Climate change is having serious consequences on glaciers around the world. The increase in global temperatures produced by greenhouse gas emissions at the hands of man, is causing the melting of the great polar ice caps around the world.
To reduce the impacts of climate change in the polar regions, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has launched a campaign to improve observation and prediction of effects on glaciers. In this way, future environmental risks can be reduced and economic activities at the poles can be promoted.
Study of the environmental risks of the poles
A network of about 200 scientists intends to study carefully the environmental risks of climate change at the poles over the next two years. With this, the aim is to improve the weather forecasting systems and the sea ice and Antarctic conditions. These are the least known regions of the world, so it is vitally important to know how climate change and global warming affect these areas.
The United Nations meteorological agency will establish specific observation periods at the poles to increase monitoring and observation of the effects of climate change at the poles. The Argentine Antarctic Institute and the Alfred Wegener Institute of Germany, among other partners from around the world, will also participate in this surveillance and observation.
The goal is to study winter and summer of 2018 at the North Pole, and on the other hand, other experts will study winter of 2019 at the South Pole. The 200 scientists will separate to study in depth the two poles of the Earth.
Objectives of the plan
The main objectives of this research plan are to reduce environmental risks at the poles, produced mostly by climate change and the increase in global average temperatures, and increase the capacity to respond to disasters that may occur. in the next years. For the study of all these variables that may affect the stability of the poles, it must be taken into account that there is more and more commercial traffic in the polar latitudes. That is to say, maritime traffic causes certain impacts on the stability of polar ecosystems. That is why maritime traffic is quite an important variable to take into account when studying the predictions of the effects on the poles.
Scientists have emphasized how important it is for us to be able to better know and understand the relationship and connection that exists between the poles and the rest of the world. This is important since it is the poles that determine global temperatures. If not for them, and at the rate that the concentration of greenhouse gases on the planet is increasing, global average temperatures would be much higher.
In addition, scientists have observational systems based on elaborate models with ice levels much higher than traditional weather and climate prediction systems.
New facilities
To begin with observing and predicting the effects of climate at the poles, experts prepare to install new stations that can coordinate research methods. Among the new stations that have to be placed, we find the deployment of buoys, the launching of probe balloons, the use of satellites and aircraft.
The focus will be on sea ice conditions on the North Sea Route and in the southern ocean around Antarctica and how the sea interacts with the atmosphere. With this, it is possible to observe the glacial retreat and how it affects the rest of the environmental conditions that make up the ecosystems, such as the El Niño phenomenon, which affects temperatures around the world.