What Earth Will Look Like If All The Ice Melts

[Coyotl]

What Earth Will Look Like If All The Ice Melts
http://www.buzzfeed.com/donnad/this-is-what-earth-will-look-like-if-all-the-ice-melts



............

[mikeysnot]

1. The last issue of National Geographic

has a great article with fold out maps.

I think Fukishima will do us in before though...

[Coyotl]

3. Here is a link. The map is based on NGeo.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/09/rising-seas/folger-text

[gopiscrap]

2. yikes

[Scuba]

4. If?

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. London is 79 ft. above sea level.

So the estimation is for 80 feet of sea rise in So. england.

fla. is no surprise,for sure.

[dipsydoodle]

8. Some of London is actually more or less at or below sea level.

If you use Google Earth then scroll across London to see what's what.

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. Depends which bit of London you measure

The Thames is tidal through nearly all of it; so the land at Big Ben, for instance, is perhaps 20 feet above a spring high tide.

The Nat Geographic maps are for a 216 foot rise, everywhere - from all ice caps melting.

If you use the link in #9, you can zoom in to any location. London at 20m rise (nearest to 79 feet), is this:

http://flood.firetree.net/?ll=51.5056,-0.0888&zoom=11&m=20

The Thames estuary would be about 4km wide at Westminster. Give it the full 60m rise (close to the 216 feet) and it's about 20km wide, taking out most, but not all, of Greater London.

http://flood.firetree.net/?ll=51.5056,-0.0888&zoom=10&m=60

[dipsydoodle]

6. Well I'll still be 50 feet above sea level and long dead.

Since its mentioned in news elsewhere - Iran is burning off half their entire gas output due to US sanctions. That's contibuting to this subject..Keep up the good work.

[Coyotl]

12. In North dakota they are burning off 1/3 of the natural gas extracted because

they just want the quick profits from the oil w/o the expense of capturing the natural gas.

[eppur_se_muova]

7. On the plus side: Houston.

Bye-bye, buckle of the Bible Belt.

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. Check how your area would fare with rising water on this map:

http://flood.firetree.net/

[Sedona]

10. Oceanfront real estate in Palm Spings?

Where do I sign up?

[longship]

11. Well, it's a bit of a straw man.

No climate scientist is predicting that "all the ice is going to melt". Not one.

Yes! We are in a world of hurt on global climate change. But this kind of hyperbole does not help the cause. When, of the very scientists who are ringing the alarm bells, none are predicting that "all the ice is going to melt", it kind of undermines the real issue. That climate change is likely going to cause huge disruptions in society, economies, infrastructure, environments. And it will do so without all the fucking ice melting.

This is just silly.

[Coyotl]

13. Have you ever heard of a positive feedback loop? This is not impossible.

It certainly isn't silly.

[longship]

14. Well, yes. I know of several with global climate change.

Arctic tundra methane, albedo, and a couple of other more tenuous ones (just off the top of the head).

But I will add this. Not one reputable climate scientist is predicting that all the ice is going to melt, especially not in this century. That is hyperbole by people who like to set their hair on fire and run around.

My question. Why would anybody want climate change to be as bad as that? Why would anybody want to twist the data so badly that even the real experts would deny it?

I just do not get it. It's bad enough without people making shit up. When people make shit up it gives the deniers cover because they can point to environmentalists and correctly say, "See! People are saying that climate change will melt all the ice when even the experts disagree. Climate change is a fraud because they all make stuff up."

That's what happens when the good side practices the underhanded rubbish of the deniers.

Do not make shit up. The science is what the science is. Nobody is predicting that all the ice will melt any time soon. Long before that, we'd be fucked. We likely are already, no matter way we do.

Alas, Antarctica is not likely to melt. Thank goodness.

[Coyotl]

15. This is not "made up" in the least.

IF all the ice melts, here is what results. It is that simple and declarative.

Don't get your hair on fire and run around.

[longship]

16. What's made up is that all the ice "will" melt.

That makes the whole argument hyperbolic, setting ones hair on fire, rubbish. It also allows the deniers to justify their straw man argument that climate scientists are claiming that all the ice is going to melt, which (in case people aren't paying attention) none are.

In other words, trotting out this rubbish just gives comfort to the climate change deniers who claim the whole thing is a hoax. They will gleefully repeat the claim as being as ridiculous as it is. And the real climate scientists would have to agree.

So stop this. It goes well beyond the data and we all will have enough trouble with this issue without the hyperbolic and deniable rhetorical claims.

[Coyotl]

17. What's NOT made up is that all the ice CAN melt.

The gist of the story is not about the probability, rather what the world will be like if the ice all melts.

[longship]

18. But no climate scientist is making that claim!

Which is precisely my point.

[Jim Lane]

20. Yes, the argument is hyperbolic -- but hyperbole is sometimes helpful in driving a point home.

I could cite a million examples.

That said, yes, the denialists might well try to twist this into an indefensible prediction that all the ice will melt. Perhaps this map could be paired with one showing a worst-case (but not crackpottish) end-of-century scenario. I've seen maps of that sort and they're scary enough. Map 1, where we'll be by 2100 without drastic action; Map 2, the ultimate limits of this process.

Incidentally, from something else I've read, I think that this hyperbolic hair-on-fire map is, in one respect, too optimistic. There are parts of Greenland now covered by permafrost where, it turns out, the land down under the ice is fairly low. I think that, if all the ice melted, Greenland would become an archipelago,not the solid land mass shown on this map.

[longship]

22. Fine, but why give the denialists ammo?

It makes it much more difficult to get the important message that we are in trouble with climate change.

This hyperbolic message does absolutely no good for that cause. Isn't the real data scary enough without making shit up?

So, I heartily disagree with your argument. It's a very bad strategy, in all respects. The science is what the science is. That's what the message should stick to.

Thanks for your respectful response.

[Prophet 451]

19. Well, Florida is no great loss

I'm kidding, naturally.

Thing is, how teh fuck do we get politicians (who are owned by polluting companies) and the percentage of the public who refuse to accept climate change to actually fucking do something about it? I mean, I'm carbon neutral (helps that I don't drive) but if we don't get teh world to do something about this, all that's going to get me is a sense of superiority.

[Flying Squirrel]

21. The US would effectively be neutered.