NASA: Climate Change Is Shifting North Pole Towards U.K.

An alarming side-effect of the climate change is being felt in the North Pole. A new study headed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) shows that climate change is totally changing the way the earth wobbles on its polar axis. It is actually shifting its North Pole towards England.

With global warming, the melting ice sheets, especially those in Greenland, tend to alter the weight on earth, making a change in the North Pole as well as the "wobble", also called the polar motion, to shift its course.

Since 1899, scientists and navigators have studied the earth's true pole and polar motions, showing a migration towards Canada for much of the 20th century. But the new study discloses that climate change has led to a movement towards England.

"The recent shift from the 20th-century direction is very dramatic," said Surendra Adhikari, lead author of the study and a member of NASA's JPL.

Jonathan Overpeck, a professor of geosciences at the University of Arizona, who wasn't involved in the study, pointed out that the research "highlights how real and profoundly large an impact humans are having on the planet."

Hence, since 2003, Greenland has lost more than 272 trillion kilograms of ice annually, which has altered the manner in which the earth wobbles on its axis. Eirk Ivins, a NASA scientist and co-author, likened it to how "a figure skater lifts one leg into the air while spinning."

West Antarctica shows a loss of 124 trillion kilograms of ice each year while East Antarctica loses 74 trillion kilograms every year. Each loss enhances the wobble, skewing polar motion towards the east.

However, Jianli Chen, a research scientist from the University of Texas' Center for Space Research, who first connected the pole shift to climate change back in 2013, doesn't believe that we have anything to fear.

"There is nothing to worry about," said Chen, who wasn't involved in the current study. "It is just another interesting effect of climate change."

The findings were published in the April 8, 2016, issue of the journal Science Advances.