[freeplancer]

I am not a chemist or into physics, but when I fill my glass all the way full with ice and water, it does not flow over when the ice melts. Maybe that is just me though. I don't even play a chemist on tv.

[ARepublicanForAllReasons]

The point about glaciers and polar ice caps melting is that, until they melt, they are NOT part of any ocean and don't contribute any mass that would raise the ocean's level. But it's only a theoretical point. The Middle Ages were renowned for theories, but most of them have been discarded. The enviro-priests have decreed "First the verdict, then the trial!"

As I told some enviro-paranoids once, "As long as we keep having weather, we will keep having apocalyptic predictions."

[Einigkeit_Recht_Freiheit]

A glacier is ice on land. A iceberg is ice in the ocean and akin to your ice cube in a glass of water If an iceberg melts (or for that matter the artic ocean) it changes nothing.

If a glacier melts like in Greenland or Antartica, that is a problem because it is like ice on a spoon hovering above that glass. In other words, it will add water to the system.

The larger problem with the melting is the potential feedback loop. Melting land ice leaves darker surfaces exposed which trap more heat (ice is white and reflects heat back into space). Thus melting of glaciers on a global level as a result of warming will likely produce more warming.

Paradoxically it might make some areas of the world colder because ocean flows are disrupted. The Gulf stream may cease to carry warm air up the East Coast of the US and then on to Europe. The result might be colder temperatures on the East Coast and Canadaian-like temps in Europe.

Overall the warming is likely to cause more extreme weather and more extreme shifts in weather. Thus the very warm January and very cold February on the US East Coast this year.

All told, it is probably a bad time to invest in property in the Gulf or in the Netherlands. I would also recommend against building a ski resort in the Alps.