Climate Change: Evidence

by Amber Fry

Climate change has been a topic to debate for the last couple of years. Is there evidence it is real? Scientists have looked at evidence indicating that it is real. They have looked at things like the rise of global temperature, the warming of the ocean, the shrinking of ice sheets, the retreating of glaciers, decreased snow coverings, the rise of the sea level, the decline of the Arctic Sea ice, and ocean acidification.

What does this stuff mean? Well, the rise of global temperature is the rise of the planet’s surface temperature. It has risen 2.05 degrees Fahrenheit. This is why we have been experiencing record warm days. Since the surface temperature is increasing, the oceans have been absorbing this heat as well. It has increased by about .6 degrees in the last fifty-one years.

The ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica have been decreasing as well. There have been billions of tons of ice lost over the past few years. Studies show that Antarctica is losing about 148 billion tons of ice per year. Glaciers have also been retreating all over the world. The Northern Hemisphere has had a decrease in snow over the past few decades. And the snow has been melting earlier with each year. With all of this ice melting, it has caused the rise of the sea level. It has gone up about eight inches.

The Arctic Sea ice has also been melting. It shows because the thickness of the ice has decreased as well as the amount of the ice. There has also been an increase in acidity in the ocean. The water’s acidity levels have increased by about thirty percent. This is only some of the evidence that has come up about climate change.

SOURCE: https://climate.nasa.gov/evidenc/