“When temperatures on Earth get hotter, huge amounts of water ice trapped in giant glaciers begin to thaw, releasing water into the oceans, and causing sea levels to rise.”
Oh, that must be why when the ice melts in my drink, the glass gets fuller! Except that it doesn’t. SCIENCE!! Of course, I’m granting them that the ice is actually melting, which is a rather large concession.
Only sea ice does that glaciers are mostly on land hence they are not displacing water so yes they would raise sea levels
Put 6 ice cubes on aluminum foil and let them thaw into your full cup and see if it runneth over.
You're conflating glaciers, which form on land, and icebergs floating at sea. A floating iceberg melting won't change the water level, but a glacier located on land, melting into the sea, will change the water level.
Groundwater from deep aquifers drain into the oceans, as well as fresh water springs welling up. Together they may account for a mm or more of sea level rise, just what the warmists think is caused by climate change.
what you are saying is technically true, but what they are referring to is ice trapped in glaciers on land. So to use your example get two glasses of ice and melt them one representing the ice in the ocean and the other the ice on the land trapped in glaciers. Then after melting both, pour the one into the other.
They’re talking about ice that is on land, not in the ocean. When it melts and drains into the ocean the ocean will rise proportionately.
That's only true for melting *sea* ice, since it's already part of the ocean. Melting glaciers and land-bound ice sheets are another matter.
Glaciers are on land. If they melt, eventually the water should get to the sea and raise the sea level. OTOH, melting sea ice (e.g., icebergs and floating ice sheets) should have no effect on sea levels.
It’s more like adding another ice cube to your glass.
“Oh, that must be why when the ice melts in my drink, the glass gets fuller! Except that it doesn’t. SCIENCE!! Of course, I’m granting them that the ice is actually melting, which is a rather large concession.”
You need to take into account land ice as part of the glacier. Take your same drink. Fill it to the top. Now add the ice cube. I believe that’s the displacement, however from all the crap the climate alarmists have been spouting for years, they probably are not even aware this is what they are talking about.
They’re talking about glaciers on land; e.g., the glaciers that covered Canada and part of the U.S., and that covered a lot of the Eurasian land masses.
The melting of ice floating in water, as you point out, doesn’t change the level of the water.
Not all ice is in the ocean before it melts. If you melt an ice cube in a separate glass and pour it into your water, the water glass indeed gets more full.
During the ice ages, glaciers covered much of the land area of the Northern Hemisphere. Sea level indeed rose when these glaciers melted and the melt water flowed into the oceans. Today, ice covers land mainly in Greenland and Antarctica. Melting ice in the Arctic won’t raise sea level (the area around the North Pole is ocean), but melting ice in the Antarctic and Greenland certainly could.
Put ice in a funnel and the funnel in your glass. When the ice melts, the water level will rise. Heat the water enough, and the level will drop again. Cool the water vapor so that it falls back into the funnel as ice, and you'll build up ice out of the water. When the ice gets warm, it melts, and the melt water flows into the glass. Rinse, repeat for millions of years. Or seven days, if you're God.
This is what is called a hypotheses. It is supposed to be tested. If it passes all the tests, it will become a theory. If it fails, dump that model and start over, unless the data you collected suggests changes that more closely follow the data. Test some more. Rinse, repeat, until you can't falsify it. Then call it a Law of Nature until we learn enough to falsify it again. Then start over. Rinse, repeat.
Anyone who says "The Science is settled." doesn't know what he's talking about. (Yes, Al, I'm talking about YOU!) Science will be settled after the heat death of the universe, or the 2nd Coming. Which ever arrives first.
BTW, evidence is pretty good that ice melts. Ice in glaciers is on land. Once the ice melts it's called water. The resultant water runs into the sea, where it's still called water. If the glacier itself makes it to the ocean and a chunk breaks off, it's called an ice berg. It floats because it's slightly less dense than water. When it gets warm enough, it melts just like in your glass. Since it's less dense, when it melts it doesn't raise the level of the water. If it was more dense, it would sink to the bottom, and raise the water level slightly.