Melting ice caps are slowing Earths rotation, shifting how we measure time – National [Video]

Ever wished you could get a second of your life back? Well, that could one day be a reality. And no — we’re not talking about time travel.

A study published Wednesday in the journal Nature investigated how the changing rotation of the Earth — which is not as consistent as you might think — will have huge implications for how we measure time, since we base our calendars and clocks on how long it takes for the Earth to fully rotate.

What the paper found is that melting polar ice caps are redistributing a massive amount of water from the North and South poles across the world’s oceans. This is causing the Earth’s rotation to significantly slow.

You can see this phenomenon play out when a figure skater raises her arms over her head to rapidly spin. When she brings her arms back down, her spin slows. So as more and more water weight is diverted from the poles and distributed around Earth’s …