Earth's shifting axis calls for sustainable and renewable measures to revert climate change

Researchers have uncovered a direct relation between Earth’s increasing water levels and its rotational axis shift. According to a study published in the Science Advances journal, beyond Greenland’s melting ice sheets, scientists have uncovered the reasons on Earth’s decadal wobble.

The circular path called Chandler Wobble is a small disparity in the Earth’s rotation on its axis. It consists of two discrete periodic oscillations which have a 14-month and 12-month period, respectively. When these two wobbles combine, it causes spiral paths to spin out and around in their mean positions. Eventually, in about 6.5 years, these wobbles get back to their mean positions.

Technology Review says this phenomenon is similar when a person, who is trying to find the axis of the Earth’s rotation, travels in the Arctic, that person will discover that the axis’ position on the Earth’s surface moves. The Earth’s wobble is not new to scientists who have been studying and monitoring it over the last century. There have been a series of slight variations in the Earth’s longitude and latitude as a result from these wobbles. In 1920, the Chandler Wobble underwent a dramatic 180-degree change, though no one knew why. However, scientists at the Russian Academy of Sciences discovered that the same movement also happened in 1850 and 2005.

Phys.Org explained that this shift in the Chandler Wobble changes over time and is believed to be relatively caused by pressure fluctuations at the bottom of the ocean, variations in temperature and salinity. This theory supports small changes in altitude but not the sudden shift that occurred in the 1920s.

Scientists further studied the phenomenon using recent data and the same data gathered about a hundred years ago. What astonished researchers the most is that findings on the recent dramatic shift relate to the melting of Greenland’s ice sheet and just recently, the Antarctic ice sheet. While this discovery contributes to the understanding of the dramatic shift, it is not the only reason. Scientists also suggest that Earth's water storage can impact Earth's rotational shift.

However, scientists do not fully claim the study's accuracy nor do they disregard it as a contributing factor. One thing they know for sure, that climate change is real.

Climate change ordeal

The Earth is getting hotter by the minute, and people blame this on global warming caused by increasing levels of carbon emissions. The National Resource Defense Council describes that global warming happens when carbon dioxide and other air pollutants accumulate in the atmosphere and absorb sunlight while solar radiation has bounced off from the Earth's surface. In a normal setting, radiation would have escaped into space, but pollutants can stay in the atmosphere for years unable to escape, thus, the Earth gets hotter.

An Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) publication confirms scientists’ claim on the devastating effects of the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. More than one-third of U.S global warming emissions is caused by electricity production, while coal-fired power plants account for 25 percent, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCSUSA).

Increased electricity consumption consequently is caused by disruptions in technology such as the internet. Humans have been dependent on connectivity that even signal boosters and network extenders such as those from 5BARz International constitute part of their household appliance. Also, most items in the home, office, school and other industries depend so much on electricity. The U.S Energy Information Administration forecasts that energy consumption will increase by 2.4 percent in 2017.

However, countermeasures such as using renewable sources of energy and utilising a wide range of innovative technologies such as solar thermal power can improve public health and environmental quality.

Renewable energy — such as wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric and biomass — according to UCSUSA, can provide significant benefits in combating climate changes, improving health and developing the economy. Though each source entails unique costs and provides benefits, they can induce little or no global warming emissions. Its effect on the economic stability can provide affordable electricity in the entire country and can help stabilise energy prices in the future.