OFF: FLOODS ARE COMING

[Chris Warburton]

And don't forget the further greenhouse gases that would be released by the
melting of permafrost/clathrates.....

ChrisW

At 22:03 29/03/01 -0500, you wrote:
>On Thu, 29 Mar 2001 21:22:54 EST, Robert C. Mayo <RMayo19761 at AOL.COM> wrote:
> >and even if it were true that the ice caps will melt, etc, why would that
> >cause flooding, necessarily? when the ice in a glass of icewater melts,the
> >glass doesn't overflow; the 'new' water takes up (nearly) the same space as
> >the ice that it used to be...did.
>
>That would be an accurate analogy IF the ice caps on Earth were floating in
>the oceans like ice cubes in a glass of water - in that case, 80-90% of the
>ice caps would already be below sea level, so yes, melting them would have
>little effect on the sea level worldwide.  But that only holds true for
>icebergs, an infintesmal percentage of the amount of ice in the ice caps.
>The ice caps on Earth are mostly ABOVE sea level (on the continent of
>Antarctica, the island of Greenland, or on sheets ON TOP the ocean, held up
>by their connection to Antarctica or Greenland or Canada or Siberia).
>
> >much achoo about nothing
>
>... I wish that was the case ...
>
>     -Doug
>      ceres at sirius.com