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A 2003 study predicted that glaciers will disappear from Glacier National Park by 2030.  But because temperatures are warming even faster than just a few years ago, glaciers are now expected to disappear by 2020.

Glaciers are created when snow doesn’t completely melt in summer and over time is compacted into ice.  To be classified as a glacier, an ice field must be at least 25 acres, moving, and sculpting the landscape.

In 1900, there were about 150 glaciers in what is now Glacier National Park.  Today only 25 glaciers remain.

Although the quantity and size of glaciers have been decreasing over the past century, glaciers are now shrinking four times as fast as they were in the 1960s.  The reason is warmer climate.  Although Glacier National Park is colder than many other parts of the world, temperatures in the park have increased three times as fast as average global temperatures.

There may be some debate as to whether the warming climate is a natural cycle or the result of man-made pollutants.  But there is no debate that temperatures in Glacier National Park are getting warmer, the glaciers are getting smaller, and this is all happening even faster than previously predicted.

Story at USA News
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As spring begins, more than 90 percent of Arctic sea ice is only 1 or 2 years old.  That makes the ice thinner and more vulnerable than anytime in the past three decades, according to researchers with NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado.  “We’re not set up well for summertime,” said Ice Data Center scientist Walt Meier.  “We’re in a very precarious situation.”

Young Arctic sea ice often melts in summer.  If it survives for two years, it becomes a more permanent type of thick sea ice.  The amount of thick sea ice hit a record wintertime low of just 378,000 square miles this year, down 43 percent from last year.  That means the Arctic lost a section of sea ice larger than the state of Texas.

Thick sea ice is critically important because it reflects sunlight away from Earth.  The more the ice melts, the more heat is absorbed by the ocean, which heats up the planet even faster, causing a self-reinforcing loop of warming.

Story at FoxNews