The Effects of Global Warming on the Animals in the North Pole Essay

The Effects of Global Warming on the Animals in the North Pole - Essay Example This statement is significant as every living thing, undergoes the process of â€Å"inhaling† and â€Å"exhaling† carbon dioxide and oxygen, thereby resulting in a chemical balance in the earth’s atmosphere. Even a wide variety of human activities, which primarily include the burning of fossil fuels, industrial activities and the cutting down of forest for agricultural purposes and urbanization, are potentially increasing the volume of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, thereby upsetting this atmospheric chemical balance. The details of our complex climate systems are not sufficiently known to facilitate us in the prediction of the precise consequences of global warming in our planet. Our ability to accurately measure the human influence on global climate variation is essentially limited. The forecasted signals are still rising from the phenomenon of variability in climate and the concerned uncertainties. These include the magnitudes and patterns of prolong natu ral variability and the evolving patterns through times; and responses to changes in the concentrations of greenhouse gases and aerosols. However, it is an essential fact to be noted that, not everyone agrees that the surface temperature of the earth is on the increase. ... Scenario of global warming in the Arctic Circle The Arctic region comprises of the area that is north of the Arctic Circle (66 °34’N), a latitude which is barely 600km from the Shetland Islands. The Arctic Circle covers an area that is approximately 6% of the Earth’s surface, and is populated by almost 4 million humans, which includes indigenous people who have been inhabitants of the Arctic since the past 10,000 years. At the centre are the Arctic Ocean, which partly encloses the five coastal states of Canada, Greenland, Norway, Russia, and the United States of America. During the past five decades, the average annual temperature in the Arctic Circle has significantly increased by upto 3oC. It has been presumed that depending on the local areas and the carbon emissions in the future, the average annual temperature of the Arctic Circle will increase a further 2-9oC in the present year. The fact to be notified is significantly more than the average rise of annual tempe rature globally, which shows a rise of 1.8 - 3.4 °C. This significant rise in the temperature levels has inflicted global warming in the North Pole, which will also essentially feedback into enhanced global warming mainly due to the melting of ice and permafrost thaw. The degree of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean varies seasonally, portraying greatest in March and at the end of winter, while lowest in September at the end of summer. The analysis of the data of the past 3 decades which were obtained from the views of the satellites shows a significant decline in the sea ice. This decline was notified as beyond the natural variations, averaging 11.7% a decade in summer and 2.7% during the winter. It was