Be afraid — melting sea ice causes infinitesimal sea level rise! (More Scare items )

JoNova ^ | May 11th, 2010 | Joanne

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Scientist doesn’t have enough column space to tell you that Briffa’s Yamal tree ring series depends heavily on just one freak 8-standard deviation tree in Northern Russia, and that multiple temperature reconstructions use that highly dubious series, but they do have time to warn the world about the effect of melting sea-ice on global sea levels.

Melting icebergs boost sea-level rise

Because sea ice is fresh water, it has a lower density than salty ocean water, so even though floating ice won’t raise water levels by melting, the fresh water in the ice blocks can apparently make a small difference. “Small” being the word.

“…they estimate that about 746 cubic kilometres of ice are melting each year, overall. The ice melting is diluting the oceans, decreasing its density and raising sea levels as a consequence,” says Shepherd.

Watch out for that extra twentieth of a millimetre. Literally 0.049 mm per year.

Imagine, at this rate, in just one hundred years, sea levels could be… five millimeters higher.

Would New Scientist take part in reporting naked speculation based a wild extreme?

“…if all the sea ice currently bobbing on the oceans were to melt, it could raise sea level by 4 to 6 centimetres.”

And what are the chances that all the worlds sea ice will melt? All 16 – 22 million square kilometers.

And if millions of square kilometers of sea ice did melt, you’d suppose we had more to worry about than the 5 cm extra on top of the usual high tide.

The short killer summary: The Skeptics Handbook. The most deadly point: The Missing Hot Spot.

[rdl6989]

Oh but Al Gore said Glowbull Warming is real and he’s the genius who invented the internet.

[SunkenCiv]

:’)