The Arctic Life - Global Warming

The global warming is affecting the earth's atmosphere and will continue affecting it over the next several years. As oceans water warms up, the glaciers in the Arctic will start to melt. The coastlands, cities and surrounding towns may get flooded if the glaciers keep melting over the next several years. Some animals and plants may become extinct. Global warming will affect the glaciers, the animals, and the plants that live in the arctic region.

The global warming is affecting the weather in the arctic region. The temperature keeps rising and the ice sheet keeps melting. Because of the global warming the "Average temperatures in the Arctic region are rising twice as fast as they are elsewhere in the world"("Natural Resources Defense Council"). The ice melts which causes the rise in the sea levels. The ice sheets are breaking off more than ever, but the breaking of the ice sheets does not cause the sea levels to rise. Largest single block of ice in the Arctic, the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, had been around for about 3,000 years before the ice shelf started cracking in 2000. Within two years it had split all the way through and now currently breaking into pieces. While the weather is getting warmer around the world and people cannot notice the significant change in the arctic region.

The global warming may affect the marine life that live near the arctic region. There are currently no animals living in the arctic, but they do live in the surrounding areas and depend on the ice sheets. They depend on the ice sheets for their survival in the summer months for food and for a place to give birth to their young. The ice sheets have gotten thinner due to the climate getting warmer. For example what global warming has done to couple of living species:

The climate-related collapse of capelin in the Barents Sea in 1987 had a devastating effect on seabirds that breed in the area. And years with little or no ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada (1967, 1981, 2000, 2001, 2002) resulted in years with virtually no surviving seal pups, when in other years, these numbered in the hundreds of thousands ("GreenFacts publication").

The arctic seals also depend on the ice sheets to give birth to their pups. The penguins depend on the ice sheet to lay their eggs and to rest. The penguins live on the ice sheets around the arctic region. The weddell seal, orca the killer whales, rockhopper penguins, black-browed albatrosses, leopard seals, blue whale, adelie penguins, antarctic Shag penguins, crabeater seals, wandering albatross, antarctic fur seal, emperor penguins, elephant seal, chinstrap penguins, and the ross seals are just a few animals that live in or around the arctic region. Some of the animals may be able to adapt to warmer weather while the other will go extinct.

Global warming will also affect the plants that live around and in the arctic region. The animals in the