OFF: FLOODS ARE COMING

[Douglas Pearson]

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