Meh, Biert, that reasoning doesn't hold much water.

Yes it does, I rule

It's all fact, except for the last paragraph maybe.

i'm sure i read somewhere that the ice caps melting wouldnt cause a rise in sea levels because the melted water would cause the same amount of displacement as the ice in the first place, so the water levels would stay roughly the same, the main issue would be the cooling down of the oceans from all the colder water going in.

it makes sense to me!

That is true for ice shelves, yes...as they sit on the surface of the ocean anyway. Icebergs are chunks that break off the shelves.

Ice sheets on the other hand, such as the East & West Antarctic and Greenland sit exclusively on land, and while frozen only interact with sea levels very slowly through downward glacial flow. The glaciers in turn, are kept "topped up" by snowfalls over the landmass.

If the atmosphere warms, the snowfalls diminish, the glaciers thaw and vast amounts of water that had been independent of the sea level for tens of thousands of years will then flow into the world's oceans.

Greenland is in the early stages of such an event. If all of it's ice melts at some point in the future - the sea level will rise by more than seven metres. Everywhere.

Meh, Biert, that reasoning doesn't hold much water.

Yes it does, I rule

It's all fact, except for the last paragraph maybe.

You live in Netherlands, right? Well, when time comes, you'll be able to use that reasoning to hold the incoming water Dave just mentioned above.

Nah, he's too busy with his fingers in his ears ("Nah nah, not listening!") to stick 'em in any ol' dyke.

I live in the part of The Netherlands that is above the (current) sea level, and I can swim
Water won't be coming up this high I think. To make the worldwide sealevel rise 10cm would take fucking Pluto to plunge in the ocean and melt, and chances of that are higher than the chances that I'll see the land under the ice of Antarctica
Seriously, they're not scaring me with water. I'm more worried about our natural resources (mainly oil) drying out.

There isn't any data available of the temperatures (and sea levels) of even 30 years ago and before that, for huge parts of the world. So we can't compare todays temperatures with those of 50, 100, 200 years ago so you can't really say if overall temperatures have been rising.

There's a start.

i'm sure i read somewhere that the ice caps melting wouldnt cause a rise in sea levels because the melted water would cause the same amount of displacement as the ice in the first place, so the water levels would stay roughly the same, the main issue would be the cooling down of the oceans from all the colder water going in.

it makes sense to me!

That is true for ice shelves, yes...as they sit on the surface of the ocean anyway. Icebergs are chunks that break off the shelves.

Ice sheets on the other hand, such as the East & West Antarctic and Greenland sit exclusively on land, and while frozen only interact with sea levels very slowly through downward glacial flow. The glaciers in turn, are kept "topped up" by snowfalls over the landmass.

If the atmosphere warms, the snowfalls diminish, the glaciers thaw and vast amounts of water that had been independent of the sea level for tens of thousands of years will then flow into the world's oceans.

Greenland is in the early stages of such an event. If all of it's ice melts at some point in the future - the sea level will rise by more than seven metres. Everywhere.

wow. that told me!

i was partly right anyway! but that makes even more sense. i hadnt thought of it like that. we suck

i'm sure i read somewhere that the ice caps melting wouldnt cause a rise in sea levels because the melted water would cause the same amount of displacement as the ice in the first place, so the water levels would stay roughly the same, the main issue would be the cooling down of the oceans from all the colder water going in.

it makes sense to me!

yeah. I hear a smart dude by the name of dr. carl say this. If all the ice melted the sea levels would probably be same or maybe lower. ie half fill a cup with water, add ice blocks till its full, then cover with glad wrap to avoid evaporation into the atmosphere, then let the ice melt and behold, the glass is now not as full as it was before.

Also, some of our planets water is also evaporated into space, not heaps, but some.

Rising sea levels may not be an issue, but if would fuck bigtime with the ecosystem.

Look this whole sealevel thing is bullshit! "The sea rises 10 centimeters a year"... I went to the beach with a ruler and measured a rise of 2 meters in 6 hours!

who measured the sea level thousands of years ago? was that when the contenants were at different posotions and so the seaas would change depth as the come together/ move apart

Biert> How was the last half hour of measurment ? How tall are you ?

One thing is sure, we may not say we haven't been warned... So it appears scientists have been mesuring sea level for thousands of years and ONLY NOW we start to give a damn...

Damn...

Gozu, I'd say thousands of years is not much on a geological scale (except for some seriously badass events maybe), I guess they got the datas looking at geological strats, where there's fossils, sediments, etc etc...

As someone who studied geography, (environmental) physics and sociology (diploma in geography) and who has close friends who are habilitating environmental physicists (with one of them working for the NASA), let me assure you that there are indeed natural climatic fluctuations - but they are superposed by man-made climate change. That's common sense in the vast majority of the community of environmental scientists.

But if you rather believe in so called climate skeptics who are founded by special interest groups (read: oil companies) like these hacks: http://www.cei.org that's your right as an ignorant global citizen.

Mmh, was this adressed to me ?
Well I don't know, but my post was half made of a lame joke that may not turn out as desired in english^^
But in any case, I just want to point out that I'm surely not part of the climate skeptics, more the opposite, let's say... humanity skeptic^^ (or at least civilisation skeptic)

Nope, I just thought I should throw in my in this case not so humble opinion.

(^ That's a horribly structured sentence, isn't it? I guess it is.)