How Climate change is altering the Earth's Polar movement

According to a study by NASA,before 2000, the earth’s spin axis was drifting towards the Canada (left globe). The recent climate change-driven ice loss in the Antartica, Greenland and other parts of the globe is now drifting the direction of spin axis towards the UK ( Eastward direction).

Image credit: news.discovery.com

The Earth’s spin axis or axis of rotation is imaginary and has never stayed precisely in place . It is a key to understanding and visualizing the nature of the planet’s rotation, also, predict  the  future climate. Scientists have been tracking such movements for the past  115 years, although this change is predicted to be harmless but it certainly illustrates how human behaviour is impacting the planet.

“Since about 2000, there has been a dramatic shift in this general direction,” Surendra Adhikari, a researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said. “It is due to climate change without a doubt. It’s related to ice sheets, in particular, the Greenland ice sheet.”  Since 2000, Greenland has lost on an average of 278 gigatons of ice/year  while Antartica has lost 92 gigatons every year.

Mr. Adhikari also estimated that about 40 percent of the Earth’s polar movement is due to Greenland, 25 percent to Antarctica, and 25 percent to changes in water storage on continents.

This research and related findings before certainly illustrate the fact how global warming predominantly being caused by Human beings is altering the geophysical aspects of Earth.


Article by Rohit Jha