Ice
Ice is the solid form of water. The phase transition occurs when liquid water is cooled below 0 °C (273.15 K, 32 °F) at standard atmospheric pressure. When ice melts, it absorbs as much heat energy (the heat of fusion) as it would take to heat an equivalent mass of water by 80 °C, while its temperature remains a constant 0 °C. As a crystalline solid, ice is considered a mineral.
What is global warming?
The term "global warming" is a specific example of the broader term climate change, which can also refer to global cooling. In common usage the term refers to recent warming and implies a human influence. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) uses the term "climate change" for human-caused change, and "climate variability" for other changes. The term "anthropogenic climate change" is sometimes used when focusing on human-induced changes.
Now, with concentrations of greenhouse gases rising, Earth's remaining ice sheets (such as Greenland and Antarctica) are starting to melt too. The extra water could potentially raise sea levels significantly. As the mercury rises, the climate can change in unexpected ways. In addition to sea levels rising, weather can become more extreme. This means more intense major storms, more rain followed by longer and drier droughts (a challenge for growing crops), changes in the ranges in which plants and animals can live, and loss of water supplies that have historically come from glaciers. Scientists are already seeing some of these changes occurring more quickly than they had expected. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, eleven of the twelve hottest years since thermometer readings became available occurred between 1995 and 2006.
Hundreds of glaciers in Antarctica are melting faster as the region's climate warms, a new satellite study has revealed. As the rivers of ice flow into the ocean, they could cause global sea levels to rise higher and faster than scientists had previously predicted. Satellite images of more than 300 glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula showed that they were flowing some 12 percent faster in 2003 than they were in 1993 (see an interactive map of Antarctica). The estimates do not account for the impact of dynamic effects like those seen in Antarctica, because the processes are poorly understood.
How to prevent global warming?
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