The trajectory and causes of past climate are, to put it mildly, uncertain. Astronomical and volcanic events plus continental drift are just some of the factors. We do however know for certain that NE America and Greenland were comparatively mild about 1000 years ago, becuase Vikings were settled farmers in Greenland for about 300 years before being forced out by the Little Ice Age. That encroachment of ice, which like the Little Ice Age peaked maybe 1850, did not lead to great falls in universal sea levels - though I do not dismiss the entirely speculative thought that it might have contributed to the retreat of the sea from a few Roman and medieval ports in Britain.

It therefore seems unlikely that a diminution of ice cover will cause catastrophic flooding. As Tony pointed out, the most vulnerable areas are floating ice and their melting will have no net effect on sea level.

On the other hand, the continual deposition of snow on antartic land MUST cause sea levels to diminish, as this snow must be sourced from water vapour by evaporation elsewhere on the planet. There is no obvious benefit to mankind from this process - it may conceivably contribute to droughts if unchecked. Perhaps it would be no bad thing if Antartica was stabilised at its current snow-capture.

The trouble with funcrusher is that, like tony, he is just completely wrong.

Explain! Mike pips.

No, just read this piece in yesterdays Toronto Star:
http://www.thestar.com/sciencetech/article/235774
which disusses this paper by Jim Hansen et al published a couple of months ago in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society:
http://www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk/content/l3h462k7p4068780/fulltext.pdf

And as for all that stuff about Vikings in Greenland, Medieval Warmings and Little Ice Ages, it's all been refuted ad nauseam over at RealClimate. Have a delve in their archive:
http://www.realclimate.org/

Posted By: funcrusher
Nothing I stated as fact is incorrect.

I'd take issue with ten or eleven of the 'facts' in your previous post, but life's too short :)

Are we forgetting that water expands when it is heated up?

"hot" from the kitchen comes .....a fresh water ice cube floats higher in saline water so less displacement (and sea rise) but less saline water freezes quicker.
regards

biff,
respect as usual.
Thanks for the link.
Have read it all.
Trouble is these articles don't contribute to the solutions and transformation process as effectively as on the ground experience.

It is obvious that heat losses in the urban environment (UK) are enormous I mean when did you last see the snow settle and stay on a house or building roof in the UK compared with say Sweden or Canada. The UHI term does also acknowledge its wasted heat as the culprit.
I was just observing our that in fact micro climates created around our cities has been a much more effective way of implementing cleaner greener ways of living than by the current continuous estimates and models and rhetoric and millions of words relating to worthy but remote places.
The smog of the fifties for example.
Still suggest that the current much "cleaner" wastes of invisible hot gases, particulates, emfs and heat are problems with more local (and tangible) implications.
Bear with me ...
Perhaps just by seeing what we have hidden we could get the transformation and benefits out more directly.
It would only need a municipal booth / kiosk containing some basic kit to look at our cities to see all this "hot" waste.
I am not speaking as a desk jockey full of science but as a cave man who directly interacts and observes the forces of both nature and technology.
Back to the cave painting and grunting for me....
good luck to you all