are the polar ice caps melting?

Answer 1

The Arctic is melting rather quickly:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4290340.stm

The Antarctic is much larger and colder, so it is melting much less. Basically a few of the ice shelfs on the edge have collapsed.

Answer 2

Yes they are. We have lots of photos, especially from satellites that show they are melting. There's also a lot of ground readings that are taken to measure the depth of the ice and so on.

In the last 10 years about 2 million square miles of the Arctic Ice Cap has melted, it's shrinking by about 7% a year.

The Arctic is floating so when it melts it doesn't cause sea levels to rise. However, the Greenland Ice Sheet and Antarctica aren't floating so melting here adds to the water already in the seas and oceans - don't worry, sea level rises are very small - about 3mm a year most of which is because they oceans expand as they warm up.

The ice caps act like huge glaciers, the snow that falls on them is compacted into ice and this eventually makes it's way to the edge of the ice caps. The ice at the edges is melted and undercut by the movement of the seas and this is what causes large pieces of ice to break off - doubtless you've seen these pictures on TV. In recent years this melting has accelerated, especially in the Arctic regions.

There's also been some spectacular breaking up of the Antarctic Ice, 5 years ago the Larsen B Ice Shelf broke off, this was a piece bigger then Rhode Island.

Answer 3

yes and the mountain glaziers and the mountain snows
there is a race on and many ships are going to the poles to harvest ice for drinking water
because;

WATER

97%of the Earths water is salt

fresh water is only 3% of all the Earths water
most of it is beyond out reach

now much ice is melting and running into the seas fresh water lost for ever.

STORAGE or Location of % of the fresh water
ice and glaziers 74%
groundwater 800 meters + 13.5 %
groundwater less than 800meters 11.o%
Lakes 0.3%
soils 0.006%
Atmospheric in circulation 0.0035%
rivers 0.03%


frozen land or permafrost is not included and represent an unavailable storage of 40%

so of the 3% about 11.6 ,is easily available to us ,in rivers, lakes and ground water surface aquifers,more and more of this is becoming contaminated

overpopulation of an extra 70 million people a year (increasing all the time )and expanding agriculture ,which uses 70% of available potable water supplies ,has brought the good(sweet) water suplies to critical levels ,some countries have been in trouble already quite a while .

now climate change and desertification because of irresponsible agriculture ,overgrazing and deforrestation is damaging world fresh water production .

it is a good reason for concern and if we do not rectify matters by changing agricultural methods ,reforrest ,stop deforrestation,become more economic with water use ,stop producing more people ,stop wasting and contaminating water, we will be in serious trouble all round
and could end up looking like Mars

Answer 4

Yes, watch a program on Discovery Channel called Planet Earth. See the episode on ice worlds and tell me that the polar ice caps are not receding.

Answer 5

hey
global warming is happening

Mc is ignorant and misguided.

I attend Sir Sandford Fleming college for enviromental sciences I can assure you that in fact global warming is happening. There are many resonsons Mc is one of the few people who are too blind to notice what is happening. I could go into detail but I would recomand that you watch "an inconvenient truth" it a good moive staring Al Gore he hits at most of the facts or google global warming

Answer 6

yes

Answer 7

yes i think so...there was a special on tv about it ...green house gases whatever that is...scary scenario

