The earth isn’t losing the bulge round its middle as fast as it should be because of global warming, scientists say.
The earth is not a perfect sphere—in fact, a person standing at the equator is actually 21 kilometres further from the centre of the planet than someone standing at the North Pole. But up until recently, the earth seemed to be losing weight. Ever since scientists started measuring the “equatorial bulge” it has retracted at a rate of about seven millimetres per decade.
But now that’s all changed. The Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets are melting, and all that extra water has made the shrinkage of the equator come to a halt. Yet another effect of global warming: it makes it harder for the planet to lose weight.