With all the phenomenon and changes that are happening in our world at present, everyone can see how climate change is currently unfolding its effects on humanity one by one. Experts say, right now, the world is already experiencing several effects of this phenomenon. These effects include the rising of the temperature, changing of nature's precipitation processes, increasing heatwaves and droughts, stronger and more intense, as reported by NASA.
But did you know that a recent study conducted showed another effect climate change is posing on our planet now? According to the news posted in SciTech Europa, due to the hotter temperature nowadays because of climate change, the planet is now experiencing thinner river ice as compared with the previous years.
The experts were able to unmask this discovery after using "more than 400,000 satellite images taken over 34 years to measure which rivers seasonally freeze over worldwide, which is about 56% of all large rivers", says Xiao Yang. Yang is a postdoctoral scholar in the UNC-Chapel Hill geological sciences department and also the lead author on the paper.
Based on the changes and the data they've gathered, researchers were able to predict what will happen to the ice rivers in the future. The data gathered revealed how river ice declined from 0.3% to 4.3% during the years 2008 to 2018 and 1984 to 1994, respectively. And with how climate change gets worse at present, the decline with these river ice sheets is expected to grow worse in the coming years.
The decrease of the sheets' thickness is anticipated to create an environmental challenge for people as this river ice is used as a means of transportation, especially when it comes to delivering goods to places with higher latitudes. Furthermore, this covering of ice is also efficient in protecting the earth from more greenhouse gasses released through the river. The risk of it become erased in mankind's story will surely create a negative effect not just with the world's industries but also in the environment as well.
Since climate change is real, every part of the world globally is affected by it, especially when it comes to the thinning of river ice. Among these places, the most affected are those that are found in Eastern Europe and Alaska, and the Tibetan Plateau.
The study was published in the journal Nature the very first day of this year. It is also considered the first research that focuses on the effects of Climate Change in river ice worldwide.
