Scientists make chilling discovery hidden deep within centuries-old ice cores: 'We need to raise the alarm'

A group of scientists is in a race against time in the Arctic. Valuable climate data is at risk of disappearing as our overheating planet melts glacier ice.

What's happening?

Our warming world is melting glaciers and ice sheets, and crucial climate data is vanishing along with them, reported Carbon Brief. A team of scientists is studying the Blombstrandbreen glacier, located approximately halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole, to determine the degree of damage caused by meltwater penetrating deep into the ice.

"If you imagine an ice core like a book containing important information, what is happening is almost like someone has spilled a cup of tea all over the pages," Dorothea Moser, a British Antarctic Survey scientist, told Carbon Brief. "The melting of ice cores is a big issue and we need to raise the alarm — but we also can't give up on them completely yet."

The ice cores that are extracted from glaciers such as Blombstrandbreen hold vital information that helps scientists reconstruct past climate conditions. Air bubbles trapped inside the ice can provide scientists with a glimpse into the past, as the gases present when the ice formed are stored within them. Scientists can glean valuable information from this type of "proxy data."

Why is preserving proxy data important?

"Paleoclimatologists gather proxy data from natural recorders of climate variability such as corals, pollen, ice cores, tree rings, caves, pack rat middens, ocean and lake sediments, and historical data," according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "By analyzing records taken from these and other proxy sources, scientists can extend our understanding of climate far beyond the instrumental record."

The Arctic is warming at a rate nearly four times faster than Earth's average. "Arctic amplification" means the region's ice is rapidly melting and putting crucial climate data at risk of being lost forever. On the opposite side of the Earth, scientists say some of Antarctica's glaciers may have entered a phase of irreversible melting.

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Arctic ice melt is a danger to our communities for a number of reasons. It can contribute to higher tides during extreme weather events, increase the spread of disease, and disrupt food chains and marine ecosystems.

What's being done about the rapid melting of our planet's ice?

Moving away from dirty energy sources that release heat-trapping gases into our atmosphere is crucial to cooling our planet. There have been some promising breakthroughs in cleaner, renewable energy sources such as solar energy. Japanese researchers have developed the world's highest-efficiency solar cells, which offer the added benefit of being more eco-friendly.

Going solar with a battery system not only strengthens your home's resilience to extreme weather and outages; it also drastically cuts your reliance on dirty energy and can bring your energy costs down to at or near $0. With EnergySage, you can easily compare quotes from vetted installers and save up to $10,000 in the process.

Learning about critical climate issues and sharing that information with friends and family can help bring attention to things such as vanishing glaciers and ice sheets. It could inspire them to take action and fight for the future of our planet.