[extropy-chat] Ice cores show warming 'natural' (or not)

[Alfio Puglisi]

On 1/8/06, spike <spike66 at comcast.net> wrote:
> > bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Alfio Puglisi
> ...
> > >
> > >
> > > So that kind of global warming is a good thing, right?  spike
> >
> > Who knows? If you want to avoid sea rise, Antarctica is a bad place to
> > warm (tropical warming wouldn't melt much ice...)
>
> I was thinking just the opposite.  If you warm the poles and the north
> icecap melts, the earth can absorb an enormous amount of heat as the
> floating ice goes thru a phase change without changing its own
> temperature.  Ice at 0 celcius goes to water at 0 celcius, 80 calories
> are absorbed for each gram of ice.
>
> If on the other hand the tropics increased temperature even a few
> degrees, absorbing only one calorie for each gram degree C, the
> water would expand, raising the sea level.

Right, I forgot about expanding water. So, warming the South Pole
results in more water, warming the tropics results in the same water
occupying more volume, and warming the North Pole interferes with the
Gulf Stream. There's no hope :-)

Alfio