Receding Glaciers and Sea Level Rise

Glaciers have been receding for thousands of years as a natural process in which they go through due to temperature change. As the world industrialized since the industrial revolution (1830) the increase of global pollution (GHGs) has had a drastic effect on the rate at which these glaciers recede. Even more crazy is that since just 1980, global warming has led to glacier retreat becoming more frequent to to extent that some glaciers have completely disappeared. 

The Jakobshavn Glacier in Greenland retreated ~ one meter per day from 1850 to 1880

This just shows me that in the time frame from 1850 to 1880, only 30 years, approximately 8 km of ice melted while from 1985 to 2010 almost 20 km of ice melted. What is going to happen in the next 30 years from now? 60 years from now? 100 years? Crazy.

This really cool 15 second video captures a series of massive calving events at Columbia Glacier near Valdez, Alaska. Taken between May and September of 2007. The video shows the glacier retreating by about 1.6 km, a volume loss of 1.67 cubic km of ice or 1.5 trillion liters of water!

Video: http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/extreme-ice-survey-article.html

Sea level rise is another factor at play with glacial receding. Scientific research indicates sea levels globally have been increasing at a rate of 3.5 millimeters per year since the early 1990s.

According to National Geographic, over the past century, the Global Mean Sea Level (GMSL) has risen by 10 to 20 centimeters. However, the annual rate of rise over the past 20 years has been 3.2 millimeters a year, roughly twice the average speed of the preceding 80 years. A possible link to many of the recent disastrous storms? I think so.

With sea levels rising there are greater effects on coastal habitats such as: erosion, flooding, contamination of aquifers and soil, and loss of habitat for many animals.

[Aquifer - an underground layer of water bearing permeable rock from which groundwater can be extracted]

I believe there needs to be a greater awareness of where these environmental problems come from. One environmental disaster in one are may effect a completely different area across the world with negative impact.

References:

• https://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2011/07/17/jakobshavn-glacier-retreated-one-metre-per-day-from-1850-to-1880/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakobshavn_Glacier#Acceleration_and_retreat
• http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/extreme-ice-survey-article.html
• http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/critical-issues-sea-level-rise/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquifer
• http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23254-the-melting-of-canadas-glaciers-is-irreversible.html#.UwkVOfldW28

Photos:

• https://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2011/07/17/jakobshavn-glacier-retreated-one-metre-per-day-from-1850-to-1880/
• https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqL3hGuXLwNJfEgWLu5GCVGAUNWu5wx8io1Osp706xawWmd4OcBw
• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Navy_flooded_New_Orleans_20050901_trim.jpg