Global warming has an impact on the weather, but also on the passage of time.
A study published Wednesday in the scientific journal
Nature
finds that the increased melting of polar ice is indeed affecting the measurement of time on a global scale in its own way.
Historically, man used the rotation of the Earth to measure time, divided into seconds.
Since 1972, however, the system has changed: Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), used throughout the world, is now based on data from 450 atomic clocks, the entire mechanism of which is based on the immutable nature of the vibrations of the atom of cesium 133.
At the time, however, experts decided to keep these two measures of time synchronized, because
"
sailors continued to rely on the sun and stars to navigate, and they wanted a standard of time that remained linked in some way from another to the rotation of the Earth ,
”
writes Patrizia Tavella, of the International Bureau of Weights…
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