Climate change is now having irreversible effects on Earth. Scientists now say that the phenomenon has caused days to become longer, which is a result of the decrease in the speed of earth’s rotation. The change amounted to a few extra milliseconds, but it is enough to hamper “precise timekeeping and space navigation.” Though not noticeable to us, failure to act on climate change is ultimately pushing us into a bad future.
The earth is flattening more, causing longer days
Melting glaciers are claimed by the study to be the root cause behind the change. As temperatures remain at all time highs, glaciers have significantly lost volume. Water from the poles has now accumulated at the equator, which has caused the Earth’s already flattened surface there to flatten even more. This has led to the earth slowing down while rotating, and has caused the daytime period to be prolonged.
The pace of Earth’s rotation has been changing since ages. But the rate was steady, and was mostly caused by the moon’s gravitational pull. Movement of molten rock at the poles is also a factor. The abnormality, however, is the increased rate of glacier melting. The change in time that was supposed to result in the next millennium, is expected to happen in this century itself.
Though invisible to us, the increase in daytime is serious
Scientists have recorded that days have now become 1.33 seconds longer than usual. The study also says that if the current conditions continue to exist, the increase will jump to 2.62 seconds. This is significantly going to hamper time-keeping systems, especially those used for navigation. The change will particularly affect the Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC, which is the basis for the creation of the world’s time zones. The need of adding “leap seconds,” may soon arise, to adjust to the change in daytime periods.
Climate change is already causing abnormal phenomena like heat waves, which have not yet ceased occurring. Several Indian cities for example, witnessed record number of heat waves this summer, with data suggesting such phenomena hasn’t occurred since weather data has been recorded. Indian cities higher up in the altitude, such as those near Himalayan foothills, have experienced rare and abnormal forest fires. Similar heat wave patterns have become more than prevalent in the Europe.
The Paris 2024 Olympics might be caught in one in the near future. Not addressing climate change is the root cause of all such irregularities, and countries who are responsible for it are yet to take the matter seriously. These abnormalities are also taking lives and posing many other dangers to health. This change in time is a reminder of the pace at which the earth is hurtling towards a situation where a return to the normal is not possible.
