The Burning Dilemma in the Arctic

As long as humanity has known, the Arctic has stayed the same as a beautiful frozen landscape. Unfortunately, the iconic tundras and glaciers that we identify the Arctic with are melting away, changing the world as we know it. But why? The broad answer is climate change. Climate change is the natural rise and fall of climate temperatures around the world. This normally progresses at a rate that would take a lifetime to notice even the slightest changes, however this has recently increased exponentially. The introduction of fossil fuels and major spikes in human population has brought carbon dioxide production to an all-time high. This in itself is tearing away at the ozone layer that absorbs most of the UV rays from the sun. With a weaker ozone layer, Earth is warming up in many regions, especially the Arctic. This drastic rise in temperature has led to the frozen lands we're used to seeing transforming into a melted wasteland (Burek, 2008). 

According to NASA, documentation of human-induced climate change began in the 1950s. By digging out ice cores in the Arctic and studying the samples, scientists have been able to observe the carbon dioxide levels from hundreds of thousands of years ago (NASA 2019). 

Graph of atmospheric samples and the levels of carbon dioxide on earth over the millennia (NASA, 2019) 

As shown on this line graph, there has never been a higher level of carbon dioxide on Earth than what has been produced within the past 70 years. This is one of the many pieces of proof that environmentalists have found to confirm the theory of global warming: that humans’ actions are increasing the temperature of the planet. This increase has been the most damaging to the Arctic, causing the ice caps to melt and disrupting the nature of the ecosystem it has maintained for thousands of years. Beautiful animals such as polar bears are losing their homes as they melt apart for the world to see. Without proper intervention, the Arctic may never return to the beautiful landscape we once knew it as.