Sports Illustrated Article on Global Warming

[Howard]

Originally posted by: silverpig

Originally posted by: destrekor

Originally posted by: yankeesfan

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
What's wrong wtih what he said about melting ice?

When water changes states from ice to water, it takes up less space. That I know for sure. He made it seem as though the warming of the water is the only cause of the higher sea level, rather than the introduction of new water from the melting of land-based ice into the oceans. Most of the arctic ice is on land.

Don't quote me on that, though. I am far from an expert on this.

sure when ice melts it takes up less volume, but its water displacement does NOT change... so melting ice bergs do NOTHING to sea level, at least initially.
ice that is on land and is not displacing any water at the moment, will raise sea levels. and warming water, to the extent of all the oceans on the planet, will raise sea level. I don't know, and won't even make any claims as to how much the mere warming of water across the planet will cause it to rise, but I do know that it will happen. But that doesn't matter, as the mere introduction of melting ice that is currently sitting on land (ice sheet on greenland, ice sheets on antarctica, for instance) will cause the sea level to rise more than warming it will. nevertheless, the combined effect won't be pretty.

I haven't done the calculations myself, but I'm taking an easy first year earth and ocean sciences class this year which says that if the temperature of the earth was raised by 5 degrees, the largest contributing factor to ocean levels rising is not the melting of all the glaciers, but the expansion of water.

I don't know how this is calculated exactly, as I'm fairly certain that even if the earth's temperature went up by 5 degrees, only the top 100-200 m of ocean would be warmed. The rest of it would stay at it's normal 0-3 deg C.

Temperature of the earth? What parts?

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: destrekor

Originally posted by: JS80

Originally posted by: destrekor

Originally posted by: JS80

Originally posted by: FoBoT
environmentalists are retarded

fixed

so everyone who makes the claim that global warming is a real threat, is considered an environmentalist?

damn, i guess im retarded, because im an environmentalist then...
and yet, at the same time, im an environmentalists worst nightmare... because I acknowledge and fully believe the threat is real, and yet I haven't changed a single part of my lifestyle.

I guess that makes you a hypocrite

no it makes me a realist and show my drive to preserve my own life first
i have this issue of not being able to afford the things, nor is the technology really readily available, for what would be necessary to change my lifestyle.
mostly, some things are about money at the moment.
a car? uh.. i cannot afford a fuel efficient car at the moment (although my dodge dakota is likely more fuel efficient than the dodge challenger I plan to get a couple years after it is released)... but regardless, a lot of things I cannot do to my own lifestyle as a college student living in dorms.

then you aren't an environmentalist...