Answer 8

no, global warming is not real

The theory of man-made global warming is false, it is based on falsified or incomplete data. Lets take a look at what the global warming crowd claims, they say that the human output of CO2 is causing the greenhouse effect which is warming the planet. To see how outrageous this claim is try to guess how much of our atmosphere is made up of CO2, the correct answer is 0.03% of our atmosphere, almost nothing. How can such a small part of our atmosphere have such an effect on our entire planet, correct answer it can’t. Greenhouse gases exist naturally and have always been in our atmosphere. Greenhouse gases such as CH4 (methane), N2O (Nitrous Oxide), and water vapor are all put out into the atmosphere naturally in far greater concentrations than humans could ever match. Let’s take a look at water vapor, water vapor makes up between 1-4% of the atmosphere far more than CO2. Water vapor is given off into the atmosphere due to evaporation, so evaporation causes much more global warming than humans ever could. Other natural sources such as volcanic eruptions and the decomposition of plant and animal matter also put far more greenhouse gases than humans ever could.
So what is causing global warming? Well first of all the earth may not even be warming. http://wwwghcc.msfc.nasa.gov/temperature/ This is a collection of global temperatures collected by NASA that shows a general cooling trend especially around the polar ice caps. So assuming the earth is warming what could be causing it, the sun. Look at this graph also put out by NASA: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/17jan_solcon.htm, it shows that the intensity of the sun is directly correlated to global temperatures and recent studies have shown that the sun is now warming than ever before, coincidence? I think not. Also consider that the other planets in our solar system, Mars in particular, are also warming: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070228-mars-warming.html
You have to keep in mind that the earth goes through natural cycles of warming and cooling, take for example the ice age and later warming of the earth enough to melt the ice.
Advocates of global warming will try and post evidence but the fact is most evidence for global warming comes in the form of general statements like “think of your children/grandchildren” that try to guilt you into agreeing with them. These ads are devoid of scientific proof and seek to toy with your conscience. Every once in a while you will see a graph submitted as evidence mostly from http://www.ipcc.ch/. Take a look for yourself, I search in vain for proof of global warming on this site, sure there are dozens of graphs showing the same data: CO2 rising along with global temperatures but where are the graphs for other greenhouse gases that make up a greater percentage of our atmosphere and are put out naturally, or graphs showing the percentage of greenhouse gases put out by humans verses the gases put out by natural sources. These graphs are not included because they disprove the theory of man made global warming. The IPCC has had a questionable past, it has published a deliberately falsified graph, the so called hockey stick graph, which left out a period of warming during the 1400’s. This warming period in the 1400’s was more dramatic than what we are seeing today, and it took place long before humans industrialized. This falsification was proven and a reprint of the graph appeared in the journal Nature. You may have seen claims that there is a scientific consensus on global warming like this one: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/306/5702/1686, this is an absolute lie, do you need proof? Here http://www.oism.org/pproject/s33p36.htm the signatures of over 17,000 scientists who disagree with the theory of man made global warming (check out the report on this site it does an excellent job of disproving global warming). You may have also seen reports about ice cores supposedly proving global warming, this is not true. Here is the truth about ice cores http://www.john-daly.com/zjiceco2.htm.
You may have the question why anyone would support this obviously false theory, the answer is money. Average people with no scientific background are being converted to the global warming crowd by the dozens due to the repression of evidence against global warming. This mass of people is the reason why notable people are jumping on the global warming bandwagon. Politicians are supporting global warming for votes, scientists are joining for media time and grants, and CEO’s are pledging their allegiance to gain customers who want to shop where the environment is being supported.
You may also wonder why I care, you may think we can only help the environment if we agree with global warming what’s wrong with that? I want to distinguish between global warming and helping the environment. I have no problem with environmentalist causes, in fact I support them, but global warming is taking this idea to the extreme. If you were to follow the guidelines set forth by people like Al Gore your lifestyle would be, these people want to tell you what light bulbs to use. The main reason however is money, why waste millions on studying global warming when we could be rebuilding third world countries and helping the poor. Global warming is a fear tactic used to get your money and your vote by unscrupulous members of society. Hopefully this will just fade away like the global cooling scare which was brought upon us in the 1970’s by the same sort of people using the same tactics. A last link http://www.worldclimatereport.com/ possibly the best resource for answering many of the questions raised by global warming. I urge anyone who believes in man-made global warming to look into some of the resources I have presented. Do not sacrifice your money, time, vote, and conscience to the greedy members of society who are blinding you to the truth for their own greed.

Answer 9

Yes. Next question please.