Debunking a Common Climate Change Misconception #shorts

This simple analogy is often used in my comments section as a way to discredit climate science. Today we're debunking it.

*Small correction, I say ice is less dense being it has bubbles but this is of course an oversimplification (it's a Youtube short after all). In reality water's crystal structure also makes ice inherently less dense than liquid water. These two qualities together are what allow it to float.

[kristianhiorth]

The other thing they forget is water above 4 Celsius expands taking up more space

[onurakcay]

Some people remember 1 of 2 bits of knowledge they could get to memorize in highschool and get real smug real fast.

[ShowALeitao]

I got a science teacher explaining this to us in 8th grade like 20 years ago. 20 years later we still have this level of ignorance...

[jonhunt]

Funny how all these people that struggled with their kids third grade math during Covid school closures are suddenly all global climate experts.

[nomorok]

This is giving me strong disappointed teacher energy

[tudorjason]

Let's face it. Some people are idiots. Even when they have an argument for something, they don't think or refuse to accept that there could be anything that contradicts their knowledge.

[מ.מ-הד]

Not only Polar ice! Ice on mountain ranges also melts and eventually will reach the oceans (of course it's a very small amount compared to the massiveness of the ice at the poles).

[雷-tj]

One correction: Ice is not actually less dense than water because of air bubbles. When water freezes the molecules form a crystal structure, and because of the polar nature of water molecules this is less dense than water.

[daytonenloe]

The lower density of ice is due to the hexagonal structure that the atoms form, not air bubbles. The rest is entirely correct though! 👍

[WeBeGood]

Water expands when it Freezes making it less dense. No Bubbles required to make Ice Float.

[rossplendent]

Everyone has already pointed out the air bubble thing, so I'll just add:
When you heat water, even without melting ice into it, it also expands! You won't notice this in a cup, because it's only a fraction of a percent per degree increase. But when you have a body of water that's about 1, 335, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000 liters, you start to notice the difference in volume (and therefore height).

[ncpolley]

Btw, ice without bubbles is still less dense than water.

[veryblocky]

Ice is less dense than water even without air bubbles in it.

[codboss]

"If sea levels rises people would just sell their homes and move inland"
Ben schapiro

[jjmm]

Excellent response! Completely agree with you. Just one comment, ice floats on water because it's less dense due to the special arrange of the H2O molecules when it freezes, not because of the air bubbles.

[AlaskaSkidood]

Ice is less dense than water because water's solid crystaline structure is less dense than its liquid form. Bubbles are incidental. The principle still applies though: Ice on land doesn't contribute to sea levels until it melts and flows to the ocean.

[ThestImmortal]

It's partly true. For floating ice this is still true.
Fun fact, Antarctica has (and to a lesser extent, other icy landmasses have) so much ice on it that the continental plate is actually sunken down from where it would otherwise be. As continental ice melts it causes the land to spring back up, which can cause its own problems by displacing water along the continental shelf.

[AgentJRock]

Ice floats due to phase changes and the crystal lattice on the mineral ice. As ice freezes it takes on a new more restrictive crystalline structure causing is volume to increase but not its mass making it less dense

[jmiquelmb]

Also, from what I heard, most of the water level rise is caused by change in liquid water density. Hot water is less dense than cold liquid water. Even if the difference is just 0.01%, it's a huge deal due to how much water there is.

[ADreamingTraveler]

People forget that sea levels were much lower than they are now during the last ice age. That's because almost all of the ice sheets were in North America and Europe. Once they melted we lost a lot of land area due to sea level rise