The Big Thaw

The Christian Science Monitor reported that artic temperatures are approaching a prehistoric level that caused a 16 to 20 foot rise in sea levels. Global Warming appears to be causing meltdowns in both Greenland and the continent of Antarctica. This is mostly due to human abuse of the environment. To combat this prospective problem, nations would have to work towards reducing emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Developing industrial nations would have to adopt low emission technology. Ice in Antarctica and in Greenland is already beginning to thin faster than it is being remade. Scientists predict that by the year 2100, at the current rate, an unstoppable melting process. Over centuries, this melting down would raise sea levels by 20 feet.

Human actions can have devastating effects on the environment. Between the 1930s and early 1940s the Great Plains fell victim to a series of sand storms which came to be known as the Dust Bowl. Many who had migrated from the east to the west used sod to build their homes. Large herds of cattle were allowed to graze the same patches of land and farmers farmed the same plot of land annually. These three factors contributed to the removal of the top layer of plains soil, or sod. This sod had previously kept the lower looser layers of soil in place. When a series of wind storms hit the plains, the loose unprotected soil rose up creating gigantic dust clouds. The worst sandstorm came to be known as Black Sunday.