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| Polar Ice Caps Melting; Sea Levels Rising |
| 2006-03-10 |
| A classic piece of BBC 'science' reporting that buries the real conclusions toward the end, in the hope most people don't read that far. This is the interesting paragraph. "The study indicates that the contribution of the ice sheets to sea-level rise during the decade studied was much smaller than expected, just two percent of the recent increase of nearly three millimeters a year," he said. A human hair is about a millimeter thick, so over ten years the melting ice caps have raised sea levels about half the width of a human hair. |
| Posted by:phil_b |
| #33 If you take your typical 12 inch world globe, the average ocean depth on that scale is about the thickness of a hair. I'd put my money on deep ocean vents being the source of the 'excess' water. |
| Posted by: KBK 2006-03-10 23:05 |
| #32 Were those Mt. K pictures painted in 1816? |
| Posted by: Darrell 2006-03-10 20:59 |
| #31 Even if the current rate of rise in sea level would produce 12" increase in a century, there is nothing in the literature to suggest that this rate of rise could be or should be expected to be constant or increase or decrease over a hundred year period. Predictions over time like this are usually probability measures for single event occurances, such as severe storms or damaging rainfalls, not for predictions of trends. |
| Posted by: john 2006-03-10 20:52 |
| #30 200 yrs of industrial age around Mt. K, huh? Lotsa impact there |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-03-10 20:37 |
| #29 Two hundred year old paintings of Kenya's Mount Kilimanjaro, reveal a large ice cap. That has gone now. I wouldn't mind some good science on global warming, but not from the Beeb. |
| Posted by: Listen To Dogs 2006-03-10 20:22 |
| #28 The majority of ocean scientists feel that most of the rise in sea level is due to the expansion of water (it gets less dense when it is warmer) Even if we admit it the rest of the math is correct: a 1 foot raise per century. It would take centuries before it is a problem for the Seychelles Islands. |
| Posted by: JFM 2006-03-10 18:23 |
| #27 "And the downside is....? ;-p" All the freeloaders from Camden will be over here on this side of the river, knocking on our doors wanting free stuff. Think NOLA was bad? HA!!! |
| Posted by: Gletle Snarong3002 2006-03-10 18:03 |
| #26 Well, if George Bush would have signed Kyoto the bloody Himalayas would not be uplifting! |
| Posted by: kelly 2006-03-10 17:49 |
| #25 Bangladesh's problem is the land is sinking, due to the uplift of the Himalayas. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2006-03-10 17:19 |
| #24 #23 Gletle Snarong3002: "Shit. Now South Jersey's gonna be under water." And the downside is....? ;-p |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2006-03-10 16:50 |
| #23 Bangladesh is going to be in deep |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul in Hooper Bay, AK 2006-03-10 15:37 |
| #22 Shit. Now South Jersey's gonna be under water. |
| Posted by: Gletle Snarong3002 2006-03-10 12:24 |
| #21 Lol EB. Lemme phrase it this way: All burger-flippers are philosophy majors, but not all philosophy majors are burger-flippers. Better? Lol... I know I shoulda made it ethnic-studies majors but it didn't hit me until about 3 microseconds after I hit submit. Ain't that always the way? ;-) |
| Posted by: .com 2006-03-10 11:53 |
| #20 .com, Hey, us philosophical guyz know about Archimedes. (G) |
| Posted by: Ernest Brown 2006-03-10 11:48 |
| #19 A human hair is about a millimeter thick, so over ten years the melting ice caps have raised sea levels about half the width of a human hair. Should read: A human hair is about 0.1 millimeter thick, so over ten years the melting ice caps have raised sea levels about six times the width of a human hair, or approximately 6 * 10 -20 light-years. |
| Posted by: KBK 2006-03-10 10:58 |
| #18 Greenland DB gottem Eskimos, ducks eider, icesheet and land underneeth the ice. |
| Posted by: 6 2006-03-10 10:23 |
| #17 Lol - I can see it now: the brains of thousands of liberal arts majors exploding... Yeah, okay, some of the burger-flippers (philosophy majors), too. |
| Posted by: .com 2006-03-10 09:48 |
| #16 Ya beat me to it, Texican. Glacial melt and South Polar ice melt will raise the level, but not North Polar ice. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2006-03-10 09:43 |
| #15 If the rising sea level is because of the polar ice caps melting then the rise in level has to be exclusively from the South Pole. Since the northern ice cap contains no land underneath, it could melt in its entirety and not raise sea level one iota. |
| Posted by: Texican 2006-03-10 08:54 |
| #14 Damn, no wonder I found a good deal on a beachside condo..... |
| Posted by: Desert Blondie 2006-03-10 08:41 |
| #13 jfm The majority of ocean scientists feel that most of the rise in sea level is due to the expansion of water (it gets less dense when it is warmer). the warming of the oceans over the past few centuries is undoubtedly due to a whole number of reasons; warming of the lower troposhere is one of them |
| Posted by: mhw 2006-03-10 08:07 |
| #12 So the increase is 3mm a year? Ie 1 foot per century. At this step it would take 6 centuries before the seas raise as much as an average man height. Oh and there is just 98% of the raise who is not explained by ice-cap melting. Where is this water coming from? Volcanos? Leftist crocodile tears about Irak? Pissing contests? |
| Posted by: JFM 2006-03-10 07:44 |
| #11 I'm really scared, though, cuz of the headline. I mean, I don't have the time to read articles, so I rely on the headlines. Wonder how many others do that. Wonder if the news organizations know that . . . |
| Posted by: ex-lib 2006-03-10 04:50 |
| #10 We can't do much about global warming, extreme weather, extinction, etc. But do we really need to add nuclear proliferation to that list? |
| Posted by: Listen To Dogs 2006-03-10 04:03 |
| #9 Yeah but, what about them hurricanes? Surely that's all the evidence one needs. |
| Posted by: Rafael 2006-03-10 02:32 |
| #8 Well, it was nice knowing you all. Puttin' on my scuba gear now. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2006-03-10 01:53 |
| #7 Ed, you are quite right. I managed to drop a zero in there. I amend my conclusion. A human hair is about 0.1 of a millimeter thick, so every year the melting ice caps have raised sea levels about half the width of a human hair. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2006-03-10 01:36 |
| #6 0.1 mm is used as the standard thickness for human hair, or sea level rise of 6 hair thicknesses over 10 years due to Polar icecap melting. |
| Posted by: ed 2006-03-10 01:24 |
| #5 A human hair is about a millimeter thick, so over ten years the melting ice caps have raised sea levels about half the width of a human hair. More if it is an RCH. |
| Posted by: Penguin 2006-03-10 01:19 |
| #4 This so called global warming is pissing me off. I want to grow pecans and oranges in Chicago. Its not looking like it will happen anytime soon. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2006-03-10 00:53 |
| #3 and as a result of this millimeter rise in the melting ice caps, we Texans and all of the Southwest portion of the US are suffering droughts, while there is snow in the Sahara Desert. This increase, just goes to proves, this all means, Gore's discovery of the Internet just increase our knowledge of the coming end of our world, created by Global Warming. Or somethin' like that |
| Posted by: Sherry 2006-03-10 00:53 |
| #2 Call me when S.F., Marin and Santa Monica are under water OK? |
| Posted by: SPoD 2006-03-10 00:50 |
| #1 "over ten years the melting ice caps have raised sea levels about half the width of a human hair" OMYGODWEREALLGONNADIE! /moonbat-gorebot |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2006-03-10 00:44 |