Why are icecaps melting?

Question

What are the reasons behind melting icaecaps? Can they be stopped? Will the malting of them have effects?

Answer 1

Normally, our atmosphere would absorb a little heat from the sun and reflect the rest back into space. What greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide do is trap MORE of the heat in the atmosphere. This causes temperatures to rise. So, while the sun is what provides the heat, it is not the cause of global warming and thus not the cause of melting icecaps. Rather, greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide are the causes of this phenomenon.

The result is what we commonly call "global warming". It has dire consequences for life on Earth, not just human life. Al Gore talks about pine beetles, mosquitos, and i think seals in the movie The Inconvenient Truth as examples of this, but there are infinitely more.

Water has, what scientists call, a high "specific heat" which essentially means that it takes a lot of energy to change the temperature of water even a few degrees. Thus, water acts somewhat like an insulator. Think about Hawaii for example. It is a relatively small land mass surrounded by the comparatively large Pacific Ocean. The water maintains pretty much the same temperature year round keeping the climate pretty much the same. Now think about Arizona or any other state inland. You see more extreme weather there - scorching summers and frigid winters - because of the proximity to water.

Talking about water in terms of global warming:
Since water can absorb a lot of energy, most of the heat from the sun that is trapped by the gases like carbon dioxide are absorbed by the ocean. This slowly raises the temperature of the ocean which results in warmer climate and causes ice to melt. The melting of ice (polar ice caps) results in increased sea level that will ultimately cause flooding and cities going underwater.

Ice caps melting expedites the whole process. Ice is very reflective and a terrific insulator. It reflects wavelengths of light including infrared (heat). Polar ice caps thus help keep the surface of the earth cooler by reflecting heat away from the earth's surface. However, when these ice bodies melt, nothing is there to prevent the heat from being absorbed by the water beneath it (oceans). Thus, even more heat is absorbed and Earth gets hotter faster.

Note that refreezing water is much harder than melting it: once Earth's temperatures are much warmer, how are we going to get them low enough to freeze water?

I highly recommend watching The Inconvenient Truth (Al Gore's movie). It will explain the whole concept in a layman's way so it is easy for anyone to understand and is also interesting.

Answer 2

The icecaps are melting because the Earth is going through on of its periodic warming phases. Just as it has been for millions of years.

No, it's not likely that the Earth can be somehow 'forced' to quite warming up.

Yes, the melting of the icecaps will have significant effects on global weather, the environment, and life itself.

Now take causalists suggestion and go watch 'an unpleasant truth'. And do try not to laugh too much until you get outside of the theater ☺


Doug

Answer 3

to extend the water point in basic terms the icecaps melting isn't viewed yet all of the ice modern-day on the precise of the mountain; at over the land of Antarctica could desire to be viewed. If Temperature rises no longer in basic terms icecaps melts yet ice worldwide(on the precise of the mountain; at over the land of Antarctica etc.) could desire to be melts and brought about flood. thank you.

Answer 4

I can answer your question in one word - sun. Yes the sun is the cause of global warming. Our "smart scientist" never stop to ask the question; is the suns' output constant. Looking at the past history of the earth you see that the earth is constantly warming then cooling. We don't have the thermostat controls.

Answer 5

see the documentary/movie "an inconvenient truth"