的 Deadly Consequences of Ocean Warming and Glacier Melting

布鲁克·希利斯26岁
上图来源: pexels.com

Ice caps in the Arctic are rapidly thawing at an alarming rate.

At the core of this predicament stands the human race, and as a people we are accelerating the effects of global warming exponentially. All the while, this crisis is affecting our health, well-being, and the ground we live on.

One of the many side effects of global warming includes the melting of Arctic ice caps. 的se mountain-sized glaciers are melting at a startling speed, 随着全球变暖, 较冷的气候开始受到影响. 北极只是冰山一角. 

As author Lorin Hancock explains thoroughly in his article published by 世界自然基金会, “Even if we significantly curb emissions in the coming decades, more than a third of the world’s remaining glaciers will melt before the year 2100. When it comes to sea ice, 95% of the oldest and thickest ice in the Arctic is already gone.” 

Over decades scientists have figured out the real problem behind the melting of ice caps. It is not the previously suspected possible extinction of Arctic animals and creatures, 或者是由于石油开采造成的化石燃料的损失, 而是, these glaciers carry deadly 疾病 inside themselves that are being released.

众所周知，冰是一种保存工具. For instance, people keep ice in a freezer to preserve meat for an extended period of time. However, ice doesn't only used to preserve poultry, it can also preserve viruses and bacteria.  的 science behind this started with the discovery of  bodies found preserved within Arctic icebergs. 受害者, 虽然死于体温过低, 看起来它们被冷冻后一天都没变老. No matter how many years a body is frozen within ice it will remain preserved in pristine condition. 身体不会退化、分解或恶化. 冰对细菌和疾病也有同样的作用.

科学已经证明冰可以捕获病毒, 疾病, and bacteria for tens of thousands of years without human aid. 冷冻不能杀死细菌, 更令人惊讶的是, the bacteria begins to make a home in its new frozen environment.

来自 国家科学基金会 报道称,, “Scientists who study glacier ice have found viruses nearly 15,000 years old in ice samples  from the Tibetan Plateau in China. 大多数病毒, 哪些因为冷冻而存活下来, are unlike any viruses that have been cataloged to date.”  

的se viruses, preserved in ice, have never been introduced to the modern human race. Because our bodies have never been introduced to such bacteria we can only assume how the human body would react to it. A disease camouflaged for thousands of years could be extremely deadly, 甚至可能消灭整个人类.

Many 疾病 can be deadly if we don’t build up an immunity to them. 以现代流感病毒为例. 

For children, cold and flu season comes along every year and spread throughout schools. 因为我们的身体在年轻时就接触了这种病毒, our immune systems began to build up and slowly gain immunity to the disease. Over time our bodies become strong enough to fight off the virus quicker and mediate the symptoms. If our bodies were not introduced to the cold and flu viruses young, it would affect the human body to a much more intense degree later in life.

的 discovery of bacteria and viruses in ice is an alarming problem, 但另一个复杂因素是海平面的上升.

As ice caps melt, the residue and meltwater from glaciers slide into the ocean. This causes an extreme rise in temperature in seas all across the globe. Due to this addition of seawater, many areas are affected; both tropical and tundra climates alike. 

As the global temperature rises oceans become much warmer, and this can result in the death of large amounts of sea life. Sea animals and bacteria that reside in one location have a certain temperature that is essential for them to live. 例如, 你不能拿贝斯, a fish found primarily along the Atlantic coast of North America, 并将其放置在加勒比海水域. 鱼很快就会过热而死.

的 most prominent instance of sea life overheating is in coral reefs. Coral reefs are extremely sensitive to heat and when waters reach temperatures too high for them, the reefs become stressed and begin a process called bleaching. Bleaching causes reefs to turn completely white and mute in color. 的 国家海洋局 解释说:“当珊瑚白化时，它并没有死. Corals can survive a bleaching event, but they are under more stress and are subject to mortality.” This can ultimately result in the breaking of reefs, 因此, 整个珊瑚礁系统的死亡. 

If global warming continues at the rate it is currently, 海洋生态系统将受到威胁, 热带气候可能变得不适合居住, and human lives will be put in danger due to the release of deadly new viruses. 

We are facing a global crisis and it is imperative that we come together for this cause and attempt to minimize further damage to our varied ecosystems. Together we can work to improve the consequences of global warming to build a better society, 并拯救地球.