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Melting Ice Caps Slows Earth’s Spin, Makes Days Longer – AFP

If humans continue to emit greenhouse gases at a high rate, the effect of a warming climate will be greater than that of the Moon’s pull on ocean tides by the end of the 21st century


The new study says knowing the exact orientation of Earth at any given moment is vital for communication with a spaceship, such as Voyager probes that are now well beyond our solar system, where even a slight deviation of a centimetre can end up being kilometres off by the time it reaches its destination (Reuters image).

 

A study released on Monday says the melting of polar ice caps is causing Earth to spin marginally more slowly because water flowing from Greenland and Antarctica has resulted in more mass around the equator, according to a report by Agence France-Presse, which said “if the Earth turns more slowly, then the length of [a] day increases by a few milliseconds.”

The report said the study comes to a surprising conclusion – that, if humans continue to emit greenhouse gases at a high rate, the effect of a warming climate will be greater than that of the Moon’s pull on ocean tides by the end of the 21st century, adding that between the year 1900 and today, climate has caused days to become around 0.8 milliseconds longer – and under the worst-case scenario of high emissions, global warming would be responsible for making days 2.2 milliseconds longer by the year 2100.

Read the full report: AFP.

 

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Jim Pollard

Jim Pollard is an Australian journalist based in Thailand since 1999. He worked for News Ltd papers in Sydney, Perth, London and Melbourne before travelling through SE Asia in the late 90s. He was a senior editor at The Nation for 17+ years.