How have people been affected by the melting of the glaciers and icesheets so far?

Question

Are small or distant cultures already dealing with effects in their normal course of business, modifying what they do? Are some people seriously planning to adapt for the near future because of the relatively high speed of the change in the local region?

Answer 1

Icesheets on the oceans will NOT increase sea levels!

Melting glaciers have been increasing sea levels for 8000+ years (coming out of the last ice age)  but the rate of increase is only a few inches per century.

http://www.worldclimatereport.com/index....

So mankind has not even noticed the few inches over his lifetime = no noticeable effects.

On Polar Bears:

http://www.thewildones.org/SFC/Seana/sop...

http://content.scholastic.com/browse/art...

and

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?art...

"Taylor explained Alaska's polar bear population is stable and recent research shows the polar bear population in Canada alone has increased 25 percent from 12,000 to 15,000 during the past decade, with 11 of Canada's 13 polar bear populations stable or increasing in number. Where polar bear weight and numbers are declining, Taylor thinks the cause is too many bears competing for food, not Arctic warming."

Their population probably should be 'thinned' to balance with  the food supples.

Answer 2

Check out this page. Hope provides enough information to answer your question.

Answer 3

A couple concrete examples:

The polar bear is loosing an average of 0.5 kg per year in weight since about a decade ago.  This is due to the following. When the female bear wakes up from hibernation it no longer finds a solid ice sheet on which to travel to its traditional fishing grounds.  The ice is already broken up into flows by then.  This causes considerable stress  on the bears and makes it much more difficult for polar bears to find food in the hungry state that they awake from.   Some scientists predict that the polar bear may be facing near extinction in the wilds with three decades.

This is on example.

Answer 4

"Melting permafrost has already forced the government of Alaska to cut from 200 to 100 days the annual period during which oil and gas equipment is permitted to travel on the tundra."

http://www.arcticnet-ulaval.ca/index.php...

as far as warming, the earth is absorbing a large amount of energy.  changing ice to liquid does not change the temperature.  but, just like a glass of ice water stays cold until the ice is finished melting, the major heating will not be apparent until a significant amount of the ice melts.  then, the temperature increase will be dramatic.

Answer 5

You mean the glacial progress of change?