18 Sep 2008
09:03 pm IST

NASA's Landset satellites captured pictures of Penny Ice Cap, the southernmost of Canada's big ice caps. NASA recently released the pictures of the ice caps taken in 1979 and in 2000. Several changes are visible. Lakes that were once frozen are ice-free now. The large valley glacier on the right has completely melted and vanished. The large lake at the bottom is now ice-free.

Penny Ice Cap is the southernmost of Canada’s big ice caps. Located on Baffin Island, the ice cap has a maximum elevation of about 1,900 meters. Like other glaciers and ice caps in the Northern Hemisphere, the Penny has been thinning and its valley glaciers have been retreating in recent decades. A 2004 study of the Penny Ice Cap using NASA airborne lasers flown on missions in 1995 and 2000 showed that the lower elevations of the Penny Ice Cap had thinned by as much as 1 meter per year.

Although some of the changes on the Penny Ice Cap are occurring slowly, over decades or even centuries, other changes can be extremely rapid. In mid-summer 2008, two weeks of record warmth in the area, combined with rain falling on snow and thawing permafrost, caused a pulse of melt water to race through the southern part of Auyuittuq National Park, where the Penny Ice Cap is located. The flash flooding washed out a bridge, and erosion and ground slumping (as a result of melting permafrost) destroyed some sections of trail.

No one can conclusive prove or disprove that this was due to global warming. But no one can deny the fact global warming can clearly cause such dramatic changes. When, and not if, that happens the world will be left with several million climate refugees. Are we willing to pay a huge price later on or are we ready to roll up our sleeves and act now?

Start making simple changes at home. Save energy and save water. Set a trend for others to follow.

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Be the change,
Krish Murali Eswar.
"A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history. Gandhiji."