How Much Ice is Melting in the Polar Caps?

[robousy]

If we could determine how much ice is melting in the polar caps we could find out how many powerstations it would take to refreeze the ice.

 

[Andre]

Now why on Earth would you want to that. Earth tries so hard to remove the Northern Ice sheet, like in the Early Holocene thermal maximum some 9000 years when the trees grew right on the coast of the Arctic ocean in Siberia, or during the Roman warm period ca 500 BC or during the Medieval Warming Period ca 900 years ago, allowing the Viking to call "Greenland" Greenland. During the little ice age the whole area started to freeze over. But Earth tried again as this revealing letter shows:

It will without doubt have come to your Lordship's knowledge that a considerable change of climate inexplicable at present to us must have taken place in the Circumpolar Regions, by which the severity of the cold that has for centuries past inclosed the seas in the high northern latitudes in an impenetrable barrier of ice has been during the last two years greatly abated.

Mr. Scoresby, a very intelligent young man who commands a whaling vesell from Whitby observed last year that 2000 square leagues (a league is 3 miles) of ice with which the Greenland Seas between the latitudes of 74° and 80°N have been hitherto covered, has in the last two years entirely disappeared. The same person who has never been before able to penetrate to the westward of the Meridian of Greenwich in these latitudes was this year able to proceed to 10°, 30'W where he saw the coast of East Greenland and entertained no doubt of being able to reach the land had not his duty to his employers made it necessary for him to abandon the undertaking.

This, with information of a similar nature derived from other sources; the unusual abundance of ice islands that have during the last two summers been brought by currents from Davies Streights (sic) into the Atlantic. The ice which has this year surrounded the northern coast of Ireland in unusual quantity and remained there unthawed till the middle of August, with the floods which have during the whole summer inundated all those parts of Germany where rivers have their sources in snowy mountains, afford ample proof that new sources of warmth have been opened and give us leave to hope that the Arctic Seas may at this time be more accessible than they have been for centuries past, and that discoveries may now be made in them not only interesting to the advancement of science but also tot he future intercourse of mankind and the commerce of distant nations."

President of the Royal Society, Minutes of Council, Volume 8. pp.149-153, Royal Society, London. 20th November, 1817..

But Earth failed and the passages to the North froze over again. The last attempt before this was in the 1920 when there was litlle ice. So again Earth tries and do us a favour, then why on Earth do we want to undo it?

 

[Lapin Dormant]

Nice but

If we could determine how much ice is melting in the polar caps we could find out how many powerstations it would take to refreeze the ice.

Nice idea but a refrigerator makes more Heat then cold, as the motor used to drive the refrigeration generates heat, as does the Gas cycle that the motor drives, that heat is offset by the amount of cold, but, as I said, the Heat generated by the motor outdoes the overall Cooling effect.

Nice thought though, at least your thinking.

 

[blimkie]

What would be the point to freeze the poles when the cimlate is allreayd warm and it will just melt again. A huge waste of cooling energy


Hey andre got any good links on your explanation of the poles 900 years ago i would like to read up on this further. It could come in handy in my world issues class were i am constantly hearing about global warming hype. Thanks.

 

[Lapin Dormant]

There is also the reality that we would need generate all of the electricity to get the electric motors going, and that too would supply huge amounts of extra heating so they would all melt again .. .. .. ..

 

[Mk]

I just found this interesting graph today...
http://junkscience.com/MSU_Temps/Arctic1880-2004_2.gif