20 replies to this topic

[BurnSide]

Check this out.

maybe i'm completely WRONG here, but this is my theory.

Ice is water which is frozen. No brainer. BUT, as water freezes it expands right? If you put water in a bottle, fill it to the top and screw the lid on, the bottle breaks when you freeze it.
So, the Polar Ice Caps are frozen water. It takes up almost double the mass of normal water, because it has expanded.

So, what if they do melt? Wouldn't that mean LESS mass in the sea? therefore there will be no giant floods, the earth will not be covered in water and infact pretty much the only thing that will happen is that on the beach we'll have to walk further to the water.


So there you have it. Now tell me your reasons why i'm completely wrong. I'm REALLY tired, so i may have missed a few things.  

[BurnSide]

No one has any opinion on this?

[Fluffybunny]

I think that you are missing the point that much of the ice of glaciers is above water, and on land. Most of the melting glacier water would then feed into the ocean adding to the quantity of water in the ocean.

That is my take on it, anyway...but who knows?

[BurnSide]

yeah i did realise afterwards that i missed that minor detail haha.

but even still, compared with the size of the ocean the amount of ice that is out of water is relatively tiny, and the mass of water that the ice has is even smaller since there is more ice than there is water in an ice burg or whatever.
so why do people worry that the world is going to be flooded? we'll probably see an overal rise of a foot tops.

[Falco Rex]

While the Ocean will rise due to the Icecaps melting it will happen incrementally and slowly enough for us to react accordingly..It's estimated that sea levels may rise up to 2 feet between now and 2100. You're not likely to get wet at that rate. If the current rate of melt stays even vaguely steady we may see a 200 foot rise in the ocean in the next 7000 years,but I doubt I'll care by then..
A lot of people will point to global warming as a factor in speeding up the Icecaps melting process, but keep in mind that during the Cretaceous Period there was twice as much Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere and the temperature at the poles was 50 degrees hotter than it is now, and the icecaps still held together..
So, overall I'd agree that it's nothing to get worked up over. If you live in New Orleans however, you might want to talk to a realtor...

[Curiosity]

Something to think about:
If you fill a glass with ice-cubes, and then fill the rest of it up to the very top with water, the ice is going to melt right? Right.  But did you know that even though it melts, it doesn't overflow!

[BurnSide]

that's because, as i said, ice takes up more mass than water. as water freezes it expands. so of course when the ice melts the glass wont overflow.

Falco Rex, thanks for the info bud. SO, why the hell is, or was, everyone so worked up about it? I sure as hell ain't gonna care in the year 2100. of course, my kids might, but hey, they'd have enough common sense to not build their house on the sand.


...
i hope.

[Falco Rex]

It was a big deal because when they first linked Polar melting to c02 emissions and the greenhouse effect it looked pretty bad for us..
However, it's been continually studied since then, and new information has come to light. Many people choose to ignore current thinking and just rely on the older "Doom and Gloom" theory..
Human Nature I guess..

[Chauncy]

I think the big worry about the ice cap melting is the damage to the Gulf Stream. not the amount of water.

We can think of the Gulf Stream as the upper part of a giant, watery conveyer-belt that carries warm water northwards from Florida. In the Arctic, cold, salty water sinks and spreads over the ocean bottom. This is the lower part of the conveyor-belt. The lower part, which flows near the sea bed, eventually delivers cold water back to the planet's warm regions where it is warmed again and the cycle repeats.

Global warming threatens to interrupt this convenient arrangement, because it's melting the Arctic ice-caps. These ice-caps are made up of fresh water and their melting makes the Arctic waters consistently less salty. The lower the saltiness, the less well the water sinks and the less well the conveyor-belt works.

History shows that melt-water has caused reduced saltiness in the past and this has caused the conveyor-belt and the Gulf Stream to shut down within a matter of a few years. The result in the past has been a dramatic cooling of the UK and North Western Europe.


Here's somemore info, for everyone.
http://www.destinasjontromso.no/gulfstrmme...istorie_eng.htm

[BurnSide]

Wow, i'd never heard that before.

Okay, so the world is warming up due to Global Warming and the Greenhouse effect. No bigge, let's just move to England and North Western Europe where it's gonna stay nice and cool.



I have a terrible habit at trying REALLY hard to look on the bright side.

[Chauncy]

[BurnSide]

Hmmm. So it'll be like the NorthWest Territories. Maybe that wont be so good.
Especially there. I remember back in England we had snow once in 14 years that i lived there, and the whole damn country came to a screetching halt. It was crazy.

[Boff]

People probally got worried aboot the whole thing after watching the movie Waterworld    

[Chauncy]

[zitch]

[FONT=Times][SIZE=7]
ok this is in response to the first few responses

I'm not sure if any of you know this but no one has ever actually set foot on antartica an that would be because of the fifty feet of ice that has bult up on the surface over the years. Think about what would happed if that much ice melted. And since all the ice is sitting on land it would drastically change the ocean. Which completely rules out the ocean staying how it is or decreasing in size.