Glaciars MELTING

PAKEA BIZKAIA crew have had the chance to see the glacier Viekelselattu by the boat, where just a small glacier. We have left with the desire to step down to touch the blue snow. Having seen the glacier, we think about the effects that climate change has had on them.

WHAT ARE THE GLACIERS?

Glaciers are accumulations of ice that have been created as a result of all the snow that has fallen over hundreds of years. The snow that accumulates on the glacier causes the ice compacted, and this force makes it move forward.
To happen, it is necessary that the amount of rainfall during the winter snowfall is greater than that melts in summer. For this reason, the vast majority are found near the poles, some in the mountains of cold climate zones.
Today 10% of the land is covered by glaciers, and found them 33 million cubic kilometers of fresh water.

THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON THE GLACIER

We all know that the temperature of Earth hasn’t been constant throughout history. There have been periods of glaciation and interglacial. But what is happening in recent years is worrying, because the temperature of the planet is changing very fast. According to the IPCC, in the next 100 years the average global temperature will rise between 1.4 and 5.8 degrees. What has generated the greenhouse effect? The Earth’s greenhouse effect occurs in the atmosphere when the CO2 accumulated not allowed to leave the heat. The CO2 gas in the atmosphere but due to industrialization, man has poured more gas into the air. According to a 2001 report by the IPCC, the temperature rise in the last 50 years has occurred as a result of human action, and in the last 20 years, three quarters of emissions have been the result of burning fossil fuels ( oil, natural gas and coal).

These are alarming dates, because rising temperatures may bring more problems. For example, today there are only half of the glaciers in 1980 in the Pyrenees. In the last 7 years in Patagonia have lost 42 km3 of ice per year, the volume of 17 Olympic swimming pools.
One consequence is the rising waters of the Ocean, NASA said that the 10%. On the coast has been where the rise has noticed more, to most of the world population live.


We believe these dates are sufficient to be aware of the serious consequences of global warming. It is high time that the powerful who control the market and governments to take real action to reduce CO2 emissions, thus moving from words to deeds. And as far as possible, that each make an effort to, for example, drive less and use more public transport and cycling, reduce consumption of fossil fuels …