Every year, the signs that global warming is destroying our planet are becoming harder to ignore. This month alone, temperatures in the Arctic were 20 degrees Celsius above average, touching 1 degree Celsius instead of the normal -25 degrees.
These staggering temperatures are rapidly melting Arctic ice. And the faster ice melts, the faster the world will heat up.
Arctic ice plays a crucial role in keeping global temperatures from soaring to levels humans won’t be able to handle.
The white surface snow reflects the heat from sunlight back into space. Once the ice is gone, the oceans will soak up all that heat.
Over centuries, the ice has also trapped gases like methane, which speed up global warming faster than carbon dioxide. As the ice melts, these gases are released, where they do more damage to the atmosphere.
The disappearance of Arctic ice would have a snowball effect (pun intended) on an already warming world. In the next 20 years, we may all feel like we’re living in a toaster oven during Delhi summers.
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