Days are getting longer as Earth’s rotation slows, easing up more quickly than scientists thought, and climate change is playing a role here, especially as glaciers and polar ice melt away. That melting ice shifts a lot of water toward the equator, which throws off the balance of Earth’s mass and nudges our planet into spinning just a bit slower. Researchers everywhere are paying attention, since this small change could eventually mess with how we keep exact time.

Why Is Earth’s Rotation Slowing Down?

• Melting Polar Ice: The rapid melting of glaciers and ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica results in the redistribution of water mass from the poles towards the equator, thus increasing the Earth’s moment of inertia and slowing its rotation.
• The “Figure Skater Effect”: The process is likened to a figure skater who slows down when they stretch out their arms while spinning. In the same way, as the mass of the Earth increases, its rate of rotation slows down.
• Climate Change and Mass Redistribution: Between 2000 and 2020, climate change-induced effects have led to an increase in the length of a day by an additional 1.33 milliseconds per century, according to recent scientific studies.
• Sea Level Rise: The melting ice sheets result in an increase in sea levels, which have risen by an average of 3.3 millimetres every year, thus redistributing mass and slowing the Earth’s rotation.

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How Does This Change Compare with Natural Forces?

• Moon’s Gravitational Influence: Traditionally, the Moon’s tidal pull has been the primary factor in the slowing rotation of the Earth, causing the length of a day to increase by 2.4 milliseconds per century.
• Human Influence Becoming Stronger: According to scientists, at the end of the 21st century, climate change could have a greater effect on the length of a day compared to the Moon’s gravitational influence.
• Ancient Evidence from Fossils: Researchers have used fossils of benthic foraminifera, small marine creatures that contain chemicals that can indicate ancient sea levels, to investigate ancient changes in the rotation of the Earth.
• Unprecedented Change: According to studies, the current change in the rotation of the Earth may be the fastest in at least 3.6 million years, or since the end of the late Pliocene epoch.

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What Could Longer Days Mean for Timekeeping and Technology?

As far as a day being longer is concerned, the change is measured in milliseconds; however, this minute amount still has a major impact on all modern technological processes, such as GPS satellites and other space-based navigational aids, telecommunication networks, and high-frequency trading platforms, which rely heavily on highly accurate timing provided by atomic clocks.

Current projections suggest that, if present greenhouse gas emissions remain at or close to the present levels, the length of the day could be extended by 2.62 milliseconds (on average) throughout the remainder of the 21st century. Moreover, the continuing trend of days getting longer as Earth’s rotation slows is just another tangible consequence of global warming on the Earth’s physical systems.

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