How would the global annual temperature range of the Earth be affected by a greater coverage by oceans?

Question

In the movie Waterworld, global warming has led to the complete melting of Earth’s ice caps and glaciers. The sea level has risen so much that a very small portion of the land remains above sea level.

1. How would the global annual temperature range of the Earth be affected by a greater coverage by oceans? Would it be a greater or lower annual range compared to what it is now? Explain.

Answer 1

The funny thing about the movie waterworld is that even if all the ice in the polar caps melted - the ocean would only rise by about 70m.... the continents would still be VERY obvious, and it would hardly be a "waterworld".

That being said... with that much open water on the planet would probably increase the avg. global temperature and lower the range, as water vapor is a very potent greenhouse gas.

Answer 2

The funny thing about the movie Waterworld is that even after the almost eradication of humans and greenhouse gas producers, the Earth still did not cool enough to reform the icecaps.