Question 9 Responses

a. What happens if the polar ice caps melt?

According to the U.S. EPA, the sea level has risen 6 to 8 inches in the last 100 years. (Brain, 2010). There are approximately 29,300,000 km3 of ice in the world. Melting this ice would produce 26,100,000 km3 of water. Some places, such as the 2,100,000 km3grounded ice in Antarctica is below sea level and would be replaced by water. Thus, the net addition to the world's oceans would be about 24,000,000 km3 of water spread over the 361,000,000 km2 area of the world's oceans, giving a depth of 67 meters. The new ocean area would be slightly larger, of course, since some areas of land would now be covered with water. The final result would be around 66 meters. Obviously some areas are affected more than others. (Johnston, 2005)

Some say this change will take thousands of years while others predict it will happen within the next 100 years. It is probably safe to say that it will not happen overnight similar to what happened in the movie “The Day After Tomorrow,” but we need to make long term changes now. It is difficult to predict exactly how the water levels will change the landscape but those living on coasts will probably be more affected than those living inland. Looking at just the United States in particular, many of our major cities are located along the coasts. Since these cities are bases of a lot of economic activity, that would have a great effect on the nation’s economy (as if it wasn’t bad enough). Also, if the water does get too high it will have a great effect on farmland. This, in turn, will affect our food sources. It is likely many of the coastal lands will be placed under water such as California, Washington, and Florida as well as the upper west coast which could include New York City. Inland cities would be affected during storms when the tides are higher. We would have to put in place a lot of flood protection along the coasts which, no doubt, would be very expensive.

Large scale evacuations would have to take place all over the world. This may be impossible in poorer countries. Inland cities would become overcrowded and resources would be low. We would probably end up tearing down even more forests to make room for more inhabitants, thus lowering our resources even further. There would be a shortage of fresh water as all the fresh water would have mixed with the salt water of the oceans. We would need to determine more conventional ways of purifying the salt water to use for our means.

b. What other questions do you have about this Science Inquiry Experience?

My questions include: Would I get the same results of the experiment putting the iceberg in a different shaped container? Since the oceans are not bowl – shaped like the container I used for the experiment, how would the results differ in real life compared to the results we received during our own experiments?

Brain, M. (2010). If the Polar ice caps melted, how much would the oceans rise?. Retrieved from http://www.howstuffworks.com/question473.html

Johnston, W.R. (2005, December 29). What if all the Ice melts: myths and realities. Retrieved from http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/environment/waterworld.html