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Asked by anon-186542 to Verity, Trystan, Raquel, Danny, Catherine, Andy on 13 Nov 2018.
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Catherine Smith answered on 13 Nov 2018:
Melting polar ice caps is one of the big concerns related to global warming. As ice is less dense than water, the ice floats on the ocean. However, if these huge sheets of ice were to melt, they would add to the volume of water in the ocean, causing sea levels to rise. This could cause low-lying areas to be flooded and huge changes in the shape of coastlines.
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Verity Hill answered on 13 Nov 2018:
As Catherine says, it will massively increase sea levels.
Also if all the ice melts, all the polar bears will die because they rely on ice to hunt! -
Danny Ward answered on 13 Nov 2018:
If the environmental ice around the world melted, this would lead to rising sea levels and an altered climate. This could ultimately lead to habitat destruction and extinction of species.
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A more abstract way of looking at things though. If there was never any ice to start with, this would be quite different. Ice is the solid state of water. If ice couldn’t form, our world would look very different. Many features of our global landscape were carved out through ice glaciers during ice ages…we probably wouldn’t have things like this if ice wasn’t a thing. We could also probably navigate to certain parts of the world easier. Currently much of the artic circle is ice and cannot be navigated through. If this was all gone, trade routes could be a lot easier and shorter. Many animals habitats would not exist. Things like polar bears and penguins would most likely look very different or may not exist at all as the are adapted to snow + ice ❄️
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