global warming. has this been considered?

Question

with over six billion people, the dams that hold water, all the resevoir across the US. would this be a significant amount of water that is not in the ocean contributing to the warming of earth. i know water levels are rising due to ice melting but i do not have enough math background to calculate. just curious.

the amount of water each of these things hold, thus removing from the eco-system.

Answer 1

Strangely enough, yes it has been considered. Not just in connection with the amount of water that dams retain but in all aspects including the reflectivity of the water, heat retention, siting, construction methods and materials, change of land use etc (if you go back far enough through my questions you'll find some detailed answers about dams and their role in connection with global warming).

Ultimately the amount of water in every dam, lake, river, stream etc (i.e. land based water) is tiny compared to that in the seas and oceans. Even when the Great Lakes and other major lakes around the word are taken into account it still adds up to less than 1% of the world's water. I don't know what the specific figure for reservoirs is, probably somewhere in the order of one thousandth of one percent.

To put it into some sort of perspective, to change the sea level by one millimetre means adding or removing nearly 60,000 litres of water for evey person on the planet. The seas and oceans are vast, they cover 375 million square kilometres, that's enough to give everyone on the planet 14 acres of seas and oceans.

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RE: YOUR ADDED COMMENTS

I understand what you're saying but again it comes down to a matter of scale. All the water in all the reservoirs in all the world is a proverbial drop in the ocean. Take the largest reservoir in the world - Volta Lake in Ghana, although it's over 500km (300 miles) long, you'd need about 60,000 of them to cover the surface of the Earth.

By creating reservoirs we're creating a larger total surface area of water and thus increasing the rate of evapouration, this in turn leads to increased precipitation. But again, it's by such a small amount as to be negligible.

The main problem with many reservoir projects is that it interupts the normal flow of water and the people who are downstream of the reservoir often find their water source is cut off, not just the drinking water but the supply for irrigation, manufacturing, cattle etc. Dams invariably lead to the reloacation of people and the massive Three Gorges Dam in China has caused the largest permenant resettlement in history.

Answer 2

You raise an interesting point. And the amount of asphalt black top and buildings in the cities is probably an even bigger factor than the water in dams.

However, there is no way that the ocean is rising. That is complete lunacy. FIRST, what happens when ice melts? Does it (a) get bigger? Or (b) SHRINK?

Ice gets SMALLER when it melts (that is takes up less room by volume in a liquid state than in a frozen state).

Secondly, anyone who thinks that melting ice caps can affect the level of the ocean has no clue how gigantic the oceans really are.

Third, warmer oceans E V A P O R A T E more readily.

More water vapor in the atmosphere ---> more snow on the polar caps ---> MORE, not less, snow and ice at the poles.

Answer 3

A good thought. No--that wouldn't make any difference in the long term trends. The amount of water that is held indams is huge--but it's insignificant when measured against the size of the oceans.

Also--most of the water (like 90% or more) ends up in the ocean anyway. Dams just hold it for awhile so humans can use it first--then its put back into the rivers and keeps on going downstream to the ocean.

Answer 4

Statement from Meteorologist, John Coleman,
the founder of The Weather Channel.

"It is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global Warming; It is a SCAM. Some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives manipulated long term scientific data to create an illusion of rapid global warming. Other scientists of the same environmental whacko type jumped into the circle to support and broaden the “research” to further enhance the totally slanted, bogus global warming claims. Their friends in government steered huge research grants their way to keep the movement going. Soon they claimed to be a consensus.

Environmental extremists, notable politicians among them, then teamed up with movie, media and other liberal, environmentalist journalists to create this wild “scientific” scenario of the civilization threatening environmental consequences from Global Warming unless we adhere to their radical agenda. Now their ridiculous manipulated science has been accepted as fact and become a cornerstone issue for CNN, CBS, NBC, the Democratic Political Party, the Governor of California, school teachers and, in many cases, well informed but very gullible environmentally conscientious citizens. Only one reporter at ABC has been allowed to counter the Global Warming frenzy with one 15 minutes documentary segment.

I do not oppose environmentalism. I do not oppose the political positions of either party. However, Global Warming, i.e. Climate Change, is not about environmentalism or politics. It is not a religion. It is not something you “believe in.” It is science; the science of meteorology. This is my field of lifelong expertise. And I am telling you Global Warming is a nonevent, a manufactured crisis and a total scam. I say this knowing you probably won’t believe me, a mere TV weatherman, challenging a Nobel Prize, Academy Award and Emmy Award winning former Vice President of United States. So be it.

I have read dozens of scientific papers. I have talked with numerous scientists. I have studied. I have thought about it. I know I am correct. There is no run away climate change. The impact of humans on climate is not catastrophic. Our planet is not in peril. I am incensed by the incredible media glamour, the politically correct silliness and rude dismissal of counter arguments by the high priest of Global Warming.

As the temperature rises, polar ice cap melting, coastal flooding and super storm pattern all fail to occur as predicted everyone will come to realize we have been duped.

The sky is not falling. All natural cycles, drifts in climate are as much, if not more responsible for any climate changes underway. I strongly believe that the next 20 years are equally as likely to see a cooling trend as they are to see a warming trend."

Answer 5

First, the amount of water behind dams, in reservoirs, and in other man-made systems is absolutely insignifigant compared to the HUUUUUUGE bulk of the ocean.

Second, even tho the water isn't part of the ocean, it still contributes to the heat cycle in the same way. A reservoire absorbs and radiates heat just the same as it would as ocean, just on a smaller scale to match it's smaller mass.

Answer 6

Why would the water not getting to the ocean contribute to global warming?

I can certainly see it killing off various species of fish and other water-side critters and plants ... but global warming?

By-and-large, the water behind dams etc. is WARMER than the ocean basin.

Answer 7

THEN YOU NEED ALSO TO CONSIDER THIS:

- as we have concentrated water into reservoirs, we also have dried swamps which now release methane at a different pace, especially regarding the decay of peat.

- some reservoirs are being flooded without a proper clearing of the forest before which leads to the release of methane from the trees slowly decaying while the water level rises.

Answer 8

global warming won't happen till millions of years from now, leave it to the next generation to find it out. And the holes in the arctic are natural, that's the magnetic field around the earth, all planets have those holes.

Answer 9

that's definitely a good thought...i think that we, as in human beings, mess w/ nature too much.....i mean, fires and flooding are very tragic, of course we all know that, but no i think that most fires and even floods are part of nature, and we humans cannot mess with that too much!

Answer 10

Actually ocean levels are lower today then they were 165 years ago.

This story about rising sea levels is just a myth.