Physical Chemistry Questions! Helppppp GLOBAL WARMING QUESTION?

Question

Consider the polar ice caps Greenland and Antarctica. The volume of ice is 2.6 x 106 km3 for Greenland and 3.0 x 107 km3 for Antarctica.

1. If ice has a volume of 0.902 g/cm3, find the mass of water held in the polar ice caps in grams. (There are 1x1015 cm3 in a km3.)

2. If the ice is held at –10 °C, find the amount of heat in GJ required to melt all the ice in the polar ice caps at 0.0 °C. (The specific heat of ice is 2.09 J/g x °C; the latent heat of fusion is 334 kJ/ kg; 1 Gigajoule = 109 joules.)

3. Every 4x105 km3 of ice that melts causes a sea level rise of 1.0 meter. Suppose that the polar ice caps absorb enough heat for 30.0 % of the ice caps to melt. How much will the sea level rise?

4.If the atmospheric pressure increased, would that help stop the melting? Explain.

5.What effect does increased global temperature have on humidity, the amount of water vapor in the air?

6.Write a statement explaining why global warming could be disastrous to the ecosystem?

Answer 1

I know that my answer doesn't help much but think about all the facts and do not accept the socialist propaganda your school is shoving down your throat.    Global Warming is a trojan horse for Socialism, wake up Americans. Global warming is at the fore front because politicians found how to use a new platform to get re-elected. The world leaders use it because they found ways to make money at it. This is a made up problem just like Global Cooling in the 1970's. Wake up people. I agree we need to be more efficient with our resources, and we should fine and jail companies who are dumping into our rivers maliciously. I want to stop the raiforest destruction, but to say that global warming is a serious man made issue and we need to destroy the American economy and bow down to the rest of the world certainly does not float my boat. Follow the money on this one and you will see that it is all for political gain and grant money for those scientists who profit off of the government if global warming stays at the front of the issues. Look deep into the Keoto (sp?) Treaty, first of all they took jets to a non-central resort location. Not very environmentally concious. THen in the parameters of the treaty they have a clause that makes it so you can buy or sell polution credits. This is all about shifting wealth and breaking down the United States. This is painfully obvious, just look at peoples agenda. The earth's mean temperature has risen .6 degrees C in the past 125 years. Greenland's icecaps have gotten colder in the past 10 years. The Scientists who do not gain anything on their posisition will tell you that the earth has a natural progression and this is what we are seeing. The UN report is made up of POLITICIANS not a good spread of scientists. THere are as many or more scientists who believe that man in NOT the reason and it is over hyped, but their voice is not heard in the LIberal Mainstream Media. This issue is 99% political, and an attempt to make the USA a socialist nation, and eventually communisim. WAKE UP AMERICA, IT IS TIME TO BE AMERICANS. FOR THE PEOPLE BY THE PEOPLE. STOP THE LIES.

Answer 2

1. (2.6 x 10^6 km3 + 3.0 x 10^7 km3) * (1 x 10^15 cm3/km3) * (0.902 g/cm3) = 2.9 x 10^22 g.

2. (2.9 x 10^22 g) * (10C * 2.09 J/g + 334 kJ/kg ) / 10^9 J/GJ = 1.04 x 10^16 GJ

3. 30% * ( 2.6 x 10^6 km3 + 3.0 x 10^6 km3) / 4 x 10^5 km3/m = 24.5 m

4. Atmospheric pressure increase would have very little impact on the melting because the specific heat of ice and the latent heat of fusion of water are weak functions of pressure.

5. Increased global temperature should increase the amount of water vapor in air because warmer air can hold more moisture and warmer water evaporates faster.

6. Global warming could make very large changes in climate such as local temperatures and rainfall. Those changes could make it impossible for plants and animals to survive in regions where the climate has changed from the one they evolved in. These changes appear to be occurring far faster than would happen due to natural changes in climate making it difficult or impossible for evolutionary changes to occur fast enough to keep up resulting in vast extinctions events.