Sea Ice and Climate Change

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Why are scientists so worried about melting of sea ice at or near the poles?

Well, aside from the fact that it's melting is a pretty good indication that the planet is warming, it’s scary because of a thing called ‘positive feedback’, which despite sounding so upbeat is in the case of global warming a potential catastrophe.

An example of Positive Feedback is when an event such as warming of the oceans creates more warming of the oceans. So, how does sea ice come into this? We all know that a dark object absorbs more heat from the sun than a white one does. As the sea warms and melts more white sea ice there is less ice to reflect heat and more dark sea surface to absorb it, the sea warms melting more ice exposing more sea surface to absorb heat, etc. The dangerous part is that this vicious cycle increases in speed until it is at a ‘tipping point’ beyond which there is no going back.

And that’s why scientists are worried.