[irish guard]

I have a question......If there has already been a 20% erosion of the cap, why isn't there a bunch of shoreline already underwater? Wasn't that one of the claims of a melting ice cap?

[alwaysconservative]

I have a question......If there has already been a 20% erosion of the cap, why isn't there a bunch of shoreline already underwater? Wasn't that one of the claims of a melting ice cap?

It's the junk science. I still remember (if this doesn't date me too much!) about the fears in the mid-70's about global COOLING, preceded by a "heightened" period of increased CO2 emissions and record warming. We're entering a new era, according to Bjorn Lomborg, but not one necessarily caused by human greenhouse gases.

[laredo44]

I have a question......If there has already been a 20% erosion of the cap, why isn't there a bunch of shoreline already underwater? Wasn't that one of the claims of a melting ice cap?

I believe the effect of the ice in the Arctic icecap is already included in the current ocean levels -- it could all melt and ocean levels wouldn't rise one centimeter -- just like an ice cube melting in a glass of water won't raise the level of water in the glass. It is the melting of ice currently over land -- Greenland, Antarctica -- that will cause ocean levels to rise.

[KarlInOhio]

Ice is less dense than water, which is why it floats. The weight of the water displaced is the same as the entire piece of ice, both above and below water. When the ice melts, the volume of the water is the same as the volume of ice below the water.

If you have a glass of ice and water in which the water is up to the lip of the glass and let the ice melt, the water level will not change (assuming that the ice was freely floating).

Only by melting ice on land (largely Greenland and Antartica) would the sea level be raised.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Melting of the Arctic ice cap will have no effect on the sea level. It may have an effect on the sea temperature and current flow. Melting of either the Greenland or Antarctic ice caps would have a big effect on sea level.