Our days of skating or playing hockey on a frozen lake may soon be over. As climate change deepens and rising temperatures reduce the amount of ice around the world, new research shows that it is also affecting ice quality, including its ability to support weight. This could mean a greater loss of winter sports as the necessary amounts of snow and ice become scarcer.
On thin ice
Global temperature warming caused climate change caused lake ice to “reduce carrying capacity, creating more hazardous conditions for transportation (reducing operational use of many roads in winter) and recreation (increasing the risk of fatal drownings in spring),” a new study published in the journal found Nature Reviews Earth and Environment. The reduced strength is due to a reduction in the quality of the ice, not its quantity. “Ice quality is important because of its direct impact on carrying capacity for human safety, as well as how much light will be transmitted under the ice over the lifetime of frozen lakes,” said Sapna Sharma, a professor at York University who worked on the study. in his study press release.
Frozen lake consists of two types of ice: white ice and black ice. “White ice is generally opaque like snow and filled with more air bubbles and smaller ice crystals, which reduces its strength and stability,” the press release stated. On the other hand, “black ice is transparent and dense, with few air pockets and larger ice crystals, making it much stronger.” Warmer winters “form thinner layers of black ice and sometimes a corresponding thicker layer of white ice,” which can “create treacherous conditions for ice skaters, hockey players, snowmobilers, ice fishermen and truck drivers.” People need about 10 cm, or four inches, of black ice to stand safely on the surface. A transport truck requires 100 cm or about 42 inches of black ice.
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Recreation isn’t the only thing that weak ice will sacrifice. A lack of transport trucks may limit communities’ access to supplies, and marine life under the ice is also at risk. Increased levels of white ice reduce “the amount of nutrients available to fish and other aquatic life” because white ice can block light from entering the water, the release said. Without light, phytoplankton and other organisms are unable to photosynthesize.
Melting prospects
Many popular winter activities, including skiing and snowboarding, are now under threat. “Global warming is changing and threatening” these sports, “perhaps permanently, and not just at the elite level,” he said Associated Press. “This includes people who just want to ski or snowboard for fun, as well as those who make a living in places that offer these types of activities.” An increasing number of people need to use indoor facilities, and some resorts require artificial snow to continue operating.
Recreation is ultimately the least of our worries. “I’m worried about the future of my sport, but beyond that I’m just worried about our future and how much time we have before this all really catches up with us,” Olympic alpine skiing champion Mikaela Shiffrin told the AP. In early 2024, the country “crossed the threshold where we are at a historic low for the Great Lakes ice sheet as a whole,” said Bryan Mroczka, a U.S. physicist Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. “Since records began in 1973, we have never seen lake ice levels this low in mid-February.”