Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Ice melts, water freezes

Just a random observation, but whenever you see the usual suspect lefty bloggers moaning, it is usually about newspapers like the Daily mail and Express etc being alarmist for one reason or another. Yet you never actually see the same rational and calm heads on these people when it comes to things like the Antarctic melting (on one side at least but more on that in a moment).

So this morning we have newspaper reporting that the prediction for this century on the rise in sea level is actually 1.4 metres rather than the previous prediction of 75cm. We have scientists saying "Anybody who lives in coastal cities needs to be slightly worried by a projections of one metre or more."

Oh do they now? Why would that be? Are they going to wake up tomorrow and discover they've been flooded because the South Atlantic has begun to boil and make the sea level rise overnight? It's alarmist nonsense. There is bugger all to worry about because the rise is expected over a long period of time during which flood defences, clever technological ones or less clever sandbags will be built.

However, and here's come the kicker, its only the west of Antarctica's ice sheets that are melting. The rest is seeing the ice sheet expand. So as the ice melts and adds to the sea level on one side, the water on the other side freezes and reduces sea level. Also, why is no one thinking the obvious about Antarctica? If all the ice melts we'll have some land to live on.

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