Audience Grabber:
Have you ever wanted to see the Mendenhall glaciers of Alaska and the snow caps of the Himalayas? I chose the topic of global warming with its specific effects on glaciers because I want to reiterate the magnitude of how quickly they are disappearing. The Washington Post article, "Earth is now losing 1.2 trillion tons of ice each year. And it's going to get worse" had very interesting facts that put the intensity of this topic into layman's terms so that we could get a grasp as to how bad this situation really is. An ice-sheet expert, William Colgan, at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland said three percent of all energy trapped within the Earth's system being concentrated on the melting of ice is equivalent to "more than 10,000 'Back to the Future' lightning strikes per second of energy melting ice around-the-clock since 1994". Today, I will be attempting to take you through the evidence given to us by The Washington Post to analyze and guide you through the reality of losing a part of Earth that is approaching a million years old. I know that I want to be able to see these incredible glaciers in the future, and be able to appreciate that what I see might not be there in the years to come.
Works Cited:
Mooney, Chris, and Andrew Freedman. “Earth Is Now Losing 1.2 Trillion Tons of Ice Each Year. And It’s Going to Get Worse.” Washington Post, 25 Jan. 2021, www.washingtonpost.com/climate- environment/2021/01/25/ice-melt-quickens-greenland-glaciers.