why do people think global warming is going to melt our north ice caps?

Question

it can melt it all.first of all if we do have carbon dioxide in the air it will evaporate the water to create clouds. then the albedo of the clouds is going to reflect the solar radiation to space.

Answer 1

Every single bit of ice at the North Pole could melt and the sea-level of the world would not rise enough for anyone to notice.

The reason? The ice at the North Pole is FLOATING IN THE WATER! It already displaces it's own volume in the water, because when ice floats, 99% of it's volume is UNDERWATER. THINK, people!

Now, if the ice in Greenland or Antarctica were to melt, there might be some difficulties along the coastlines. And before you say that the ice in Greenland IS melting, that is only along the coastline. The ice-cap in the center of Greenland is getting thicker! And Greenland has been warmer before, during the time of the Vikings. They are the ones who named it Greenland and they actually had farms and raised sufficient crops to sustain their colonies there. Then it grew cold enough that the crops wouldn't support the population and the colonies were abandoned.

Antarctica's ice is also getting thicker on the continent. Some of it's ice-shelves along the coast are showing signs of deterioriation, but the thickness of the ice inland (up to 3 MILES in some places!) is growing.

Answer 2

We know that the Arctic Ice Cap is melting. Ground, aerial and satellite surveys clearly show this to be the case. What has recently surprised scientists is how quickly it's melting, considerably faster than was previously thought to be the case. So much so that during the summer months in as little as 40 years time there may be no Arctic ice at all.

As temperatures rise the ice melts but it doesn't evapourate. Instead it runs off as meltwater into the seas and oceans. It's from here that it's evapourated, the water vapour entering the atmosphere and ultimately falling elsewhere as precipitation a few days later.

There is a maximum amout of water vapour that can be held within the atmosphere and this is determined by pressure and temperature. Once the maximum has been reached, known as saturation vapour pressure, the excess falls to earth as rain or is deposited on surfaces as dew. All this forms part of the nautral water cycle. Increasing temperatures causes the cycle to accelerate - more evapouration, more rain, more evaopuration etc.

As the cycle is merely accelerating it doesn't adversely affect the level of cloud cover which is more or less consistent. Also, in the Polar regions the atmosphere is extremely cold and dry (the driest place on Earth are the dry valleys of Antractica) so there is very little cloud cover anyway.

Also, Earth's natural albedo isn't greatly influenced by varying levels of cloud cover. What's more important than the amount of cover is the type of clouds. Marine stratocumulus is much more effective at reflecting solar radiation back into space than common cumulus or nimbus clouds for example.

Answer 3

the comparable quantity of water, while this is in a sturdy state occupies a much bigger quantity than while this is in a liquid state, for this reason this is much less dense, and it rather is the reason it floats. Get a bowl, fill it a million/2 complete with water, and a few ice cubes, mark the water point, then look ahead to the ice to soften and fact the water point, you will see that the point has no longer long previous up, yet perhaps, in case you're very precise, you will see that it has long previous down. The Arctic ice cap is in many situations sea ice, so whether all of it melted it would not reason flooding of our coastal factors. As for Antarctica, the peninsular (3% of the land section) is warming, yet the two satellite tv for pc and floor measurements coach that the top-rated bulk of the continent (ninety seven%) is getting chillier. In 1988, between the UN's '2500 scientists' suggested to congress that by using 2000 that sea point could have risen by using numerous feet, a fact examine in 2000 confirmed that it had no longer risen even a million inch. Exaggerated claims are being made for political motives, and may well be seen with a hefty dose of scepticism

Answer 4

well I watched the inconvient truth and it said that the ocean obsorbs sunlight. the rays reflect off the north pole and it gets warmer and it melts and the rays hit the ocean which warms the water and it melts more of the north cap and while it melts ther more rays into the ocean to warm the ocean and more melting. when the ice caps r melted teh sun rays cannot reflect so the water will be hot and spread. That is a big debate. Scientist are trying to figure if global warming made the ice caps melt. I recomend 2 know a lot more about this is research and you can watch the inconvient truth they show this diagram of probally how it melts.

