Scientists say the ice caps are melting fast, meaning rise in sea levels.?

Question

surely the rise in temperature will increase condensation, thus subtracting the water from the ice caps melting- whereby cancelling each other and meaning little or no effect in sea levels.

Answer 1

You're partly right.

In fact the major stabilising fact is cloud cover. Any increase in temperature DOES lead to more water being suspended in the air, but that alone doesn't offset the ice melting. However, those clouds also reflect sunlight, and the more there are, the less heat we get from the sun.

So basically global warming stops itself happening at a certain, safe level.

Why don't environmentalists recognise this? Because the profile of environmentalism has been raised so much by the global warming issue.

Answer 2

Melting the Arctic ice cap, or any other ice that's floating, won't change sea levels. This is because something that floats displaces its own mass in water: when it melts, it becomes water of the same volume (and therefore mass) that it was pushing out of the way when it floated. If the ice on land melted, then a huge portion of it would flow into the oceans. Greenland could raise sea levels by 7m, and Antarctica by 70m. Wiki has some info[1]. This would be catastrophic; everywhere that's under 77m above sea level could be drowned, creating the largest refugee crisis in world history. In all honesty, it would probably be enough to cripple our current civilisation and lead to an immense death toll. With less land, there are fewer agricultural resources so there could be less food and more wars fought. However, this is unlikely. The East Antarctic ice sheet seems to be gaining mass from increased snowfall. West Antarctic is shrinking, and Greenland is probably shrinking the most. The Arctic appears to be shrinking a lot, at least during Summer, but that won't affect sea level rise. Unfortunately, less ice means more warming though, because ice is shiny and reflects heat away from Earth, whilst the land/sea under it is less so. It's possible that temperatures this century will trigger the long term collapse of Greenland over centuries or millennia, but sea level rises this century are projected to be under 2m, and that's a high estimate. Current expectations are for under 1m![2].

Answer 3

you are right. The Ice caps have been melting ever since the Ice age began. The earth takes at least a million generations before anything would be noticed to any extent. The earth itself is cooling and shrinking and that is why we have earth quakes. It is really a ball of fire that we are living on, with a crust of about 50 miles thick. When you consider the diameter of 8 thousand miles, we don't see much do we.

In the Black hills of South Dakota in a little town called Deadwood. There is a mining company that is currently drilling into rock with a temperature of 120 Degrees. That should tell us something. Just above Deadwood, is the town of Lead, named after the source of the Gold in Deadwood Gulch, where Wild bill kickock tried his hand at mining in a small way.

Answer 4

the input of water is a key consideration. However one of the biggest reasons for observed sea level rise and fall is called isostatic and eustatic rebound. Its like this if you fill a bath of water and the get in it the level goes up (Eureka). but wait there is more..

now think of this on global level. when the ice caps are removed, due to the pliability of the layers under the rust the surface will return to its original state (like when you get out of the bath the water returns back to the same level). But the weight of the water increases the weight on the sea bed in a more uniformed fashion (like if you push down on sponge with one finger only a small part is lowered but when you put your whole hand down) causing the observed sea level rise.

When talking about sea level rise it is always relative. e.g N Italy in the last 120,000 yrs has had a relative sea level rise, in parts of up to 80m where as in the south and sicily there has been a relative sea level fall of 120m in some parts. There fore it is always a local issue and is hard to generalise

This issue is very complex and there have been many scientific studies on the topic.

Hope this helps

Answer 5

The Artic Ice Cap melting will have no effect on sea levels because there is no land underneath it - ice floats on water and has already displaced the amount it will add, however the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet and the Antartic Ice Cap will because both of them have a land mass underneath them.

Answer 6

Although there are a myriad arguements to this question yours specifically notes ice caps which, by being whiter than seawater reflect more light. You note condensation which combined with greater sea surfaces will absorb more heat into the atmosphere and oceans increasing sea levels amongst other things.

Answer 7

remember that the water you are adding to the system is very cold, this could have consequences too. We know that the oceans circulate warm water from the equator up towards england and france (in the atlantic, up to west coast US and Canada in the pacific) and that this warm water greatly moderates the temperatures in these areas. if you input large quantities of cold water in to this system, it could potentially stop the warm circulating water and bring on the next ice age ... so it might not be the rising sea levels that will get us in the end.

Answer 8

Ummmm.................. This is a VERY COMPLEX question that would require a SUPER COMPUTER and several hundred thousand Engineers to even approximate the outcome of your Scenario. But, that being said, the Earth, as with ALL Systems, has a Cyclical Property that can not be ignored or very easily changed. We are in the middle of one of those cycles. Just hope and pray that "Toba" Erupts again and settles things out ;-)

Answer 9

wel my friend if water need to be evaporated it need a sufficiant energy to turn into vapour rise in 1 or two degree in heat does not evaporate water but surly does melt ice so clearly that ice is melting and the are more voilent rains and winds because of more water in sea every year and you can see for your self that earth is getting more and more violent every year

Answer 10

Due to the evaporation, there will be extensive rain fall (see Noah's ark) But on the good side B&Q and Home Depot have a special offer on wellington boots and rain coats