questions aabout global warming. ice caps melting, rising sea level? facts only please.?

Question

so i have been a believer in global warming. now, that i have heard other sides of the story, im not so sure what to think.
of course us humans releasing so much CO2 into the air is a bad thing. cars arent a natural thing, they release things that arent meant to be in the air. power plants. i live around a lot of them. i hate them. they are so dangerous. more people around here get cancer than a lot of places, imagine what they are doing to the air. but, that may not be the only cause of global warming.
i recieved an answer to a question telling me ice caps, in some places, are melting. but other places, they are growing. you never hear about them, so how would i know that. im so glad that person educated me by telling me that.
my dad. he is very very smart. im not just saying that because he is my dad. he honestly is really smart. he tells me that he believes everything in life is a circle. he thinks this could be a natural thing, but it happened so so long ago, that we dont know how to explain it. he could be right. he has seen 'an inconvenient truth', by the way. he knows both sides of the story. he asked me how the sea level is rising just because the ice caps are melting? i challenged him so he put a ton of ice in a cup of water. i marked where the water stood on the clear cup. we waited for them to melt, the water didnt rise. nothing. hes hard to challenge, he always wins. so whats the answer to that?
i heard 99.9% of scientist believe in global warming, the response of one person to that was the scientist who dont believe it lose their job and are hushed. not allowed to speak what they know. i have heard that before.
i need FACTS.
if you believe the worls problems are caused by us humans, explain to me why.
if you believe its natural, tell me why.
if you think anything else, please educate me. i want to know. thank you.

Answer 1

The difference is this: when ice is FLOATING, it does not change the sea level when it melts. But when ice is aground or on land -- like the ice in Greenland, Antarctica, or mountain glaciers -- it WILL raise sea levels when it melts.

It's true that in some areas ice and snow is getting thicker. There are two reasons for this: first, warm air holds more moisture than cold air. Anyone who lives in a severe-winter climate (like I do) will tell you that a snowstorm at 20° F will drop a lot more snow than a snowstorm at -20°F.

Central Antarctica is cooling as a secondary effect of the (human-caused) ozone hole: as ozone aborbs incoming UV light, it gets warmer. Less ozone means less absorption and less warmth.

But when you total up all the gains of snow and ice, and compare it to all the losses, the losses are greater.

Answer 2

Well it is true that most scientists believe Global Warming is caused by man, and it is also true that there is unbelievable pressure on scientists to go along with that opinion. Remember "the time for debate is over" which scientifically speaking is practically anti-science itself.

But from what I have seen so far (which is alot) it looks like this current warming is a combination of a natural cycle AND a tiny little boost by man - which by the way is probably the staw that broke the camel's back. Now that we have started this warming trend, it looks like it is going to grow EXPONENTIALLY because the ice that is melting is actually reducing the reflexion of rays back into space and increasing the surface area of the oceans which absorb the heat. Not only that, but the extra heat will actually trigger an increase in the amount of CO2 that will be emitted by the ocean which will add to the greenhouse effect.

HOWEVER!!!!!!!!!!! - Don't fall for everything that the G.W Alarmists are saying. Besides the fact that they overly exaggerate the damage that this warming will cause, they also never mention the fact that there are many things that can change that will reverse this process. As for the damage, the world's oeans will probably never rise more than 24", period. That may claim a bit of land, say in Florida since the altitude is so low there, and we may have slightly more severe storms on occation. But they are simply lying when they say that all of Manhattan will be under water, and that 1/4 of all species on earth will go extinct. That is crazy talk.

Some of the things I see changing in the distant future that will solve this problem is SOLAR POWER. All this heating of the globe ultimately comes from the sun's energy, so if enough people around the world are converting that energy to electricity, it will reduce the warming caused by direct sunlight, as well as reduce the need for burning coal and oil. Also, we certainly will figure out a way to reduce the effects of the greenhouse effect using scientific breakthroughs. Look how primitive we were 100 years ago. Now imagine how much more advanced we will be in 100 years. We will figure it out. Have faith in humanity.

Answer 3

I really don't know if humanity is causing the ice caps to melt, but remember, there was a period caused the Ice Age and the ice melted over a lot of the earth then. I don't believe there were enough people on earth at that time, and certainly no cars, etc., so I believe that most of the global warming thing is natural phenomenon, maybe helped along to a small extent by humans. The earth goes through cycles of different weather patterns. It would probably be hard to prove what the cause is either way.

Answer 4

Although sea levels have been rising since the end of the last glaciation (nearly 11,000 years), the rate of rise has increased over the past 200 years as average global temperatures have increased. The rise is due to two factors, the freshwater being added to the oceans from ice melt in the cryosphere , and the thermal expansion of the oceans due to rises in sea temperature.

