Melting polar ice is having an unexpected side effect on the planet: It’s messing with global timekeeping.
And that, in turn, is making it harder for the scientists tasked with preserving the accuracy of the world’s universal clocks, down to a quarter of a second.
The issue for timekeepers is that the planet doesn’t always spin at a constant speed. A variety of factors can affect its rotation, including physical changes at the Earth’s surface or inside its core.
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And in recent decades, one of the main factors driving those physical changes on Earth has been human-induced climate change.
