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There’s a good review article out today on the ‘Earth's ice imbalance’. Basically a thorough accounting of how ice is disappearing from the Arctic, Antarctic and mountain ranges. It includes land ice *and* floating ice. Bottom line? https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/15/233/2021/
This is already affecting sea level rise, with a dominant contribution from mountain glaciers so far, but with growing and eventually dominant contributions from Greenland and Antarctica. Remember that SLR is lose-lose; there are no benefits to weighed against the costs.
But there is one error in the paper (and one which appears in many places), but also one that has been corrected over and again in discussions and the literature. The loss of floating ice (which is fresh) in a salty ocean *does* affect sea level.
It’s not a large effect, about 4% of the impact of an equivalent loss of land ice, but it means the bottom line summary in the paper is around 5% too small. As I said, a small number, but not zero and should be included in this summary.
This effect has been discussed since Usenet days ( @rgrumbine and @wmconnolley remember) and has been written up ‘properly’ by Noerdlinger and Brower (2007) https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246X.2007.03472.x
It should be textbook material.
It should be textbook material.
Yet, if you Google this as a question you end up with pages of erroneous statements or ones that simply don’t apply to the ocean case. We can do better!
If you see a prominent web site that does get this wrong, please write to them to let them know. It’s small but it matters.
If you see a prominent web site that does get this wrong, please write to them to let them know. It’s small but it matters.
