• Question: I'm sure everyone knows about Global Warming, but is it true what i've been told, that technically the sea levels will not rise? Or will they?

    Asked by winchester to Andrew, Emma, Marianne on 17 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      I’m sure everyone has heard about global warming but I’m equally sure we don’t all fully understand some fo the science behind it. Obvously that would take an incredible amount of work and to be honest life’s too short. i’m not sure that what you’ve been told is true. is this the thing about ice taking up more space than water and therefore not having a big impact on water levels when it melts? See earlier question for some links. Prediction of future events is always a perilous enterprise…I would probably invest in some wellies if you live on the coast though.

    • Photo: Andrew Maynard

      Andrew Maynard answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      Hi winchester,

      If the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans continue to warm up – as they are doing – ice will melt from ice sheets in places like Greenland and Antarctica, and sea levels will rise. What is not known is exactly how much ice is likely to melt, and how much sea level will rise.

      Also, people sometimes get confused about what happens when ice that is floating on water melts – like the ice at the North Pole. Because this is already effectively in the sea, it doesn’t lead to an increase in sea level as it melts. It’s only the ice on land that will lead to a rise in sea level as it melts.

      Then there’s another thing that makes all this a little more complex – as ice melts off a large area of land like Greenland, the land actually rises a bit (because it’s suddenly lost a lot of weight that pushes it down). This can make it look as if the sea level has actually dropped in some places. But the effect is a local one – as ice on land melts and the water enters the sea, sea levels somewhere around the world will rise.

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      Hi winchester!…yep, the two Andrews have beaten me too it again (I have to go down another floor and log in on another computer, hence the delay). The potential melting of glaciers (and we have a lot on this planet) will also have an impact on sea levels in that the meltwater will eventually end up in the sea. You may have seen in the paper the controversy over how quickly this would occur and the predicted date of 2030 was recently discredited (ie dismissed):).

    • Photo: Marianne Baker

      Marianne Baker answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Hey winchester,

      We’ve had quite a few talks about global warming already actually.
      I would check out the IPCC reports and chat to some climate researchers if you can!
      I think it’s inevitable that the sea levels are going to rise but I can’t say how much, I don’t know the field well enough 🙂

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