In recent years, scientists have been closely monitoring the Earth’s rotation and its effects on timekeeping. A new study has shed light on how climate change is affecting the speed of the Earth’s rotation, potentially impacting how we keep time.
According to the study, melting ice from Greenland and Antarctica is causing an increase in water in the world’s oceans, leading to a redistribution of mass. This process is slowing down the Earth’s rotation ever so slightly, although it is still spinning faster than it used to. The study suggests that without this accelerating melt of polar ice, a “negative leap second” would have been necessary in 2026, meaning subtracting a second from world clocks instead of adding one as previously predicted.
The changes in the Earth’s rotation rate can affect our days and nights, as Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which is used globally to regulate clocks and time, is based on this rate. To account for these variations, approximately 27 seconds known as leap seconds have been added since the 1970s to maintain accuracy. However, this study shows that even with these adjustments, humans are having a measurable impact on our planet through climate change.
Duncan Agnew, the author of the study, expressed surprise at how significant these changes are. He emphasized that this unprecedented effect of climate change has far-reaching implications for our planet and beyond. It underscores the importance of taking action to mitigate climate change before it causes even more damage to our environment and society.