Some things that can be caused by the melting of the Arctic ice cap:
1. More warming, because of albedo. Ice reflects sunlight, while water absorbs it, so more ice=more sunlight being absorbed=more warming.
2. Circulation changes. Thermohaline (temperature and salinity driven) circulation can be affected by adding a bunch of cold, non-saline water to the Arctic ocean. In the extreme case, this could lead to things like the breakdown of major circulation patterns that bring warm tropical water to temperate regions and cold temperate or arctic water to the tropics.
3. Ocean life form changes. The Arctic ocean is incredibly biodiverse (it has a lot of different things living there). If changes in the Arctic lead to negative impacts on this biodiversity, there could end up being a lot fewer fish (and whales and crabs and so forth) in the sea.
Climate change is real
Effects:
1. Rising sea levels
2. More warming
3. Tropical diseases will range farther from the equator
4. Disasters
5. Higher rates of cancer
6. Higher rates of Extinction
7. Low lying countries will be submerged
8. Chain- reaction events
Ignore what people are saying about the ice cap being 60 percent more than last year. One year is weather. Climatolgists look at long term trends. The trend is for decreasing Arctic sea ice.
http://www.woodfortrees.org/plot/nsidc-s...
Also note a large seasonal variation in sea ice extent, which is what these denialists are looking at.
Only land ice directly effects sea level, because sea ice is floating on the ocean. But open water has a much lower albedo than sea ice and absorbs heat from the Sun.
Chem Flunkie has most of it. I would add that more of the open ocean is exposed, so more heat goes into the atmosphere. This changes weather patterns- especially the polar jet stream which 'steers' weather systems at mid latitudes. . It has been suggested that this may account for the weirder weather in the USA and Europe.
Just look up the new information , the ice caps 55% more than last year , so what is that now 3x more than just 4 years ago .
of course, when the waters rise it eroded coastal places. Alaska is part of it badly. as for the other answers, lying with statistics tells part of a picture and claims it's the whole truth.
Need helo to answer this questiom please :)
