Contents
1 Editorial
2
Article Ice and Snow
3 Did you Know quick Fact / Question
Editorial:
I
have been back for a month and I find myself moaning abut the cold weather. Oh to be in Australia. Enough grumbling.
The cold weather has been good for the local mountains, they have nearly twenty feet of snow 250cm Wow. It could
be a long season. The garden is in desperate need of clean up, but it can wait.
As often happens my thoughts created the idea for an article and
this time it's no different. Cold weather got me thinking about ice, snow and glaciers. Turns out we really
need them.
Ice and Snow
To a sun bunny like me, global
warming sounds quite appealing, but in fact it would be a tragedy. We need ice, snow and low temperatures to maintain
the balance of life on this precious planet.
We only have a finite amount of water, we cannot create any more.
Ice and snow are storage tanks for our fresh water Permanent snow and ice cover about 12% (21 million square km's) of
the Earth's land surface. 80% of the world's fresh water is locked up as ice or snow. Scientists have estimated that
over a period of decades melting ice would increase sea levels by at least 70 meters, (225 feet). Many coastal cities would
be wiped out.
Another problem would be the lack of polar ice caps reflecting sunlight
back into space, this would increase the global temperature even more, as would the increase in the ocean's surface
area (water holds heat longer than rock). Not only that - but increased evaporation of water would add more water vapor to
the atmosphere. So, if the earth were warm enough to melt the ice caps
it would actually cause the earth to become even
warmer.
Perma Frost supports pipe line
Along many hundreds of miles the Alaskan oil pipe line relies on frozen
ground for support. It will buckle and break if the ground thaws. Many towns up north
rely on frozen lakes
and ice roads during the winter. In summer the only way in to some areas is by float plane.
Glaciers
Glaciers cover the ground and keeps
it frozen, thus preventing the land from emitting methane gas. The break-up of the Larsen ice shelves,Antarctica,
opened
up a pristine area of sea floor the size of Jamaica - a habitat that has been sealed off from above for several
thousand years. Researchers spent 10 weeks
scouring the 10,000 square kilometre (3,860 sq mile) sea floor and have discovered
unknown animal life. The further you get from the equator the longer the winter season. People, plants and animals
have a variety of methods for dealing with the low temperatures.
No Scurvy - No Oranges
Native people in the north have a diet that consists of mainly meat
and fish, but they do not contract scurvy. They get their vitamin C from the meat they eat.
Things have changed
and they can now buy fresh fruit and vegetables at the local supermarket.
Birds on Snow shoes.
On the northern tundra, temperatures can plunge to minus 55°C. some
animals hibernate others have adaptations to allow them to cope with the cold.
The musk ox has two layers of protective
fur. The willow ptarmigan has two layers of feathers, plus built in snow shoes, as it grows a layer
of feathers on the underside of its feet.
Neat trick
Out of 20,000 species of bee, only two live in the artic. They
shiver their flight muscles to generate heat and trap the warmth in their velvety fur. They
can increase their
body temperature as much at 15 °C.
Frozen Frogs
The woolly bear caterpillar spends most of its 14 year life frozen
by producing special chemicals that prevent ice from forming inside its cells.
The wood frog's metabolism slows
to a crawl and its body temperature drops to between 21° and 30° Fahrenheit (–6° and –1° Celsius). The amphibian's
heart and brain cease to function two thirds of the body water freezes
and the animal becomes, to the eye and
touch, a frog- shaped ice cube Weird but useful.
We need low temperatures to destroy insect lava and eggs to
prevent spring infestations.
Thank goodness ice floats.
Because ice floats,
even large bodies of water that freeze, like some oceans, only form ice on the surface. Most lakes never freeze to the
bottom. Even the coldest oceans, only freeze on the top, leaving liquid circulating below.Because of this the Earth's oceans
are able to redistribute heat and the climate of the earth has less extremes of heat and cold than it would otherwise. If
ice were to sink
instead of float, the oceans would fill up with ice from the bottom, would remain solid and only some
of the top would thaw. A solid ocean would not circulate heat. But because ice floats on the surface the water beneath can
continue to circulate and the ice on the surface stays exposed and readily melts when the temperature rises.
Here in British Columbia and other parts of the world we rely on spring
snow melt from the mountains to provide running water.
Great glaciers photos
http://www.worldviewofglobalwarming.org/pages/glaciers.html
Video freezing and thawing frog
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/video/3209/w05-220.html
http://www.imaginature.nl/pages/glaciers.html Patagonia
Did you Know quick Fact / Question
Surprisingly,
an open tray of hot water can freeze faster than the same amount of cold water! This happens because enough of the hot water
can evaporate before cooling, reducing the amount of water to be frozen.