2006-07-15 08:25:02 · 8 answers · asked by mackjam38 1 in Environment
A week or two.
2006-07-15 08:28:41 · answer #1 · answered by Jimmy 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Nobody knows for sure. The worst predictions I have heard do not have them ever melting completely and do not have them melting enough to make a noticeable rise in sea level for some decades yet.
Note that we have always had a greenhouse effect through all the millions of years of Earth's history, because there has always been carbon dioxide in the air. Plants need it to live. Without it we would be an ice planet. In fact, it is known from astrophysics that the Sun was about 30% cooler billions of years ago when the Earth first formed, and at that time there was believed to be far, far more carbon dioxide in the air. The Gaia hypothesis says that life has slowly removed carbon dioxide from the air at just the right rate to keep the planet at the right temperature for life to exist as the sun has grown hotter.
2006-07-15 17:19:52 · answer #2 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the more we consume gasoline, the more we increase the CO2 emissions, therefore increasing the greenhouse effect. the greenhouse effect is an effect where heat is trapped in the earth causing temperature to rise. so the higher the temperature, the more faster the ice caps melt. but the more it melts, the higher the sea level elevation. but however, we're being protected by the ozone layer, if we didn't have it, we would be living underwater already. but sea level elevation isn't a major different, just 1.5 cm or so, but if we continue to consume massive amounts of gasoline, we sure would be occurring more sea level elevation. it brings rise to threats of the polar bears especially if the ice sheets continue to melt, they have no area to live on, therefroe they swim in the ocean and freeze.
2006-07-15 19:15:49 · answer #3 · answered by krazych1nky 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The ice caps are already melting. If we don't take stronger measure to reduce greenhouse gases real soon, in 30 years global warming may be so far advanced that we will not be able to reverse it. This is a serious issue, and those who try to downplay it are wrong.
2006-07-15 17:14:10 · answer #4 · answered by James H 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i used to believe in the hype that antarctica is melting and half of greenland has melted away and all that, so i started researching this subject. part of my research involved looking at the basic empirical data in front of my eyes. having spent much of the last 20 years in NYC and LA, i thought about the coast line. i realized that it has not changed during that time-not by one noticable bit. this got me to thinking, if all the ice has melted, why has the coastline (ie the sea level), not changed?
so, i researched it some more and did lots of calculations and spoke to a lot of experts. If all the ice caps were to melt, the level of the sea would rise 200-250 feet. i was a little off in my anecdotal evidence that the coastline has not changed. it has changed. it has risen by 1 inch in the last 20 years. the data pretty clearly shows that average temperatures have risen in the last 100 years, but the result has been enough melting in the caps to raise the sea level by 5 inches in the last 100 years.
surely this rate can increase, but if you think about what kinds of things that we do to cause global warming, i would argue that there are much worse things happening than the oceans rising by 5 inches in 100 years. we need to reduce our consumption of fossil fuels by raising the tax on them to reflect the real cost of using them.
2006-07-15 15:39:41 · answer #5 · answered by hanumistee 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the greenhouse effect is natural it is just hot air being trapped in side the earth heated by the sun. the probal is that their is to much carbon in the air which holds heat creating global warming the to are seperate but the same. the ice caps will melt when their good and ready its hard to say becouse the earth goes throught natural cooling and heating cycles.
2006-07-15 15:30:43 · answer #6 · answered by ah64dtk 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you're serious, go see An Inconvenient Truth, playing now. And visit, www.climatecrisis.net .
Either way, we have 50 years before major destruction is caused by the melting Antarticia
2006-07-15 15:32:07 · answer #7 · answered by Mike B 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
they have been melting for a while already ,also the poles and the ice in greenland ,and the glaziers ,as well as the ice caps ,all of it getting lost in the seas
you will find more details in the answers of this following question
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=ApSV5VmVXTrYebX05RMS_HXsy6IX?qid=20060715103818AA0USh5
2006-07-16 01:57:12 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