Answer 5

It doesn't work that way. Any cloud increase--of which there is zero evidence--would male little net difference. The CO2 traps heat--and that is ultimately what melts the ice. In addition, an increase in water vapor would jist make the warming worse--water vapor acts as a greenhouse gass too.

BTW-the ice caps are melting--that's not a hypothesis.

Answer 6

in theory... if temperature rises enough, then both ice caps WILL melt.

But... you are correct... cloud albedo should incrase as temperature increases.

There are also several other factors which will come into play mitigating temperature increase (assuming its from CO2...) added CO2 in the atmosphere will cause rapid increases in algae growth in the oceans. Algae converts more CO2 back into sugar than trees, grass and all other plant life on earth.

Also as the ocean temperatures increase.... algae growth rate increases. To get to the temperature where that reverses due to excess heat... the water would be above 99 deg F at the north pole... If that happens... then it wasn't from CO2 made by man.

Answer 7

Global warming can, will, and is melting our ice caps which in turn is raising the sea level. More than 70% of the earth is already covered by water and keeps increasing. If this continues to happen many of the islands and coastal living areas that exist right now will become extinct and the living space of EVERYONE would greatly decrease leading to many more social, economic, and geological problems. It is not an immediate concern for people today but an immediate concern for the quality of living for future generations. We must help protect the future and preserve the quality of life.

Answer 8

Cloud cover is a source of much uncertainty in climate models. Although their effect is currently believed to be one of cooling. However, the slight cooling effect of the increased albedo is nothing near enough to overwhelm the CO2 signal. So the trend in the ice caps will be and has been one of melting.

Answer 9

There is no doubt that temperature of globe is increasing. I attach some articles from USEPA web site.

Article 1) Records from land stations and ships indicate that the global mean surface temperature warmed by between 0.7 and 1.5ºF during the 20th century (see Figure 1). These records indicate a near level trend in temperatures from 1880 to about 1910, a rise to 1945, a slight decline to about 1975, and a rise to present (NRC, 2006). Warming is now occurring over most of the globe and is consistent with the global retreat of mountain glaciers, reduction in snow-cover extent, the earlier spring melting of ice on rivers and lakes, and increases in sea-surface temperatures and ocean heat content

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) 2005 State of the Climate Report and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) 2005 Surface Temperature Analysis:
· Since 1900, the average surface temperature has warmed by about 1.2-1.4 ºF.
· Since the mid 1970s, the average surface temperature has warmed about 1 ºF.
· The Earth’s surface is currently warming at a rate of about 0.32ºF/decade or 3.2 ºF/century.
· The five warmest years over last century have likely been: 2005, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2004. The top 10 warmest years have all occurred since 1990.
Additionally (from IPCC, 2001):
· The warming trend is seen in both daily maximum and minimum temperatures, with minimum temperatures increasing at a faster rate than maximum temperatures.
· Land areas have tended to warm faster than ocean areas and the winter months have warmed faster than summer months.
· Widespread reductions in the number of days below freezing occurred during the latter half of the 20th century in the United States as well as most land areas of the Northern Hemisphere and areas of the Southern Hemisphere.

Article 2) According to the study (NRC, 2006):
· There is a high level of confidence that the global average temperature during the last few decades was warmer than any comparable period during the last 400 years

These are only two articles I have sited from www.epa.gov/climatechange/science
If temperature continues to rise, (like since 1970 it went up 1degree Fereinheight, it melts significant ice during entire year from both north & south pole. Costal areas will be flooded soon.

Answer 10

The thing is that the CO2 that we have is mostly contaminated by cars, fires, and LESS TREES. Believe it or not, one major thing that has affected global warming is the loss of tons of trees. My school planted 236 trees to help with this. Could you imagine what would happen if every person in the world planted one tree?!?!?!?!?