LostCat – I agree with you that on average the global temperature is rising, and glaciers (particularly in temperate regions) have receded dramatically over the last 50-100 years, and that man has had a hand in this. But some of your facts are a little sloppy and may take away from your message. Since you studied this in college you probably know the following, but they could be misconstrued from your post.
Once the polar caps start to slide from land and into the water, the sea will rise substantially.(Polar Caps can be up to 4-miles deep in some areas)
When you say polar ice caps you are really only talking about the Antarctic and Greenland Glaciers. The ice on the other pole in the Arctic (north) is actually Sea Ice and is typically a few meters thick at most. This ice is constantly moving around on top of the Arctic Ocean The north polar ice cap is not 4-miles deep, contrary to the Santa Claus myth.
Now think of the polar caps. All they have to do is change temperature by 1 degree and they start melting.
This is not the same as the air temperature changing by 1 degree and is misleading. If the air temperature is -20, a one-degree increase in air temperature will not cause melting. Since the air temperature in both the Arctic Antarctic, and Greenland is well below zero most of the time it matters more how much incoming solar radiation there is, so temperature is only one component. Length of the warm season and decay of the freezing season, (changes to which have been observed and documented from satellite time series) amounts of snow fall, and amount of incoming solar radiation may be more important than the average air temperature.
I like your message and enthusiasm, just don’t give detractors any ammo to shoot it down. Also, this was posted in the Off-Topic forum where virtually anything goes.
