{"id":823411,"date":"2026-07-24T16:28:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T16:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/823411\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T16:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T16:28:13","slug":"climate-change-is-slowly-making-our-days-longer-say-scientists-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/823411\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate change is slowly making our days longer, say scientists | story"},"content":{"rendered":"

The slowing stems\u00a0from melting polar ice<\/p>\n

\u2b50\ufe0fHERE\u2019S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW\u2b50\ufe0f<\/p>\n

\tA new study reports that climate change is making Earth\u2019s days longer.
\n\tMelting ice at Earth’s poles redistributes water closer to the equator.
\n\tThis redistribution pulls water away from Earth\u2019s axis, slowing it down.
\n\tScientists say this can cause issues for technology like satellites.\u00a0
\n\tRead on to find out why scientists find this mind-boggling. \u2b07\ufe0f\u2b07\ufe0f\u2b07\ufe0f<\/p>\n

We know that the effects of climate change are far-reaching.<\/p>\n

Scientists say human activity \u2014 through things like burning fossil fuels \u2014 is leading to more extreme weather, rising ocean levels and forest fires.<\/p>\n

But did you know it\u2019s also affecting our clocks?\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, scientists have found that melting ocean glaciers are slowing the rotation of the Earth, making our days longer by a fraction of a second each century.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Researchers say the time change, though slight, will grow larger as the years pass and poses threats to some technologies if not accounted for.<\/p>\n

How climate change makes our days longer<\/p>\n

Scientists say Earth\u2019s rotation is slowing because of the massive amounts of ice at Earth\u2019s North and South Poles that are melting.<\/p>\n

As it melts, the water from that ice gets closer to the equator, rather than staying frozen at the poles where Earth\u2019s axis lies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

According to a new study, ice at Earth\u2019s poles is melting due to climate change, redistributing water closer to the equator. (Image credit: James Balog\/Extreme Ice Survey\/Associated Press)<\/p>\n

The farther this water gets from Earth\u2019s axis, the more it has a dragging effect on Earth\u2019s rotation, slowing it down.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see the same principle in figure skating,\u201d said study author Benedikt Soja, a professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland, \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf skaters want to spin fast, they tuck their arms close to their body, toward their own axis of rotation. If they want to slow down, they reach their arms out,\u201d he told CBC Kids News.<\/p>\n

The Earth takes 24 hours to make one full rotation on its axis, so slowing Earth\u2019s rotation down means our days get longer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In total, researchers found that human-led climate change is lengthening our day by 1.33 milliseconds per century.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the most rapid climate-driven increase in day length observed in the past 3.6 million years, according to Soja.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Outside of climate change, tidal effects from the moon are the biggest factor slowing down the Earth, at a rate of 2.4 milliseconds per century.<\/p>\n

However, the study found that by the end of this century, climate change will surpass the moon\u2019s effects and become the biggest factor in slowing Earth\u2019s spin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Why does this matter? It\u2019s only milliseconds<\/p>\n

A millisecond is one-thousandth of a second.<\/p>\n

However, even one millisecond added to our daily clocks can have a huge impact on technology, said Soja.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Even millisecond changes to Earth\u2019s rotation time can have effects on certain technologies like satellites, which require precise calibration with clocks. (Image credit: Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd.)<\/p>\n

\u201cSatellite navigation and deep-space spacecrafts, for example, require precise calibration in order to operate properly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said that without accounting for these milliseconds, things like the GPS on your phone would end up making errors.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrecise calibration is also needed for spacecraft to land safely. That millisecond difference could lead a spacecraft to land hundreds of metres farther than intended,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Scientists, according to Soja, are constantly monitoring Earth’s rotation in order to account for these factors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The scale of human impact<\/p>\n

Compared to things like wildfire and more extreme weather, the slowing of Earth\u2019s rotation doesn\u2019t pose the same kind of immediate threat to humans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Scientists say climate change will soon become the biggest factor in the slowing of Earth\u2019s rotation. \u00a0(Image credit: . David Goldman\/Associated Press)
\u00a0<\/p>\n

That said, scientists say it is an example of how human activity can cause big changes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s really strange to see that now climate change, induced by humans, has actually reached a level of the moon in terms of the dominating factor influencing Earth\u2019s rotation,\u201d said Soja.\u00a0<\/p>\n

David Holland, a professor of math and environmental science at New York University, said there are many factors over billions of years that have made Earth\u2019s days shorter or longer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That said, he said the new finding is surprising.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just mind-boggling to me that we started burning fossil fuels roughly 150 years ago and we\u2019re now having effects like these on the Earth,\u201d he told CBC Kids News.<\/p>\n

Holland \u2014 who did his PhD in the 1990s on Arctic sea ice at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec \u00a0\u2014 said the study\u2019s findings are something he never could have predicted.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack then, no one on Earth thought the Arctic ice would go through this type of change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, half the Arctic melts during the summer, and in a few decades, it will be completely gone during the summer months\u201d. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Have more questions? \ufeffWant to tell us how we’re doing? Use the \u201csend us feedback\u201d link below. \u2b07\ufe0f\u2b07\ufe0f\u2b07\ufe0f<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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