keep in mind that 1) a lot of major major metropolitan cities around the world is situated by the coast, 2) there are also cities/areas that are at or below sea level already (venice, new orleans). so a rise of say 6ft displaces a population of tens of millions, at the very least, and we're not talking abt property damage.

fiend is right, it's not just the rising water levels, it's everything that it causes, the ripple effects, the 40+ degrees in england in may, the one month rain in texas, the disappearance of winter for subtropical areas, drought in west coast u.s., it's everything.

"didn't i throw you out of a window? " - jessica/nikki, heroes

venice is slowly disappearing...meaning that the water level is indeed rising, at least an inch a year...where doors were several hundred years ago along venice's waterways are now partially submerged. yay discovery channel!

you might be able to back up your theory with the concept of condensation. It's kinda stretching it though...and i don't have much of a scientific background...but you can relate condensation, etc, with the earth's hydrologic cycle by which the earth is more or less able to balance it's water levels consistently since water is constantly changing forms...howeeever, the earth goes through cycles of periods of warming and cooling. The last time the earth was in a warming period, the sea levels that we have today were almost 20 feet higher back then...

on a different not: did anybody read about the 100 feet deep lake in the Andes that disappeared sometime between march and may of this year???

Climate change is nothing new.  It's happened for billions of years.  Most weather modeling does indicate that gaseous carbon emissions are depleting the ozone which allows more sunlight to pass through our atomosphere...hence global warming.  Hopefully, we can slow this warming trend by decreasing emissions. That might give us time to develop technologies that will enable populations to adapt to these changes.

Floating ice does not add or subtract from water levels, so the water levels in your second and third drawings should be equal. However, the disappearance of floating ice reveals the ocean surface, which has a lower albedo than the ice (i.e., the ocean surface is darker, so it absorbs more heat), so more heat is absorbed and retained, leading to more melting ice.

Rising sea levels would be caused by the melting of land-based ice, predominantly in the arctic and Greenland.

Just a side note, man is contributing to both global cooling and global warming concurrently. Aerosols emitted by industrial activities, such as the contrails behind jet planes, contribute to global cooling. Greenhouse gas emissions such as CO2 and methane contribute to warming. CO2 simply stays in the atmosphere for as much as a hundred years.

this thread is coinciding with the chapter that we're on in my japanese class... we're talking about the ozone layer, CFCs, global warming etc etc... the word for CO2 in japanese is so complicated...

hahah, sorry! Off topic-- i know. =)

I’ll check that out Snowbird, thanks.

I found Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” documentary very eye opening.  Then I picked up the book called “Cradle to Cradle” which was based on how products are manufactured with absolutely no thought to what happens when disposed of.  Even an aluminum can we all recycle everyday is useless (all cans are made of two metals and when combined, produce a low-grade material, then ends up in a dump anyway).

There are many interesting books and articles out there and the internet is a great place to get info. I highly recommend the book.  I’m an architect and we are noticing a definite trend towards “green” building methods and materials.  The more discerning clients are beginning to demand it, which is great.   We can only hope it’s not too little too late.

One point that might help explain this is that ice and water have a different density. I have to use metric measure units here because the American ones confuse me so much.

Ice has a lower density than water (even though with water, it does depend on temperature, too for more accurate findings). At 4 degrees Celsius (about 39° Fahrenheit) water has its highest density at 0,999972 g/cm³; ice density is at a destimate density of 0,9168 g/cm³ - this means that one liter and one kilogramm of water are roughly the same, while a ton of ice when melted has a volue of about 1091 liters.

So while you can't see it with your eyes in your waterglass, there is an immediate effect and regarding the enormous amounts of ice melting - the sea levels rise.

About snowbird's entry: for a good while now, the occasional scientist or institute has found absolute proof that the problem isn't man-made. Most of them are sponsored or otherwise financed by the industry. So you can pick the convenient option and believe in the theory that holds us blameless and ignores wide portions of scientific data and research or you can look at all the other reputable scientists and researchers who don't support this thesis at all.

And while I agree that a lot of this has to do with our consumption patterns (us as mostly members of industrial countries who are especially responsible to this development that concerns the entire world), I disagree about one notion in this thread. Yes, consuming differently is one point. But the main point is, we would need to consume less and pay more for it until we live in this perfect world of green energy, overcome oil issues and recycling goodness. And consuming less is a bit harder than demanding "green" products and feeling good about it.