The Polar Zones

The Polar Zones

Polar zones are climate zones furthest from the equator. The Arctic Circle is located at latitude 66.3 ° N and south of latitude 66.3 ° S. The area north of the Arctic Circle called the northern polar zone, and the area south of the Antarctic Circle is called the southern polar zone. There are two polar regions. At the south pole is called the Antarctic area and at the North Pole 's Arctic. The poles are the coldest places on earth. It's so cold that the ground is always frozen and almost all the water is ice. The phenomenon when the ground is frozen all year called permafrost. The cold is due to sun rays from space spread out over a larger area when they hit earth than at e.g. The equator. This is caused out of Earth inclines. Another source of cold is the ice in the polar zones reflects the light back into space.

Climate

In the polar regions, there are two seasons. The winter that takes up two thirds of the year, and the summer, which is much shorter, only about 4 months. During the winter, the soil temperature drops down to -30°C or lower. At the poles, it is an average of 100 mm of precipitation per year. The precipitation is always snow because it's too cold for rain to fall. This leads to low humidity.

In winter, it becomes even very dark, so dark that the sun does not even go up some months. This is called the polar night.

In summer, however, it will be for some time bright all day. This is called the Midnight Sun. But as the sun's rays spread out more at the polar zones, it will not get hot. The temperature is around 0 degrees or lower, but sometimes the temperature goes up to 5 degrees Celsius. In the summer, the ground warms up so much that tolerant plants can live. Grasses, lichens, mosses and shrubs are among the plants that thrive in this climate. But only the upper five feet of ground thaws. Below that is permafrost. It can reach down several hundred meters below the surface.

The People and their Influence

The people who live at the poles are the Sami and Inuit. The Sami people live in the tundra in northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and an insignificantly small part of Russia. The Sami people live on reindeer herding, fishing and hunting. They have long been nomads who followed the reindeer and lived in their huts, but have begun to settle down more as the new technology is developed. The Inuit are also nomads but they live in Greenland and northern Canada (Baffin Islands). The inuits mainly live on sealfishing.

As the Arctic and Antarctic is so rich of non- found oil resorvoirs, people come there to find oil and wealth. As oil extraction is very dirty, it destroys the environment around it, making life much more difficult for animals and several species are endangered. People's excessive carbon dioxide emissions heat the earth more and more, the so-called greenhouse effect. It gets its name because the atmosphere has about the same effect as a greenhouse, it will hold the heat.

This new, increasing heat causes the ice around the poles to melt and the permafrost declines in some places. Ice that melts makes it more difficult for polar bears and other animals at the poles of life, it affects some species so much that they become endangered.

If the ice at the poles were to melt entirely, sea level would have risen sharply which led to global flooding and low-lying countries and cities had been completely submerged.

To stop these potential natural disasters, all people think about their carbon footprint and the amount of energy they use. You can also donate money to various funds which cares for a better environment.

- Erik