Antarctic Ice

[yogi]

The story is both good and bad news ... actually it's difficult to tell which from reading the article. Apparently some parts of Antarctica are losing ice mass while others are gaining in snow mass (which eventually turns to ice). The article suggests the increase outweighs the losses. However, the loss seems to be accelerating and will catch up to the increase in about 20-30 years. So, the question is how much is this activity in Antarctica affecting sea level increases. If it's not a contributor, as most scientists previously thought, then there is something else making it happen - and nobody knows what that something else might be.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/10/31/o ... after-all/

[Icey]

Global warming full-stop can cause sea levels to rise. It doesn't have to all come from melting ice caps. When sea temperatures rise, water expands as its temperature increases. Obviously this has to go somewhere, so as coastal erosions occur, and the salinity of estuaries decreases, water seeps into low-lying areas and basins and creeps onto the land. This could be a massive problem if we don't find something to halt the encroaching oceans, but how can we stop what Mother Nature's doing naturally? If we're gradually getting nearer to the sun, then there's nothing to prevent temperatures from rising, but we can stave off the problem for a bit longer by decreasing gas emissions into the atmosphere, and preventing pollution where possible.

[tomsk]

I wish these boffins would make up their minds...

[Icey]

The only thing we can do is to decrease the population and try and repair some of the damage that we've done, but money rules. It won't happen, so Mother Nature'll just carry on doing what she does.