Polar ice caps melting?

Question

Are the polar ice caps really melting because of global warming? If the polar ice caps melted, what impact would it have on our planet?

Answer 1

Some here, who must be much smarter than the vast majority of scientists studying the climate, claim that the ice caps and glaciers aren't melting.

" A common skeptic tactic is citing studies out of context to misrepresent their significance. While globally, glaciers are shrinking, there are isolated cases where glaciers are growing. These anomalies are seized upon as proof against global warming."

"Himalayan glaciers "confounding global warming alarmists"

The American Meteorological Society's Journal of Climate never said "...confounding global warming alarmists..." - that's a quote from the Heartland Institute website written by... James Taylor. He's actually quoting himself and attributing it to the AMS!"

{Heartland Institute, mouthpiece for the oil industry}

"To put the Himalayas in context, the original study Conflicting Signals of Climatic Change in the Upper Indus Basin (Fowler 2006) is not refuting global warming but observing anomalous behaviour in a particular region, the Karakoram mountains. This region has shown short term glacial growth in contrast to the long term, widespread glacial retreat throughout the rest of the Himalayas. The reason for the Karakoram growth is feedback processes associated with monsoon season. Overall, Himalayan glaciers are retreating - satellite measurements have observed "an overall deglaciation of 21%" from 1962 to 2007. "

"While there is a small percentage of growing glaciers, the overwhelming majority are shrinking. And more importantly, the shrinking trend is increasing (eg - 77% in 2002, 94% in 2003)."

"Global trends in glacier shrinkage

Globally, glaciers are shrinking in area and thickness and the melt rate has accelerated dramatically since the mid-1990s. The National Snow and Ice Data Center have calculated global change in glacier volume - their results show glaciers are shrinking at an alarming rate."

http://www.skepticalscience.com/himalaya...

If you go to this  website an look at the chart of growing and shrinking glaciers worldwide, you will see how ridiculous this skeptic argument is.

There are a handful of growing glaciers and dozens and dozens of shrinking ones.



There are a few growing glaciers, like the one on Mt. Shasta in California.  It's a result of more snow from increased precipitation, but skeptics point at it and a few others as "proof" that the glaciers are not melting.

As for Antartica, yes the ice is growing in some areas and melting very fast on the west coast.

By the way that is just what the IPCC scientists predicted.

"Antarctic cooling is a uniquely regional phenomenon. In fact, the case of Antartica cooling is a great case study on how the media and global warming skeptics seize upon a study and interpret it inappropriately. The original study observed regional cooling in east Antarctica. The hole in the ozone layer above the South Pole causes cooling in the stratosphere. This increased circular winds around the continent preventing warmer air from reaching east Antarctica and the Antarctic plateau. The flip side of this is the Antarctic Peninsula has "experienced some of the fastest warming on Earth, nearly 3°C over the last half-century".

"While East Antartica is gaining ice due to increased precipitation, Antartica is overall losing ice. This is mostly due to melting in West Antarctica which recently featured the largest melting observed by satellites in the last 30 years. As well as melting, Antartic glaciers are accelerating further adding to sea level rise."

http://www.skepticalscience.com/antarcti...

The impacts, as others have said,  are rising sea levels and excelerating warming, since the ice won't reflect as much light back into space.

There is also the possibility of a far greater danger, although most scientists don't seem to think it is that likely.   I'm referring to the interruption of the oceans current system, or great conveyor belt of currents that include the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic.  That's the scenario depicted and sensationalized in the movie "The Last Day".    Melting glaciers in the Arctic and subarctic could theoritically cause this.  The result would be a major cooling of eastern North America and northern Europe.  At worst, it could cause an ice age with very rapid onset, at least for those regions.

This article from 2004 tellls the story.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0130...

And Dan B, no, it is not just a repitition of natural cycles.  That is pure hogwash.

"The usual drivers of natural climate change have shown little to no warming trend since the 70's."

"It's a well established fact that climate changes naturally and sometimes dramatically. The pertinent question isn't "has climate changed in the past?" (of course it has) but "what is causing global warming now?" To begin to answer that, it's helpful to look at the major causes of natural climate change in the past."

Solar activity

"Solar variations have been the major driver of climate change over the past 10,000 years. When sunspot activity was low during the Maunder Minimum in the 1600's or the Dalton Minimum in the 1800's, the earth went through 'Little Ice Ages'. Similarly, solar activity was higher during the Medieval Warm Period."

"However, the correlation between solar activity and global temperatures ended around 1975. At that point, temperatures started rising while solar activity stayed level. This led a team of scientists from Finland and Germany to conclude "during these last 30 years the solar total irradiance, solar UV irradiance and cosmic ray flux has not shown any significant secular trend, so that at least this most recent warming episode must have another source."

Milankovitch cycles

"Earth's climate undergoes 120,000 year cycles of ice ages broken by short warm periods called interglacials. The cycle is driven by Milankovitch cycles. Long term changes in the Earth's orbit trigger an initial warming which warms the oceans and melts ice sheets - this releases CO2. The extra CO2 in the atmosphere causes further warming leading to interglacials ending the ice ages."

