I think the point about water expanding as it warms up refers to after it has become liquid water. Warm liquid water takes up more space than cold liquid water, so as the oceans warm, they also expand.
Don't forget that a lot of polar ice is not floating, a lot is over land but is still melting into the oceans.
But flooding won't be the only likely effect of melting polar ice. Increasing fresh water input into the oceans at the poles, if continued, could easily disrupt the Great Ocean Conveyor, which circulates heat throughout the world via currents like the Gulf Stream. This would have drastic and far-reaching effects, like those seen in the Younger Dyas Cooling period, bringing on the next ice age and making England not entirely unlike Siberia -- the bits of England that are still above water, of course.
Suidae said: "And there would be vastly more food if we Americans would quit feeding all the grain to cows. We feed something like 80% of all of our grain to cows, which only convert it to food-mass at a very low ratio."
Please bear in mind that much of the "grain" that cows eat is stalks, leaves and other material which is not edible by humans. Also, grass-fed beef uses feed that is *entirely* inedible to humans as well as often unusable for other forms of agriculture.
I do agree that grain-feeding (as opposed to silage) is wasteful, and also unhealthy in terms of the resulting meat's fat and nutrition content. An interesting article on the subject can be found here:
For information on more sustainable farming methods, check out the concept of Permaculture:
Permaculture the Earth
However, at current (and increasing) levels of human population and consumption, even grass-fed beef is going to cause more damage than the environment can handle, so it's certainly not a cure-all -- but at least it can reduce some of the detrimental environmental and health effects of our agriculture and diet, as part of an overall movement towards a more sustainable (agri)culture.
Slashdot Mirror
I think the point about water expanding as it warms up refers to after it has become liquid water. Warm liquid water takes up more space than cold liquid water, so as the oceans warm, they also expand.
But flooding won't be the only likely effect of melting polar ice. Increasing fresh water input into the oceans at the poles, if continued, could easily disrupt the Great Ocean Conveyor, which circulates heat throughout the world via currents like the Gulf Stream. This would have drastic and far-reaching effects, like those seen in the Younger Dyas Cooling period, bringing on the next ice age and making England not entirely unlike Siberia -- the bits of England that are still above water, of course.
More information can be found here:
Abrupt Climate Change
Please bear in mind that much of the "grain" that cows eat is stalks, leaves and other material which is not edible by humans. Also, grass-fed beef uses feed that is *entirely* inedible to humans as well as often unusable for other forms of agriculture.
I do agree that grain-feeding (as opposed to silage) is wasteful, and also unhealthy in terms of the resulting meat's fat and nutrition content. An interesting article on the subject can be found here:
Splendor from the Grass
By Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, PhD
Splendor from the Grass
For information on more sustainable farming methods, check out the concept of Permaculture:
Permaculture the Earth
However, at current (and increasing) levels of human population and consumption, even grass-fed beef is going to cause more damage than the environment can handle, so it's certainly not a cure-all -- but at least it can reduce some of the detrimental environmental and health effects of our agriculture and diet, as part of an overall movement towards a more sustainable (agri)culture.