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Melting of glaciers: the white heart of the planet is melting

The melting glaciers it is one of the most terrifying consequences of the climate change that threatens our planet.

Winter is NOT coming, contrary to what the motto of Casa Stark del Game of Thrones. At least it’s not the winter of a few decades ago.

A little cold and snow is certainly not enough to deny the disastrous impact of climate change, the tangible proofs of which are in the dramatic rise in sea levels, in the increasingly frequent extreme heat waves and in increasingly aggressive atmospheric events, such as floods.

While we grit our teeth for the bitter cold that hits our peninsula in waves, alternating overly mild winter seasons with weeks of intense frost over the years, in countries like Greenland, a shocking metamorphosis is taking place: entire areas that a few years ago were completely covered by a thick layer of ice now reveal the underlying rocks and bare earth.

The ice sheet is melting 7 times faster than expectedor, almost fulfilling the predictions of the most catastrophic scenarios.

Despite repeated warnings from scientists – ignored, just an apocalyptic movie cliché – CO2 emissions have not dropped and in just 25 years we have lost a huge ice barrier as high as 2 times the Tower of Pisa.

Other not very reassuring signals come from the Arctic: the immense expanse of white and silence north of the planet is warming to the point that in 2035 all its glaciers could be just a memory.

Over the past 30 years, the surface of Arctic glaciers has shrunk dramatically. Furthermore, the average duration of the new glaciers is very low: they do not exceed 5 years of age.

The situation is so critical that, if it worsens further, in a few decades the North Pole it could become a huge salt lake.

Pollution and global warming are the primary causes of melting ice but they are not the only ones. Discover in our gallery another factor that heavily affects the disintegration of the ice masses.

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