Tick tick boom: Climate change is impacting time
Bella Coco, News Editor.
While we may not feel it, days are going by faster this summer.
So far, July 10 was the shortest day of 2025. The day was 1.36 milliseconds shorter than the regular scheduled programming of 24 hours (or 86, 400 seconds), and scientists predict that late July and early August may hold even shorter days.
Remember the panic around Y2K? Some experts predict a similar future scenario could be on the horizon now that days are getting shorter, especially since many satellites and computers are tracking the changes with atomic clocks.
While a millisecond is imperceptible to us as we go through our days, the changes in time may have a chance of interfering with GPS technology.
Satellites and computers could see long term effects with the changes being tracked by atomic clocks, and some experts are even predicting a future scenario similar to the Y2K issue.
Duncan Agnew, a professor of geophysics at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and a research geophysicist at the University of California, San Diego, told CTV News that since 1972, the planet has been headed towards shorter days.
Due to improving technology, scientists are able to predict when shorter days are about to occur. Agnew says that the short-term changes in Earth’s rotation come from the moon and tides, typically. When satellites are over the equator, Earth slows down. However, at higher or lower altitudes, it speeds up, he said.
“This effect compounds with the fact that during the summer Earth naturally spins faster — the result of the atmosphere itself slowing down due to seasonal changes, such as the jet stream moving north or south.” Agnew said.
On the other hand, climate change is counteracting our speeding Earth.
As more ice melts, Earth spins faster, further changing the rotation and speed of our days. The melted ice water flows from either the South or North pole towards the equator and creates very minuscule changes in the shape of the planet.
Scientists still aren’t sure which direction time will go, whether it’s the moon that takes charge of the ever-rising warmth of our planet.
