More global warmtarding
In conversation with Pascal last night, and prompted by Alger’s dissection of the weather predicting this morning, I offer the following experiment to my readers.
Put an ice cube in a glass. Fill the glass carefully to the very rim. Let the ice cube melt. How much water will flow over the rim of the glass?
(to those who already know, Exactly! Now tell me how the melting polar icecaps(which aren’t REALLY melting) are going to raise sea level?)
Well, you could make the point that some of the glaciers in question are on land (e.g., the Greenland ice cap), so that if they melt into the sea, they’ll increase the volume of water in the sea.
What AlGore and his cronies don’t get, though, is that the vast majority of the ice they’re worried about is lying on top of the Arctic Ocean, and thus perfectly fits your “ice cube in a glass of water” analogy.
Hmmm.. I think the physics are a little off there in your example Og. An ice cube in water floats mostly under the surface. Glaciers are mostly above the surface of the water, even if on TOP of the frozen surface of Arctic Ocean. Therefore, the melting of the surface ice would necessarily increase the amount of liquid in your glass.
OTOH, I don’t believe any of that warmtarding anyway…
A glacier on top of an ice field is the same as an ice cube. Do the math. But yes, Nate, I mostly meant the polar icecaps, and will modify my post to suit, thanks for pointing it out.
doubletrouble, the displacement of water by the ice caps already take into account the mass of said ice caps and would not raise the water level regardless of how much of it sticks up above sea level.
But if a polar bear shits on a glacier and no one is around to see it, does it stink?
What kind of a soulless bastard would add ice to perfectly good tequlia?
Tequila? Tequila! Nobody said anything about tequila! I’m. In!
(What was the question?)
M
Dick, if you ever see me drink any tequila, please do me a favor and handcuff me to a bridge lest I harm myself. You’re probably one of three people I know who could do it.
Water, boys and girls.
Doesn’t water volume contract as it melts into a liquid state from ice?
Ed–that was the point.
I think Nathan has a point, too–and Antarctica is bigger than Greenland. Nonetheless, the credible worst-case scenarios I’ve seen posit maybe 20′ of sea level rise, max. We’re not talking about Kevin Costner movies, here. Fortunately.