The end of the world as we know it

[OngBonga]

It's not the water at the bottom of the oceans that's warming though is it? It's the surface water, and most of that is already > 4 degrees.

So we're talking about the thermal expansion of a very small percentage of the water in the oceans then? And we're saying that's responsible for sea level rise of measurable amounts?

And it doesn't matter if you're only heating the surface. That heating will, over time, work its way down. That's the nature of heat... it moves from a warm place to a cold place. If we're taking thermal expansion seriously, well it would be expected to initially expand the sea, and then cause them to shrink as the heat takes hold at lower depths. How long has this been going on? A century they say? yeah, by now the deep oceans will be warming up, if indeed the surface has been doing so for a century.

Yeah it's all bollocks.

So those melting glaciers and polar ice caps aren't really melting?

Which ones? There's definitely a lot of ice melting here in the northern hemisphere. More than average? That's the question. As far as I can tell from a quick google search, the Arctic melt this year is not breaking records.

[Poopadoop]

So we're talking about the thermal expansion of a very small percentage of the water in the oceans then? And we're saying that's responsible for sea level rise of measurable amounts? .

I don't know the ins and outs of how it works, but if the oceans are rising I assume it cause ice somewhere on land is melting and/or the water is getting warmer.

And it doesn't matter if you're only heating the surface. That heating will, over time, work its way down. That's the nature of heat... it moves from a warm place to a cold place. If we're taking thermal expansion seriously, well it would be expected to initially expand the sea, and then cause them to shrink as the heat takes hold at lower depths. How long has this been going on? A century they say? yeah, by now the deep oceans will be warming up, if indeed the surface has been doing so for a century..

Again, don't know exactly. But if the surface heats up by 2 degrees and the really cold water is hundreds of metres down then I suspect it would take a long long time for that heat to work it's way down there. Heat's natural inclination is to rise, not sink.

There's definitely a lot of ice melting here in the northern hemisphere. More than average? That's the question. As far as I can tell from a quick google search, the Arctic melt this year is not breaking records.

What do you mean by more than average? More than a typical year? I'm referring to decades not how much melts in any given year.