Soooo, I know, I will get some flak for this . . .
Shrugs shoulders - sooo?????
Anyhow
This has been bugging me for some time -
the notion (which was re-inforced in last nights TV program "Russia from above" with the line being peddled that the (North) polar sea ice melting will cause widespread flooding. Now I know - this could just not be - as long as I remember my history lesson from way back - you know 'that' Eureka moment.
snip -- Let's begin with the story: the local tyrant contracts the ancient Greek polymath Archimedes to detect fraud in the manufacture of a golden crown. Said tyrant, name of Hiero, suspects his goldsmith of leaving out some measure of gold and replacing it with (cheaper) silver in a wreath dedicated to the gods. Archimedes accepts the challenge and, during a subsequent trip to the public baths, realizes that the more his body sinks into the water, the more water is displaced--making the displaced water an exact measure of his volume. Because gold weighs more than silver, he reasons that a crown mixed with silver would have to be bulkier to reach the same weight as one composed only of gold; therefore it would displace more water than its pure gold counterpart. Realizing he has hit upon a solution, the young Greek math whiz leaps out of the bath and rushes home naked crying "Eureka! Eureka!" Or, translated: "I've found it! I've found it!" end snip
So this morning I run a totally non-scientific kitchen experiment - I got a measuring glass jar - filled it with water (300ML) and then tossed in a 20 frozen ice-cubes and saw that the water level rose to 500ml - guess I froze 200ml. Anyhow - by a stroke of unintended luck the water-level rose to exactly 500ml - and not to be outdone I leveled it and marked it with some insulation tape. So we had some beautiful cubes below the surface and some on the top and one ice cube even sticking out like a decent Titanic cutting bit!! Now just to wait - and wait - and wait.
If I am right - along with old Alchi - then the melting of the ice will not increase the water-level one bit - because - it has already done so when the cubes first went in - right!??!?!?!
So as all the ice swimming round the north-pole is concerned = it is already displacing the sea-levels as it came from there in the first place - right?!?!?! Logic - right!!!
Re-checks the glass - nope, no increase in the levels and all the cubes have almost completely melted - bar one!!
So the only way the sea-levels could raise IF there was additional ice melt (water) from ice that is currently on land - Greenland and Antarctica!!
I cannot speak for Greenland - as far as Antarctica is concerned - Yes - it could melt! Indeed in past years (speak many many many thousands years back) it was a GREEN continent complete with flowers and grasses and - ice free and all! OK guess so could Greenland be!
However - before you get all excited with doom and gloom - CURRENTLY - it is too bloody cold down (in Antarctica) and no global warming man-made or other is going to change that in the next 50 thousand years.
snip --Antarctica, Scott Base yearly average mean temperature (-14.6)
The lowest reliably measured temperature of a continuously occupied station on Earth of −89.2 °C was on 21 July 1983 at Vostok Station. For comparison, this is 10.7 °C colder than subliming dry ice (at sea level pressure). The altitude of the location is 3,488 meters (11,444 feet).
The lowest recorded temperature of any location on Earth's surface at 81.8°S 63.5°E was revised with new data in 2018 in nearly 100 locations, ranging from −93.2 °C to −98 °C . This unnamed part of the Antarctic plateau, between Dome A and Dome F, was measured on August 10, 2010, and the temperature was deduced from radiance measured by the Landsat 8 and other satellites, and discovered during a National Snow and Ice Data Center review of stored data in December, 2013 but revised by researcher on June 25 2018. This temperature is not directly comparable to the –89.2 °C reading quoted above, since it is a skin temperature deduced from satellite-measured upwelling radiance, rather than a thermometer-measured temperature of the air 1.5 m (4.9 ft) above the ground surface.
The highest temperature ever recorded on the Antarctic continent was 17.5 °C (63.5 °F) at Esperanza Base, on the Antarctic Peninsula, on 24 March 2015. A higher temperature of 19.8 °C at Signy Research Station on 30 January 1982 is the record for the Antarctic region encompassing all land and ice south of 60° S.
-------> The mean annual temperature of the interior is −57 °C. <---------
The coast is warmer; on the coast Antarctic average temperatures are around −10 °C (in the warmest parts of Antarctica) and in the elevated inland they average about −55 °C in Vostok. Monthly means at McMurdo Station range from −26 °C in August to −3 °C in January.
At the South Pole, the highest (ie - the 'warmest') temperature ever recorded was −12.3 °C on 25 December 2011.
Severe low temperatures vary with latitude, elevation, and distance from the ocean. East Antarctica is colder than West Antarctica because of its higher elevation.
End snip
Thus - I maintain that there is nothing to worry about any sea-levels rising and swallowing Al Gore's precious multi-million dollar mansion on the Florida coast anytime soon or anyone else's property!
Ah I know - no amount of reason or logic, let alone emotion will be convincing some folks - for them it has become a religion - with unshakable dogma! After all - for Christians it works with Jesus - where no proof ever in any shape or form can detract them from believing!
What bugs me is that Policy is being made based on this 'faulty' logic/belief, A policy that is costly and not needed (by the 'guilt' ridden western countries) - WHEN at the same time those efforts could be much better directed, to, for example, to raise Africa out of its poverty and give that continent a decent chance for life!I am heartened by the efforts to create a "Green belt" in Africa, right across from coast to coast to stop the Sahara from growing and further erode arable land; - This will eventually lead to a better ability to grow food crops! Who knows - if this green belt gets wider - you just might have a l l your fruit you can eat coming from that region!! Wouldn't that be a hoot - Africa feeding the world!!!! :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACUUIPE2Odw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xls7K_xFBQ
http://www.greenbeltmovement.org/
Have fun!
PS - I forgot to add - and you will not find this in the main stream media - you will have to hunt for the data - turns out that in the last 20-35 years the average temperature in Antarctica has been going lower - meaning it is getting COLDER!!! No chance of defrosting ice there for the foreseeable future . . .
