Melting Polar Ice caps?

Question

with the polar caps melting and breaking up , why cant they use liquid nitrogen , spread a few thousand gallons around, fill a few of the big cracks and refreeze the icecaps, maybe repair some of the damage thats been done

Answer 1

No offense, but the ice caps are supposed to melt. As long as there are glaciers, even at the poles, it's still an ice age. No kidding. We just happen to be LUCKY enough to be at the end of the ice age, not the beginning.

Imagine if we had to look forward to fifty thousand years of freezing. I'd far prefer the warming weather myself.

Edit: With a little research, anyone can find that there is substantial evidence to support the idea that inbetween ice ages there are sub-tropical to tropical temperatures over most of the planet. It seems that the scientific community put quite a bit of effort into these studies, and they all agree that we are indeed moving towards a climate change, based on past weather cycles of the planet. For those who choose to ignore the evidence of these past changes, good luck on that "fixing global warming" thing.

Don't fret, it's a natural process. We're just pretty new in the big picture, and some of the longer cycles are still weird to us (look up the fact that the Earth changes poles every so often and you'll see what I mean. North is south and south is north? weird.).

Answer 2

The refrigerator analogy is a good one. Think about it. The fridge cools down a confined space, but to do this it uses electricity. If you put your hand at the back of the fridge you can feel the slight warmth. It never gets very hot as it is venting into a large space. It is even more noticeable with a deep freeze.

If you open the door of the fridge the room temperature may go down at first but the fridge will start to use more and more electricity to cool down its working space and will always create more heat than it can cool. So the room temperature will go up.

Now if we could teleport that liquid nitrogen in from outer space . . . . . . !

OR we could just paint all our house rooves white so that it reflects the sunlight back into space like the ice caps. That would be a good start.

Answer 3

some say definite, some say no. no, 1/2 of antarctica has no longer melted. some products have damaged off. the easily conception is that if the entire element does melt, there'll be adequate water to strengthen the oceans something like one hundred' which will inundate maximum coastal cities & areas. no longer adequate to kill all people interior the international. also, the entire international cycles, and has for tens of millions and tens of millions of years. ultimately, there'll be a huge melt off of the ice caps, which will cool the oceans and damage down the salinity. this can close down the jet flow which will convey on a international cooling. this can strengthen new ice sheets over the northern & southern hemispheres and we commence all yet another time. mankind has come a lengthy lengthy way because this surpassed off very last. i'm particular that we are able to arise with options to stay with the replacing climate.

Answer 4

It would be a reasonable solution, but the damage is so extensive now it would be virtually impossible to correct given the vast distances we are talking about.

Not to mention the fact that when you fix one place, another right next to it is breaking off into the ocean. The freezing repair would at best be a band-aid approach to a problem that is way beyond the kind of "fix" you are describing.

Plus the warming of the poles is at a point where it may be past the point of no return and inevitably it will indeed happen and in a not too distant future, apparently.

Answer 5

With respect, this is like cooling your house on a hot day by opening your refrigerator. It is inefficient and provides minor results, for a short period of time.

I suppose we could dump some liquid nitrogen on the poles, and freeze some. Then, it gets hotter and melts again. Moreover, you will expend even more energy creating the liquid nitrogen - more carbon in the atmosphere, making the problem worse.

Answer 6

Well now, let's see.

We make liquid nitrogen, which takes a lot of energy.

Then we store it in cryogenic tanks, which take a lot of energy to produce.

Then we put the tanks on ships and transport them to the bottom of the globe, which must use an awful lor of oil.

Then we send in specialist teams of "freezer men" by air, all equipped with heated accomodation, fed, watered and kept in communication.....that's a lot of energy going backwards and forwards.

The we have to pumpp the liquid-nitrogen all over the place.....quite long distances involved, and a lot of energy expended.

Then the ship goes back empty, and we start all over again; during which time, the sun came out and boiled off all the liquid-nitrogen.

No.....it's getting too complicated already.

Answer 7

The damage is to severe.The planet has allready started on a path of climate change.Which means trees could be planted in greenland, huge forests.Think of the potential posative actions we can take and don't worry about it to much.We have the ability to put the forests back and preserve whats left of the planets polar regions by new legislation.The experts could have it wrong and its climate shift that occurs every 5000 years.
Technology we have.Changeing the current way we live is key.
Talking about envionment issues and trying to solve them is clearly a step in the right direction.
The truth is.......Do we have time.
If we knew more about the weather we could possibly release a chemical in the atmosphere that could make it colder in polar regions.And combined with your idea and a few more ideas who knows maybe we could save the planet......

Answer 8

Theresa A has it exactly right and she should get the ten points in my opinion. During the last interglacial period that lasted about 25-30,000 years, called the Emian period, the Earth's poles completely melted. (Do a google search on "Emian period") How was this allowed to happen, people?!?! The poles then re-froze for about another 120,000 years during the last ice age. We are now in another interglacial warm spell, but the poles haven't quite had a chance to completely melt just yet, but they WILL MELT, regardless of what we do, just give it time. (We are only about 10,000 years into this current interglacial period, so the melting hasn't had a chance to happen yet.) I think anyone who curses global warming needs to lay the blame squarely where it is most deserving and most appropriately due, and that is squarely on the shoulders of the cave people who so irresponsibly allowed it to happen back in the Emian period, don't you agree? Fortunately, Mother Nature eventually came to those cave peoples' assistance and threw us back into an ice age, where places like Detroit, Michigan and Moscow, Russia were under 10,000 feet of ice, like they are supposed to be. We just need to bide our time and wait another 15-20,000 years, and Mother Nature will again return us to another ice age, like the Earth really should be, and save us from all of this global warming catastrophy. Don't you agree?

Answer 9

It is a saying that only a fool tries to forecast the weather. I think those that are forecasting that all the polar ice caps are going to melt are far worse off. Chicken little .

Answer 10

Making liquid nitrogen takes a lot of power, and generating that power emits greenhouse gasses. Anyway, a mere few thousand gallons would not be enough. Millions of gallons would probably not be enough.