The Earth’s rotation rate is changing, in part due to global warming. Melting ice flows away from high latitudes: “a transfer of mass away from the poles towards the equator, which slows down the Earth’s rotation rate”.
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Discussion 3 comments
Oh cool, another thing to add to the list of stuff that triggers existential dread when I’m lying awake at 2 am. (Which apparently isn’t exactly 2 am anymore??)
This is interesting, but also seems like bordering on shark attack hysteria? Deciding that we can attribute some percentage of fluctuations in time forecasting to melting polar ice only points to a "Y2K-style glitch" insofar as Y2K was a nothingburger..
I deal with time for work a little, and this one has been interesting to make sure we are prepared for, if it happens. Seems like for 99.9% of the world this won't cause any actual problems. And heck, they are mostly through the process of getting rid of leap seconds entirely by 2035, so the impact could be short-lived. As always the only way to win the game is not to play.
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