It depends on where you get your news as to weather you believe the ice caps are melting. When ice melts in a glass of water does the level of the water rise?
They are always going to be melting and refreezing with or without our help.
When fresh water ice melts in a salty ocean it will displace more when melted.
Well crap. Now I'm going to have to do a dining table experiment to test this.
An iceberg (which is fresh water) floats in an ocean approximately 10-13% of it is above the ocean. So when it melts it displaces about 13% more of the of the iceberg into the ocean. Ice in a glass of fresh water floats even with the level of the water in the glass, thereby not displacing any more than the cube itself. We all know that salt water has more buoyancy.
I think that these posts are missing what they say is happening. The glaciers and polar ice caps that are said to be melting are on land or on top of the oceans, not in the oceans. So, the water that enters the oceans is additional water, thereby raising the ocean's level.
Please don't construe this to mean that I agree with that theory. It just seemed that it needed clarified.
