thaws, the vast amounts of peat it contains will decompose. As a result, huge amounts of carbon dioxide and methane could be released into the atmosphere during the next few decades. Adding more of these heat trapping gases to the air can only make global warming worse. And the latest scientific data confirm the effects of climbing global temperatures. Any change in ocean currents and rising global temperatures could easily change the way in which marine life is disturbed in the Arctic Ocean and the whole world as well.

Regarding global warming, the Arctic ice cap has not been in the public’s eye but recently, the effects have been more noticeable than ever. The new findings are devastating for polar bears, whose dependence on sea ice makes them particularly vulnerable to warming temperatures. A U.S. Geological Survey wildlife research biologist in Alaska, Steven Amstrup, states that “Our results have demonstrated that as the sea ice goes, so goes the polar bear." Not only are polar bears affected, but other marine animals as well. Many walruses and different kinds of seals for example, use the ice as platform for fishing. The ice is also a place where spotted seals and harp seals come to breed and raise their pups. The melting of once-permanent ice is already affecting native people as well. When ice shelves splintered in the arctic, the rare freshwater lake it enclosed, along with its unique ecosystem, drained into the ocean. The marine life are changing their feeding and migration patterns, making it harder for native people to hunt them. Along Arctic coastlines, entire villages will be uprooted because they're in danger of being swamped. Global warming is a threat to the native peoples’ culture and very survival. Melting glaciers and land-based ice sheets in the Arctic also contribute to rising sea levels, threatening low-lying areas around the globe with beach erosion, coastal flooding, and contamination of freshwater supplies. As viewed recently, flooding and typhoons are invading South East Asia and it is almost certain that this will not be the end of the natural disasters. A warmer Arctic will also affect weather patterns and thus food production around the world. Wheat farming, for example, would be profoundly affected by the loss of ice cover in the Arctic. According to a NASA Goddard Institute of Space Studies computer model, the weather would be 4 degrees warmer in the North American winters without Arctic ice, which normally creates cold air masses that frequently slide southward into North America. It is not long before all this mystifying marine biodiversity is lost in our natural winter wonderland, food supplies decrease, and natural disasters continue to destroy the planet.

Erle Ellis is a professor of Geography at the University of Maryland and a major researcher in the area of anthropogenic biome mapping. He states that people have formed nature and that societies need to learn how to sustain nature. In his view, humans are an important part of the global ecosystem, and they can work to reshape biodiversity by increasing or decreasing it. In my opinion, Nature is something that is fragile and needs protecting. People must take responsibility for managing global ecosystems and create a world where humans are active, positive managers of nature. Humans can no longer think about nature as something that is far away from people and needing protection. They need to think of nature as something that is everywhere and people are changing it, for better or for worse.

Works Cited

Global Warming. New York: Blackbirch Graphics, 1991. Print.

Global Warming. New York: Chealsea House, 1992. Print.

The Greenhouse effect- Life on a Warmer Planet. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications Company, 1990. Print.

Unstoppable Global Warming. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008. Print.

Kunzerman, Theo (ed). 2008. Allianz Knowledge. The Earth We Created.

Anthropogenic biome maps. Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment, 2008. Print.

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