Topic: What happens if the Polar ice caps melt?

I had believed global warming was absolute fact until one day when a classmate in a course I was taking for my Bachelor’s degree (Earth Science) asked our professor if global warming was fact. She adamantly said it was not, and several hands shot up- students that wanted to disagree with her. She replied to a couple of questions then stopped, claiming that she was there to teach the class, not to debate an issue that was not on her agenda. 

Since then I have been a bit skeptical concerning the issue of global warming. I wanted to find documented evidence on both sides of the issue but I know that simply because data is published, it may be skewed in favor of the author’s viewpoint. 

I started out with reading articles from the National Geographic. I like how they are ecologically aware, yet conservative. I believe this is a responsible magazine, hence my choice. 

Some facts from the National Geographic (2011): In 1895, the Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius discovered that humans could enhance the greenhouse effect by making carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. Humans have increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by more than a third since the industrial revolution. Changes this large have historically taken thousands of years, but are now happening over the course of decades. 

This seems to be causing a domino effect. Once the world temperature rises, change happens everywhere- and it is happening far too rapidly to be of natural causes. “According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), eleven of the twelve hottest years since thermometer readings became available occurred between 1995 and 2006.”

After reading from the website for the IPCC, I used this link to find arguments for and against Global Warming: http://www.pbs.org/now/science/climatedebate.html. 

The E.P.A., the I.P.C.C., scientists, environmentalists and meteorologists worldwide all agree.
From my reading I have seen some excellent arguments concerning what is happening to the atmosphere of the world and how our use of CO2 has affected it. I am now leaning on the side of the ‘believers’. The skeptics have good reasons why Global Warming may not be happening, but from what I have read they have not analyzed the data in nearly as much depth as those that are convinced.

Now to address the original question: What happens if the polar ice caps melt? Everything will be affected. The temperature increase IS happening, it may be only 1% increase in the long run or it may be up to 5% increase. Either way, all life is affected. Here is a graphic from the I.P.C.C. report: 

http://www.ipcc.ch/graphics/syr/figi-1.jpg
As you can see, if the climate changes, sea levels rise. If sea levels rise, ecosystems and water resources are affected. If ecosystems and water resources are affected,  our socio-economic development will be affected. If our socio-economic development is affected, we come back to the issue of climate process drivers and the concentrations and emissions of greenhouse gases. Which is us. Which really is All of us are responsible for. 

It is a chain of responsibility that starts with all of us. To impact the future, we as teachers must pass on the importance of being ecologically responsible and aware to our students. If we do not, we are contributing to future damage on a global scale with enormous negative impact. 

What will you do?
What can we do together?
Is it possible to make any kind of impact on this as individuals? Or does it all depend on the auto manufacturers, the factories and industry? 

International Panel on Climate Change Climate Change (2007): Working Group I: The Physical Science Basis.9.1.3. The Basis from which We Begin. http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/ch9s9-1-3.html.

National Geographic Society (2011).What is Global Warming? Retrieved from http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/gw-overview