Some of the ice seems to be melting, some of it seems to be getting thicker. I have found nothing to confirm that the ice cap averages over a mile. I do know that it is over a mile think in some places, but that is hardly an average. Any realistic information I have found about the ice caps overall melting faster than normal can be translated to "Who knows?". Remember where the ice caps extended to 10-20 thousand years ago; whoops, who can remember that far back?
And interesting, but related, aside: We think of forests as resources and recreational areas. To prehistoric (before metal tools) man they were a real threat slowly encroaching upon their tiny fields and their hunting areas driving them into the recently melted glacial tundras along with the game they depended upon. For many thousands of years mankind was caught between the retreating glaciers and the advancing forests. The evil forest of folktale was very real. And that long slow war may be the cause of the rise of modern man as the dominant species. John Francis wrote: > The problem comes with the Antarctic ice sheets (and, to a small extent, > glaciers and snow/ice cover in other parts of the world). The average > thickness of the Antarctic ice is well over a mile. Even the smaller > West Antarctic ice sheet contains enough ice to raise mean sea level > by 20 feet. The larger East Antarctic sheet contains an order of > magnitude more ice - enough to raise sea levels by over 150 feet! -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
