Gerard, now we're getting into "Gaiea" territory (then the argument can go on that the water becomes clouds - the clouds block the sun - the sun can no longer heat up the ice - the ice freezes again - like Lovelock's "Flower World") and a whole load of chaos theory etc. It doesn't really matter what melts the ice -would the sea rise?

>I have read somewhere that the volume of water coming from melted ice is negligible in the raising of sea level. The main factor of raising is caused by the water temperature.
>In a glass of water the difference of volume cannot be significant for a couple of degree change, but for the sea that represent some meter!
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>The main effect of the melting of the polar ice, is that the ice is reflecting a certain amount of sun shining (albedo). If the ice surface shrink, the water will absorb more sunshine and heat that will accelerate the shrinking and so on...
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