Most people are aware that the polar ice caps are melting, many say at an alarming rate, but what exactly is the importance of the ice caps? What is the impact of their melting?

It deals predominantly with climate change, which is tied into ocean circulation. Take the Greenland ice caps for example. The ice caps provide a certain amount of stability to the weather. With their melting, there have already been substantial changes in ocean circulation. These ice caps therefore are pivotal to the future of the climate in the whole North Atlantic region.


Going back to the last ice age, when the ice that covered what is now North America melted it produced a flow of water into the North Atlantic causing the single greatest natural disturbance in ocean circulation in the last 20,000 years. These are the examples scientists point to when they try to stress the importance of the ice caps.

The melting of these ice caps will also result in ocean levels rising at alarming rates, which may result in massive flooding. Some havepredicted that the sea level in Greenland could rise 6.5 m.

Now consider the ice caps of Antarctica. The polar ice caps there resent roughly 70 % of the world’s fresh water. Think about that for a moment. That’s 70 % of all the fresh water on the planet Earth. The melting here would result potentially in a rise in sea level as much as 73 m.

These are just a few of the reasons scientists believe the ice caps play a large role in our world and the potential for drastic shifts in climate.