isn't it only the edges of the ice caps that are melting
and the interiors are actually thickening for the first time in thousands of years?
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Tue 9 Jun 2009, 9:03, 2 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

Mmmm not sure now.
/scholar googles

ohhhhh it's raining again! /glees.
(Poppet some assembly required., Tue 9 Jun 2009, 9:04, Reply)

I may be wrong
I imagine Al knows
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Tue 9 Jun 2009, 9:06, Reply)

I'm not that clued up on the specifics
of ice caps and such. But i've read enough to convince myself that anthropogenic climate change is happening. But i'm not going to have a detailed argument if anyone wants to disagree.

Enzymes post does make sense though.
(Bazongaloid, Tue 9 Jun 2009, 9:20, Reply)

I've come to the conclusion
that I don't know enough about it, and nor does anyone who might choose to argue with me.

My issue with it is the focus on carbon dioxide when it is just part of a larger issue.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Tue 9 Jun 2009, 9:22, Reply)

This is true
but it is a way of communicating the issue to the, how to put this nicely, errrrr, retards on the street. The sort of people who don't understand the difference between sell by dates and use by dates.

The sort of people who seem to need a reminder to breathe in and out to avoid death.
(Bazongaloid, Tue 9 Jun 2009, 9:28, Reply)

you are right
I often forget that despite everyone I associate with being pretty clever they are way above average.

Everytime I think I can't be surprised by someone's stupidity they find new ways to surpass themselves.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Tue 9 Jun 2009, 9:31, Reply)

oh dear.
do you count clumsiness as being stupid?
(Poppet some assembly required., Tue 9 Jun 2009, 9:36, Reply)

no, because I'm fairly clumsy
sometimes anyway

example: the other day I was making toast. I reached over the toaster to switch it off at the wall*, the toast then popped up, which made me jump and caused me to smack my arm into the wall cupboard above the toaster. Broke the fucking skin.

I'm so special sometimes.


*I told my other half it was to pop the toast up, but in reality it was because I'd forgotten I was toasting it and was just switching it off at the wall
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Tue 9 Jun 2009, 9:46, Reply)

I'm pretty sure
there is an anthropogenic component to the current global warming cycle. I don't know how much. But I do think that there's no way the whole world can reduce its CO₂ output far enough to make much difference.

So we'd best start planning for how we'll deal with the consequences.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Tue 9 Jun 2009, 9:38, Reply)

well planting trees and foliage helps to at least equalise your CO2 output,
Which is actually a potentially viable solution. I plant trees every year on "plant a tree day" with mum and we usually end up putting about 200 seedlings in. It's natural and it doesn't take much effort.
(Poppet some assembly required., Tue 9 Jun 2009, 9:43, Reply)

Planting trees takes some carbon dioxide
out of the atmosphere. But then those trees die and it all gets released again.
(Bazongaloid, Tue 9 Jun 2009, 9:50, Reply)

Depends where you are.
In the northern boreal forests of North America, 80% of the forests' carbon is stored in the soil. When trees degrade, they degrade slowly and incompletely with a lot of the carbon being kept in sol instead of being released into the atmosphere. Also, the rate the trees grow and sequester carbon may be quicker than the rate which fallen organic matter degrades and releases carbon. (In the tropics things degrae so quickly that this doesn’t work, plus more carbon is released hence the crappy soils in the tropics compared to temperate climates).

That said, planting trees is not the only answer. Instead of wasting money on oil exploration, “clean” coal (a crock), wars, etc, we should be putting it to work looking for real energy alternatives. Either that or buy everyone Honda Accords and let us all battle it out.
(MichaelS wasn't picked again, Tue 9 Jun 2009, 12:54, Reply)

Yes...
... but that's not a good thing: it just indicates higher levels of precipitation, which you only get when there's more water in the atmosphere, which you get because of rising global temperatures.

And, of course, water vapour's a powerful greenhouse gas in its own right.

Thickening ice-sheets are used by climate-change deniers as evidence that the whole thing's not true. In fact, the opposite is the case. They demonstrate that things're quite bad.


I think.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 9 Jun 2009, 9:08, Reply)

that has a certain logic to it

( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Tue 9 Jun 2009, 9:10, Reply)

Exactly, plus the ice sheets are
only growing in Antartica (as far as I know). In the rest of the world, they are melting significantly. This is especially true in Greenland which holds an incredible amount of water which, as it is on land instead of already in the water (like the artic ice cap) will cause oceans to rise. Don't but any seafront land!
(MichaelS wasn't picked again, Tue 9 Jun 2009, 12:57, Reply)