"For the past 12,000 years, we've been in an interglacial. The current trend of the Milankovitch cycle is a gradual cooling down towards an ice age. "

Volcanoes

"Volcanic eruptions spew sulfate aerosols into the atmosphere which has a cooling effect on global temperatures. These aerosols reflect incoming sunlight, causing a 'global dimming' effect. Usually, the cooling effect lasts several years until the aerosols are washed out of the atmosphere. In the case of large eruptions or a succession of eruptions such as in the early 1800's, the cooling effect can last several decades. Strong volcanic activity exacerbated the Little Ice Age in the 1800's."

"The usual suspects in natural climate change - solar variations, volcanoes, Milankovitch cycles - are all conspicuous in their absence over the past 3 decades of warming. This doesn't mean by itself that CO2 is the main cause of current global warming - you don't prove anthropogenic warming by eliminating all other options. But the causes of the commonly cited climate changes in the past are understood and have played little to no part in the current warming trend."

http://www.skepticalscience.com/climate-...

Answer 2

Some animals such as the polar bear will have much impact on them! Polar Bears are important cause if they don't keep the food chain going on, that may cause much damage to all of the animals who live in the artic. For us it might be a bad sign. Global warming is going 10x faster then what scientists had expected! Theres this chunk of ice that was so big that scientists belived that it would melt in the next 5 years but instead it already melted. Those are bad signs. It can mean the end of the world if almost here!

Answer 3

The polar ice cap in the north has been melting. In the south the amount of snow falling has been keeping up with melting. It takes a lot of energy  to create  that snow too.

Ultimately there will be no northern ice cap, and then later on there will be a major reduction of the Antarctic cap. This will happen even if we stop all GHG  emissions.

Before previous ice ages there has been a warming period in which this has happened, and there have been some unwelcome results.  We may not be able to support as many people on earth, so some will die of starvation.

When Antarctica starts to melt off, we can expect some rise in ocean levels. This will continue for a couple centuries, maybe. I say maybe because we could have a cooling event or two that could set off mini-ice ages and delay the onset of the next ice age.

No way will any contintent, not even Australia, be submerged in the oceans. Most volcanic islands will lose some coastline, but not disappear,

We will not die in tjhe rising waters. we will be able to walk away from them. But what will be a problem is loss of farmland to feed us.

If our oceans remain as sick as they are, we will not be able to turn to them for extra food.

The oceans will warm up under mostly sunny skies, because a warmer world will have less cloud cover. then, when the  oceans have warmed a lot, we will be set for the next ice age.

With an ice age, the warm oceans will pour volumes of water into the air, and it will partly land on the northern and southern land areas as snow. This period will have a lot of rain over a large part of earth. But it will be cold as a result of heavy cloud cover, In this period we will survive best close to the equator..

While the ice age is forming, ocean levels will drop, so that much of the ocean between China and Australia will again be bare land. England will be part of the continent. Cuba will remain separated from Florida, but barely.

Antarctica may not have entirely melted off when the next major ice age starts.

Barely will the ice age have used up a large part of the oceans making snow before global warming will start again.

Answer 4

There are no polar ice caps melting except the ones that normally need to melt. It's very simple, as they build up, it increases heat and friction between the caps. This causes them to melt naturally. It's insane how people think these caps will dissapear.

Answer 5

yeah they are melting, it used to be called spring.

that was before the climate was politicized.

Answer 6

I'm doing a paper on this right now--

yes, there are really melting.  if they melt, we lose many arctic species that depend on ice for survival including polar bears, walruses, and seals.

the more the ice glaciers melt, the more land mass we lose.

the first to go would be the islands, including Australia, Japan, the Caribbean, then later, India, Europe, California, and Florida.  Those people have to go somewhere, so basically it's formula for overpopulation epidemic.  

basically, if the ice glaciers melt, we can't survive.  they seem harmless and useless, but it causes a huge snowball effect that will reach humans.

Answer 7

Global warming is a "hot issue" right now and some, such as Al Gore, would have us all believing that we did it to ourselves.  However, reality is obvious.  The planet goes through natural cycles and is doing so again.  Think about the ice age when mile-thick ice covered parts of our continent.  What caused them to happen, and even more importantly, what caused them to go away again?  It certainly wasn't SUV's and methane gasses produced by livestock feed lots as some would have us believe.  Take the pros and cons controversy with a grain of salt and try to keep the history of the world in proper perspective.  History truly does repeat itself, and global warming is just a natural repetition of history.

Answer 8

Below is an excerpt from ,'How it works"

In 1995 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a report which contained various projections of the sea level change by the year 2100. They estimate that the sea will rise 50 centimeters (20 inches) with the lowest estimates at 15 centimeters (6 inches) and the highest at 95 centimeters (37 inches). The rise will come from thermal expansion of the ocean and from melting glaciers and ice sheets. Twenty inches is no small amount -- it could have a big effect on coastal cities, especially during storms

You can also check out their website for more info.

http://science.howstuffworks.com