Same thing here...if you free up (in theory) all the fresh water locked up in ice at the north and south poles...melt it...the sea level will rise. Will that happen? No way...but what you are saying about NOTHING happening is false.
Here's an experiment. Get a 20 gallon aquarium. Fill it with small gravel so that they are at a 45 degree angle up the side of the tank. Fill it 1/2 with water. Mark the level of water. Now...on the "dry side" of the tank...put a bunch of ice on top of the gravel. Let the ice melt.
Did the water in the tank rise? You bet.
Same thing would happen with the earth.
But the thing is: All the water that exists now is the same amount that was around during the beginning of earth. When the glaciers extended down from the poles where did the water come from? Did continents sink? There was a story in the news how this one island in the Marshal’s was being covered by water due to climate warming. None of the other islands were being covered. The island was sinking. Water is not being created. We have the same amount since creation.
In the end, the question is: at what level are the oceans “supposed” to be?
I once asked that question to an AGW booster; their incredible answer: “sea level is supposed to be where it is RIGHT NOW(!)” (emphasis added)
As a follow-up I always ask about the huge peat bogs that are thawing in the Siberian tundra: “If the peat is thawing now (it’s been in a frozen state for ??) what was the temperature back when the peat was growing - before it froze? Was that the ‘normal’ temperature?”
Inquiring minds - not...
It is a lot more complicated than an aquarium, its a lot more complicated that stupid computer models can calculate
Very true. IIRC from geology, during the last ice age sea levels were 400 ft lower than now.