Polar ice is sea ice created by the freezing of sea water, ice sheets, and glaciers. These in turn are formed by the accumulation and compaction of fallen snow. Both ice sheets and glaciers cover large areas of the polar regions. This polar ice is extremely important for our globe and occupies a large part of it. Global sea ice cover averages about 25 million square kilometers; this is the area of ​​the entire continent of North America. The ice caps, which cover the territory, with glaciers cover approximately 15 million square kilometers; this is nearly 10% of Earth's land surface, with the majority in Antarctica (Earthobservatory.nasa.gov, 2013). With the global warming debate still under threat from scientists and governments, the depletion of polar ice is a major concern. Many experiments have been conducted to monitor current ice levels and predict future ice levels. Since then scientists have been trying to find out what might be causing our polar ice to melt. A major concern is that melting polar ice could create extreme flooding for all coastal and island inhabitants. Is polar ice melting and could greenhouse gases be the cause? Mikhail Veritsky of Yale University set out to find out whether an increase in carbon dioxide, a man-made greenhouse gas, would lead to the depletion of the Antarctic ice sheet. To predict this, they create a numerical experiment using an atmospheric general circulation model linked to a 3D model of the ice sheet. They found that even doubling the carbon dioxide concentration showed no significant change in the ice sheet. This implies that a collapse of Antarctic ice as a result of increased greenhouse gases is unlikely (Verbitsky & Saltzman, 1995). In Greenland the ice sheets h...... middle of paper ......ReferencesDahl-Jensen, D. (2000). CLIMATE CHANGE: Improved: Greenland Ice Sheet Responds. Science, 289(5478), 404-5.Earthobservatory.nasa.gov (2013). Fact sheet on polar ice: in-depth articles. [online] Retrieved from: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/PolarIce/polar_ice.php [Accessed: 29 November 2013].Nsidc.org (2013). A better year for the cryosphere | Arctic sea ice news and analysis. [online] Retrieved from: http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/2013/10/a-better-year-for-the-cryosphere/ [Accessed: 29 November 2013].Toyota, T., Takatsuji, S. & Nakayama, M. (2006). Characteristics of the size distribution of sea ice shelves in the seasonal ice zone. Geophysical Research Letters, 33(2), 02616.Verbitsky, M. & Saltzman, B. (1995). East Antarctic ice sheet behavior inferred from a coupled GCM/ice sheet model. Geophysical Research Letters, 22 (21), 2913--2916.