Sea Level

[ossian]

If all the ice in the Antarctic, Greenland, and all the glaciers worldwide melted, how high would sea level rise, approximately? Stu.

[Count-A-Strong]

Nobody knows, as they cannot accurately say what sea levels are at any given time of year. There was a satellite called Jason 2 launched in 2007 and i believe it has made some progress. You may want to read this:
http://climate.nasa.g...n=ShowBlog&NewsID=239

[razza]

It was in the paper this morning that they will not rise as much as first feared,when they cant screw any more money out of us they will come clean and admit it was just a ploy to screw us all

[nightmare]

JS - I notice you have excluded the Arctic ice from this question. Is that for the reason I think- that it is floating and hence its displacement is relevant (not giving away the answer here) ?

[jake-the-peg]

Greenland and the antarctic are the most important because as you say the ice is already on land.

Greenland iceshelf 7.2 meters
Antarctic 61.1 meters

http://en.wikipedia.o...Glaciers_and_ice_caps

It is more complicated than that of course because water expands as temperatures rise.

Also the continents rise and fall so depending on where you are that can have an effect too

[jake-the-peg]

and yes Razza of course it's a ploy

A global conspiracy between pretty much every climate scientist on the globe and all the worlds politicians specifically designed to raise higher taxes.

It was cooked up by JFK and Maylin Monroe on the set where they staged the moon landings!

Lord Lucan financed the startup costs

[ossian]

Folks,

Many thanks for your contributions. I started to do the maths to see just what volume of water would be produced if all this ice melted and then calculate what depth this would result in if it was evenly distributed around the globe. This was going to take ages and involve an awful lot of approximations and I was hoping that someone had already seen the results of this or a similar calculation. I seem to remember a figure of 300 feet increase in sea level but that seems a lot to me.

Stu.

[R1Geezer]

300 feet, more like 3 feet at the most

[squarebear]

"If all the icecaps in the world were to melt, sea level would rise about 60-75 meters (200-250 feet). This could not result from modern human activities, and from any realistic cause would take thousands of years to occur. "

http://www.johnstonsa...nment/waterworld.html

[jake-the-peg]

I think Squarebear with statements llike that you have to ask whether your source is reliable.

So who is wm Robert Johnston and why have you selected his evidence?

Is he the just most authoratative person who agrees with you?

[rov1200]

As the majority of ice is below the surface (9/10ths) for icebergs if this de-ices it would take up less volume so causing a drop in sea level for these instances?

[Count-A-Strong]

JS - did you read my link? Might have saved you a lot of brain ache.

[mollykins]

Nightmare, it's a logical thing to do considering that because the arctic is basically a gigantic iceberg so if it melted it wouldn't affect sea levels, it's the water on land such as the antarctic and glaciers that would cause the rise.

[DTCwordfan]

As the surface area of the sea would increase with any melt, (and the comment about land ice is the valid one), there would be a cooling effect on the globe......

Sea level has moved significantly up and down since the last full Ice Age and in ice ages/periods between.......just as climate has.

There is a crew out there who think warming is a new feature - indeed as recently as 1215, the UK was growing red wines as far north as Luton and white wines in Edinburgh - indeed we were a wine based society. By the late 16th/17thC there were mini-glaciers back into Scotland and it was at this time that we switched to being grain based, ditto Germany. The temperature around 1215 was reckoned to be 3C warmer on average than today....... there's an excellent read on the history, social structures, food and wine etc of 1215, the date of Magna Carta, written by Danziger......

[wildwood]

Things are not as bleak as they appear JSR. The warmer humid air from the tropics are pushed all the way to the Poles by the rising air. This cools down as it gets closer to the colder regions and drops as snow to replenish most of the melted ice.

The sea level is getting higher faster than it naturally should though, no one can deny that and is evident with some of the smaller Pacific islands disappearing.

[DTCwordfan]

and there are a few ABers, no names mentioned, who would like Bangladesh and low lying areas of Pakistan and Indonesia to disappear with rising sea levels - and probably Bradford and E-London.

[jake-the-peg]

Really DTcrosswordfan Roman vinyards in Luton - I'm so impressed

Meet Broadlands wines in Norwich 50 miles or so further north
http://www.broadland-wineries.com/

Or even Mount Pleasant vinyard in Bolton!

http://www.ukvines.co.uk/vineyards/mount.htm


Not that that's important - People just can't get the Global bit can they?

Oh look there's no discernable change in this tiny bit of Europe this year - all the scientists must be wrong!

Isn't it remarkable how all the qualified scientists haven't noticed that the planets climate has varied in the past - should we tell them?

Or just maybe they already know as much about climate as we do - maybe a little more

[mibn2cweus]

Erm . . . This might not be the best time to be pushing the case for global warming Jake

http://www.telegraph....avoc-in-Scotland.html

[ossian]

Folks,

I really enjoyed reading all your answers. I just wanted an approximate answer and I think I have caused you all a lot of unnecessaty bother. I conclude from all the info that you have posted that, as I live at around 60 feet above sea level, I won't have to move house in the next five years or so. Or maybe I should get myself a house boat just in case.

Many Thanks,

Stu.

[rov1200]

One thing is certain about global warming. Take the UK over the past 2 weeks...far below average temperatures...Why? Because the winds are flowing from Siberia rather than getting air from the Gulf stream.

Therefore our weather patterns are mostly due to the direction of the wind flow. Other countries could be affected just the same. These temperatures are never measured at these critical times. The global warming fiasco could be applied to any other country.

[bentaxle]

I think we should worry more about the Humboldt Current if any thing ,