What will happen if the ice caps begin to melt and how can we prevent it?

Answer 1

Humans can influence the rate at which it happens. The best thing to do is to push the governments of the world to accept the Kyoto accords. This included the US government.

Answer 2

If the ice caps melt, that will cause a number of problems (I'm only going to list 2). First off, it means an increase in sea level. many cities on the coast are either at sea level or only a foot or two above sea level. In otherwords, many costal towns and cities (like Boston for example) could possibly be underwater.

Secondly, it will make the sea less salty. It's just like when your soda gets watered down from when the ice cubes you put in it melt. The creatures in the sea like the water to have a certain amount of salt and when salt level changes, it can cause major problems to marine life. It could possibly kill off a lot of the fish, amphibians, and mammals (like whales and dolphins) living there.

Preventing this from happening is a TOUGH job. Cutting the amount of green house gases is a great start. Walk, ride a bike, or take the bus. Use efficient light bulbs to cut down on energy comsumption. Turn the light off when you leave the room. Don't let your computer run all day when you are gone. These are just a few ways in which you help. Little changes like this are easy! In the long run (over years and years), you can save many tons of green house gases from being released.

I read an article a few years ago that forecasted (I can't remember the source) even if the human race were to stop producing green house gases this very second, the effects of all the carbon dioxide, methane, etc would be felt for the next 100 years to come. The temperature would still rise because of all the years we have been polluting the atmosphere.

Answer 3

This is kind of a big problem. The ice caps are starting to melt. Well more precisely the north pole ice cap is starting to melt. Fortunately that ice is all floating ice so it will not raise sea levels just by melting.

Even more fortunately the Antarctic ice cap, which is not floating for the most part and would raise sea levels a lot, over 200 feet, if it were to melt appears to be stable - so far.

Worse it is not clear that we could prevent the ice caps from melting. If mankind were to disappear tomorrow but leave behind the CO2 we have already pumped into the atmosphere, the ice caps still might melt.

On the other hand if we keep pumping out gigatons per year of CO2 for the next 50 - 100 years like the GW naysayers would have us do we can be certain that the odds of the ice caps melting would be higher.

So what can we do? I like a combination of incentives. One of the most powerful is a Carbon Tax. That would shift our tax burden from income taxes to a tax on CO2 emission levied on fuel and other energy sources. That would not raise our taxes but would refocus them on carbon (CO2) emission sources. That would create very powerful market forces that would drive us away from technologies that rely on fossil fuels or that otherwise result in CO2 emissions. It would in so doing create powerful demand for alternative energy sources.

In parallel with that the government needs to start investing in our energy infrastructure to support the widespread implementation of alternative energy. One characteristic of wind and solar power for instance is that it is not a continuous source so different regions of the country will need to trade energy back and forth so that everyone is covered. That will place greater demands on the electricity grid, which needs to be upgraded to support distributed power generation. Also energy storage technologies need a lot more research and investment. There are a number of other areas that need investment in basic research and in applied research to bring them to market faster and more economically.

These are all problems that people are working on today but if more people were working on it we would get there faster.

Answer 4

Good question but it is about a century too late.

The simple answer is the fresh water of the ice caps will flow into the salt water of the oceans. The natural shorelines everywhere will raise a few feet if not somewhere between 5 - 25 feet. (Gulp).

The fresh water form ice caps will alter ocean thermal currents that will cause a re-distribution of rainfall and temperatures globally.

Land masses used to rainfall, will begin a process called desertification, where the water inside the soil evaporates and then is re-distributed elsewhere. Other areas will freeze because the ocean currents no longer bring warmed air to that region.

Marine biology and fishing and breeding grounds will shift as will coral reef development altering the biosphere in a tremendous way to create new habitats and destroy others.

By the way, the Earth will be fine no matter what climate is has. The planet will survive. The many plant and animal species will re-distribute as well.

125 million years ago, a huge meteor smashed into the Earth and obliterated most of all life on the planet for millions of years. But the planet was fine and the plants and animals eventually came back to life with huge dinosaurs that turned in to oil later. One dinosaur with a very enlarge brain became the dominant species for a few million years.

65 million years ago another huge meteor smashed into the Earth and wiped out most plants and animals for millions of years. The planet was fine and the animals and plants came back differently according to the distribution of water. One animal species, man, with a very large brain became the dominant species for a few thousand years.

So just to set the record straight, the planet is fine with all this melting and re-distribution of water. Only one species is the cause and it seems to be the most effected by its own actions.

But don't worry. The planet is fine. ;)

Jimmy Higgins

Answer 5

we can't prevent ice caps from melting

they melt and freeze in cycles

we just have to adapt or not

Answer 6

We can't stop anything like that. If they melt we will go into another ice age.

Answer 7

Water level of sea may rise and one day the waves may knock our doors if we don't stop global.

Answer 8

water levels may rise, and no, humans can't prevent it. DOn't ever think humans can prevent any type of nature.