Our World

Glaciers Melting?

We have all heard about many possible effects for global warming, and chances are once or twice the subject about the polar ice caps or glaciers melting has come up. After the GIS exercise we did in class about coastal flooding, I thought this would be an interesting topic to research. I searched for an article about this and found one that is good for the topic:
http://www.aip.org/history/climate/floods.htm
This article contains theories about possible effects of glaciers melting. It addressed a possibility that also occured to me on Friday- the fact that because floating glaciers might not cause the level of water to change. Since the part of the glacier below the water is displacing more water than that part of the glacier actually has (due to numerous small air pockets trapped inside ice), the amount of water in the ice above the water, evening the level of water out. It does however, include the possibility of glaciers on land melting. This would indeed cause the level of water to increase, causing problems not only for those living around the glaciers but also anyone living around the coast for that matter. The effects of global climate change could very well be upon us, and the melting of glaciers should not be overlooked.

posted by Anonymous @ 2/12/2006 08:01:00 PM