Climate-induced mass redistribution on Earth’s surface. (A) Linear rate of change in mass (in WEH per year) during April 2002 to March 2015, derived from monthly GRACE observations and associated sea-level computations. Solutions are reproduced with different color scales for (B) the GIS, (C) the AIS, and (D) the oceans.
Climate change is a real thing. It’s strange that there are so many staunch doubters in the face of such overwhelming evidence–every real scientific organization on the planet agrees that it’s happening, and we’re causing it. Yes, it also occurs naturally, but we’re increasing it at an alarming rate. Them’s the facts. A new study released by NASA adds one more nail in the coffin of climate-change deniers: the quickly melting ice sheets are actually changing how our planet wobbles on its polar axis.
Think of it like a spinning top. If the weight of the top is redistributed, the top changes how it spins. The earth’s melting ice sheets, primarily the ones in Greenland, have melted so much that the weight of the earth has been moved from one place to another.
The study, published in Science Advances, found that, on average, Greenland has lost somewhere around 272 trillion kilograms each year, which is a number I don’t feel like converting into pounds. Rest assured, it’s a lot of ice. Adding to that is West Antarctica, which loses about 124 trillion kilograms a year. Although recent studies found that East Antarctica is actually gaining ice–about 74 trillion kilograms a year–the weight of the earth is shifting.
Although scientists aren’t too worried, they are shocked by the extraordinary effect humans are having on our planet. “There is nothing to worry about,” said Jianli Chen, a senior research scientist at the University of Texas’ Center for Space Research. “It is just another interesting effect of climate change.”
“This highlights how real and profoundly large an impact humans are having on the planet,” Jonathan Overpeck, professor of geosciences at the University of Arizona, told The Guardian.
Studies on the earth’s movement on its axis have been happening for a long time. Since the late 1800s, scientists have been keeping an eye on how the world is spinning through space. To do this, they measure something called polar motion, which is, in effect, the study of how far the poles move each year. In this century alone, that motion has changed significantly. “The recent shift from the 20th-century direction is very dramatic,” said Surendra Adhikari, the author of the study.
“The past 115 years have seen unequivocal evidence for a quasi-decadal periodicity, and these motions persist throughout the recent record of pole position,” Adhikari wrote in the study’s abstract.
