Melting ice caps slowing Earth’s rotation, study shows

Melting polar ice caps are slowing the planet’s rotation, which could change how we measure time, according to a new report.

The study published in Nature, says the climate crisis is changing where the planet’s mass is concentrated, shifting ice from the poles to become water at the equator, which has a significant impact on the planet’s rate of spin.

Duncan Agnew, study author and geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego, gives the analogy of a figure skater spinning on ice.

“If you have a skater who starts spinning, if she lowers her arms or stretches out her legs, she will slow down,” he told NBC News. However, drawing in the skaters arms reduces resistance and causes them to spin faster, he said.

In the last few decades several factors have caused the planet to temporarily spin faster, prompting scientists to consider subtracting a leap second from global clocks by 2026.

Agnew suggests the effect of melting ice caps could delay this by around three years.