Will the vast amount of fresh water being dumped into the North Atlantic due to global warming effect mankind?

Question

Global warming has significantly eroded the polar caps of the north and the antartic. Huge chunks of ice are melting in the warmer ocean waters. These icebergs are made of fresh water. Will this huge amount of fresh water effect global weather in a positive way. Or will mankind have to brace for another disaster?

Answer 1

It absoultey will effect the entire planet, not just human kind. Altering the salinity of the oceans as well as the ion levels and other dissolved media will drastically affect the ecosystems within the oceans thereby affecting the land ecosystems. Then the global air and water patterns will be effected. El Nino was not just a random phenonenon.

Answer 2

yes it is bad because as the water rises animals will loose their homes including humans on the coast and animals will die and ruin the food chain. And for those who think that global warming isn't going on because the average temperature for a day was higher then normal, that doesn't make a difference it is the average below the earth and are ozone. The temperature is also not determined by one day but rather centuries. Their is also the idea of green house gasses over the last few years that have attributed to a rise and their has already been damage done to people because of it. The damage may not be serious to humans from Global warming and it has slow down but if water keeps getting higher the damage will be seen to animals and which will effect us because of how the food chain works.

Answer 3

No, the large amounts of fresh water are disturbing the deep sea thermo haline current which keeps the North Atlantic current functioning. As its density decreases, this current will stop (it has already slowed down considerably) this will mean another ice age and the end of the Amazon Rainforest.

Answer 4

Global warming refers to the observed increases in the average temperature of the Earth's atmosphere and oceans in recent decades.

The average global temperature rose 0.6 ± 0.2 °Celsius (1.1 ± 0.4 ° Fahrenheit) over the 20th century, and the scientific opinion on climate change is that it is likely that "most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities" [1]. The increased volumes of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) released by the burning of fossil fuels, land clearing and agriculture, and other human activities, are the primary sources of the human-induced component of warming.

Observational studies and climate models indicate that the climate sensitivity to doubled CO2 is in the range 1.5-4.5 °C (2.7-8.1 °F); models referenced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predict that global temperatures may increase by between 1.4 and 5.8 °C (2.5 to 10.5 °F) between 1990 and 2100. The range of uncertainty is primarily the result of the difficulty of predicting the volume of future carbon dioxide emissions, but there is also some uncertainty about the climate sensitivity.

An increase in global temperatures can in turn cause other changes, including a rising sea level and changes in the amount and pattern of precipitation. These changes may increase the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, such as floods, droughts, heat waves, hurricanes and tornados. Other consequences include higher or lower agricultural yields, glacier retreat, reduced summer streamflows, species extinctions and increases in the ranges of disease vectors. Although warming is expected to affect the number and magnitude of these events, it is difficult to connect particular events to global warming. Although most studies focus on the period up to 2100, warming (and sea level rise due to thermal expansion) is expected to continue past then, since CO2 has a long average atmospheric lifetime. [2].

There is a small number of scientists who contest the view that humanity's actions have played a significant role in increasing recent temperatures. However, more significant uncertainties exist regarding how much climate change should be expected in the future, and there is a hotly contested political and public debate over what, if anything, should be done to reduce or reverse future warming, and how to cope with the consequences.

The term 'global warming' is a specific case of the more general term 'climate change' (which can also refer to cooling, such as occurs during Ice ages). In principle, 'global warming' is neutral as to the causes, but in common usage, 'global warming' generally implies a human influence. However, the UNFCCC uses 'climate change' for human-caused change, and 'climate variability' for other changes [3]. Some organizations use the term 'anthropogenic climate change' for human-induced changes.

Answer 5

There is no global warming. If the Earth's atmosphere is actually cooler today that what it was last year, how can that be called "warming"? That sounds more like cooling.

Answer 6

Haven't you seen Day After Tommorrow? No? Don't, it is really bad.