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Good question, Vince. Iv'e got a supplementary question to that....Global warming/Icebergs.... We all know that water expands when it freezes, and that icebergs are something like 80% submerged.....So, if all the icebergs melted, surely sea levels would fall, rather than rise....?.........Cheers....mick.
Gah. Last week I went to a seminar about teaching physics in the context of climate change. I was the only one to turn up so I managed to have some interesting discussions about things with the two guys delivering the seminar.
If you can be arsed, have a read up on Milankovitch cycles and how they relate to global warming/cooling/ice ages.
I also got hold of some interesting climate change prediction software.
According to current theories there are a couple of tipping points where the Earth's climate would be irreversibly changed but they are both quite a bit beyond the average temperatures the Earth has ever been in "recent" times (by recent I mean roughly in the last 3.5 billion years or so).
The positive and negative climate feedback systems tend to bring the Earth back to it's current, fairly stable average temperature.
An interesting idea I proposed during the seminar was to burn cow farts. Methane is a worse greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide and the water vapour produced from the burning would contribute to global cooling. So lets all convert our Surfs to run on recycled cow farts!
If all the icebergs melted the sea level would stay at essentially the same level. However this does not take into account any effects due to climate change resulting in the more volatile nature of water (which constantly evaporates and falls as rainfall, unlike ice).
However a very large amount of the world's ice is on land. The ice contained within the Greenland Ice Sheet represents a sea-level rise equivalent of over 7 metres. The ice contained within the Antarctic Ice-sheet represents over 60 metres of sea-level change. Therefore, if both the Antarctic Ice-Sheet and the Greenland Ice-Sheet were to melt, sea-levels would rise by over 67 metres.
This would be, generally speaking, a Bad Thing.
My comment, Henry, Was a little " Clarksonesque ", and therefore somewhat tongue in cheek............Cheers....mick.
An interesting idea I proposed during the seminar was to burn cow farts. Methane is a worse greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide and the water vapour produced from the burning would contribute to global cooling. So lets all convert our Surfs to run on recycled cow farts!
Apparently its cow burps not farts that produce the most methane......
I've seen a cow cry.. it's true.... was holding her head against the enclosure rail and when the vet slide his arm inside to check for baby cows i swear she started crying........
Remember arrows are silent.....................
Don't forget to tell everyone its indestructable as seen on top gear.......
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