The contribution from Antarctica melt water is uncertain, and there is a distinct possibility of surprises from this southern region. The floating ice shelves, notably the Wordie and Larsen A and B shelves, broke up very rapidly during the 1990s, after rapid regional warming. Climate, like other complex systems do not always vary in a smooth fashion, and sudden changes can occur over wide areas. Critical levels, or thresholds may be reached in a system whereupon drastic, and perhaps disastrous results occur.

Threshold events in this case include the complete or partial shutdown of the ocean thermohaline circulatory system, disintegration and melting of Antarctica and Greenland Ice Sheets (the polar caps) , and major changes in the carbon cycle, due to biospheric effects (see the Snowball Earth scenario).

Global warming has many implications for the planet, but what is the effect of this process on icebergs and the ice in the Arctic or Antarctic and to the world oceans. As you have now seen global warming has many implications for the planet, but what is the effect of this process on polar caps.

The total global temperature increase between 1850s to 2005 is 0.76°C (1.36°F) and the the rate of warming averaged over the last 50 years is nearly twice that for the last 100 years. At the poles, many areas are warming at a rate two or three times the global average. Although this rise in temperature may not sound like much it has an enormous affect, even half a degree rise in temperature can have an effect on the way the weather and planet operates. For example, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) notes that the sea level has risen 15 to 20 cm (6 to 8 inches) in the last 100 years. These higher temperatures are causing some floating icebergs to melt, but more importantly are affecting the polar-caps.

The full effects of global warming on the polar caps, and the cryosphere are complex and not yet fully understood.
The North Pole is warming up faster than the rest of the world, with potentially devastating consequences. On Sept. 21, 2005, sea ice extent dropped to 2.05 million sq. miles, the lowest extent yet recorded in the satellite record. Incorporating the 2005 minimum, the estimated decline in Arctic sea ice to 7.8 percent per decade.

Answer 5

Fill a glass with ice cubes, then put a little water in it. Melt the ice and see if the water level goes down or up. I'm betting it goes up. Most of the ice on the earth is NOT floating on water, so your scenario is useless. If the ice were just floating, it would be correct; up to 36 degrees at which temperature the water would start to expand and pass the level it was at at 33 degrees. More precipitation where? Where its needed? Raining out in the ocean doesn't help any. Raining where there is already enough water doesn't help any (look at the mid west). Canada and Russia both export food. Yes they import bananas, but they will never get warm enough to grow those in any foreseeable future. No, the land along the equator would warm too. Why would it not warm?

Answer 6

There's not too many people who can give you 100% true facts on this topic. Scientist can give theories to both sides of this. One thing for sure, this topic is huge and people are using for there own personal gain. wether it be political or finacial.If you check, I'm sure, if you check, that right before global warming, the same alarmist where using the ice age coming again. It's the same as the forest industry, people say our forest are being destroyed when in fact they are better then they ever were! Save the world has turned into nothing more then a scare tactic mostly by politicians and alarmist. The founder of green peace is no longer involved in his organization because of the way people use it now for thier own personal gain. He knew the world was not perfect, but his own words, things are much better today then others would have you believe. In all areas. I can't remember his name but if you find out and read what he has to say, I'm sure you'll find it very interesting. He has lots of facts and knowledge on this.

Answer 7

Well it seems that you (and your father) are very educated people, but you both over looked something about the melting ice caps. That is that a lot of this ice is located on land not just on the water. So when you add new water to the equation then things start to happen, sea levels worldwide start to rise.

Answer 8

I'm glad you are asking for facts. Seems like the global warming alarmists are heavy on opinion while light on facts. This abstract shows that Greenland had a small net gain in ice while Antarctica had a small net loss. I'll bet my pay check that the alarmists will claim global warming is responsible for both. Sorry, they have played both sides of the argument for long enough. If global warming is really causing "ice to melt", how can one area be losing ice while another is gaining ice?

And that is the problem with man-made global warming. No one understands our planet enough to even begin to claim to understand fully what is happening to our climate. The alarmists claim models show this and that (typically something frightening), yet their models can't go back 100 years and "predict" the climate of the last 100 years.

Remember, these are the same people who 30 years ago were warning us of an impending ice age due to global cooling. One of their short-sighted solutions - spreading soot in the arctic to absorb the sun's heat. Brilliant, just brilliant.

Answer 9

The ice cap at the SOUTH pole is on land. It is on the continent of Antarctica and is not floating in the sea. If it melts and the water flows down into the sea, sea level will rise. The same with the ice cap on Greenland.

But the north polar ice cap is floating on the sea and it could melt without making any change to sea level.

Answer 10

Global warming is true! There are more intense tornadoes and more and more hurricanes the polar ice caps melting off is proof! Also have you noticed that the weather this year is so much warmer than usual. There toomany cars on the road and power plants sontribute most.