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Letter: Letter: Melt down

Published 23 June 1990

From NORMAN CROSS and JONATHAN SCAWIN

We wonder if those people who attempt to model and predict the rise
in sea level from melting ice caused by the greenhouse effect include the
Arctic icecap? It must be remembered that as the Arctic icecap is floating,
it has displaced its own mass of water, and therefore will contribute nothing
to any change in sea level if or when it melts. Any rise in sea level can
only come from run-off from melting ice on land. Are we missing something?

Norman Cross, Jonathan Scawin Porton Down, Wilts

Issue no. 1722 published 23 June 1990

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