Quote:
Originally Posted by kp11364
In regard to a recently closed thread about rising water levels, try this:
1. Fill a drinking glass half-full with water
2. Add 2-3 ice cubes. Look at the water level.
3. Put the glass aside; let all the ice melt. You will see that the water level remains the same. Why? Because the amount of water remains the same, regardless of the state of the water.
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Actually, if you could measure accurately enough, you would find the water level actually went down just a bit.
Why???? Because as you cool water in it's liquid form, it contacts a bit and loses some volume all the way down to 32F, when it freezes and expands a bit due to crystallization. We see that everywhere where ice forms---cracking concrete, splitting rocks, etc. This is why ice floats---it is less dense than H2O in liquid form. When you melt it, the opposite occurs and you get a bit of volume contraction.
However, that is not the effect when glaciers and ice caps melt (Antarctic, not Arctic)-----that ice is over land and not part of the ocean---it adds to the ocean and causes the level to rise. And it WILL happen---it has happened over a dozen times in the last 4.5 million years of our current ICE AGE and will happen again. Coastal cities will be underwater, just as cities built on the coast 15,000-20,000 years ago are under water off the coasts of India, Japan and Mexico. And all that happened WITHOUT FOSSIL FUELS. It happened because forces much greater than your SUV are driving these cycles. What are these forces----No one knows for sure---the sun, variations in Earth's orbit, changes in the tilt of earth's axis, gravitational forces from undiscovered singularities, spacefaring aliens or God's plan----pick one or more, but your SUV is DEFINITELY NOT ON THAT LIST.
The debate now is whether human activity is changing those cycles, accelerating the global warming that has already been occurring for the last 20,000 years without any human contribution. There is data to show that warming is accelerating, but that data is 10,50, 150 years old at best and is totally inadequate to serve as a predictive model. Add to that there are those that would profit enormously by pushing this climate change agenda and the whole issue becomes less and less scientific.
The other question, even if the alarmists are right, is whether or not we can do anything about it. Frankly, we don't have the technology. The forces listed above are far more powerful than we are. Yes, we can buy EV's that only derive 80% of their energy from fossil fuels instead of 100% like an internal combustion engine, but is that going to change anything???? We might get some change if and when we develop fusion power and can have basically unlimited clean energy and can convert to hydrogen cells for vehicles, but that is at least 20+ years away, if ever. Then there are also wild cards, such as an asteroid/comet hit by one that is say 1/4 mile across--that will be the end of global warming for centuries, get your snowshoes out. Or a super volcano---just hope it isn't the one in Yellowstone.