• Question: One day will all the ice bergs melt and everything will be over water?

    Asked by lolalufnagle to Laura, Lily, Mark, Paul, Sarah on 21 Jun 2010 in Categories: . This question was also asked by hlh606, stingz321.
    • Photo: Sarah Bardsley

      Sarah Bardsley answered on 19 Jun 2010:

      The melting of floating icebergs will not increase sea levels because the volume of water produced when an iceberg melts is equal to that of the iceberg in its solid state (I think!). It is the melting of ice on land in the form of glaciers and changes to our polar caps that will increase sea levels. Some scientists estimate that sea level will rise by a meter by the end of 2100 because of climate change. If this happens many people around the world who live just above sea level will be affected. They could lose their homes and livelihoods and have to migrate to higher areas. This is one of the main reasons for trying to stop climate change from happening.

    • Photo: Laura Maliszewski

      Laura Maliszewski answered on 20 Jun 2010:

      I’m really not sure, I imagine it could happen. Maybe one of the geologists can answer better?

    • Photo: Mark Roberts

      Mark Roberts answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      It’s certainly a possibility with the way the world is warming up – but there will still be some land even if all the icebergs melt – just less of it!

      So buy your mountain home while they are still cheap!

      That said there are many factors effecting global warming and now we as humans are taking it more seriously we might be able to prevent it from having such a huge impact, for example cutting back on our CO2 omissions

    • Photo: Paul Roche

      Paul Roche answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      The Earth has gone through many different environmental phases during its long (~4.6 billion year) history, including ice ages and periods like the one we are in now, which are relatively warm. The complication now is that, in addition to the normal factors that determine the Earth’s climate (like the influence of the Sun and it’s energy output), we also have the impact of humans.

      When we talk about “global climate change”, this is usually referring to the additional effect that humans are having on the natural cycles of our planet’s climate over millions of years – so in addition to the relatively warm period Earth is currently experiencing, humans are adding chemicals and pollutants to the atmosphere which is causing an additional warming – this extra warming is what politicians are trying to decide about, and whether they make a firm commitment to trying to stop the human warming will have a huge impact on whether or not the ice caps etc. melt.

      At the moment, without global agreement on what to do, it looks pretty inevitable that in the coming 20-50 years we will see a continuation of the warming that we now know is occurring. Unfortunately this will mean the polar caps shrinking. However, it is only the ice that lies on land that will have a serious affect on sea level changes, so meting icebergs don’t actually increase sea levels (think of Archimedes Principle – the volume of ice displaces the sea water that it floats in, but with ice on the land this is not the case, so melting ice sheets like Greenland will have a big effect on the sea level).

    • Photo: Lily Asquith

      Lily Asquith answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      It’s possible.

      The icebergs are, without any doubt, melting. That means that the vast white areas of the planets surface are becoming smaller.

      The sun’s light and heat reflects off white surfaces and is absorbed by all other colours. So if we have less ice then less light and heat is reflected and the planet get’s hotter.

      This is a vicious cycle. It is called the albedo effect and it is very worrying.

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