[bazzargh]

Replacing water with ice at the poles would mean more mass at the poles, not less, since ice is displacing water and is less dense. So he may have a plausible argument that it's the other way round, but I haven't done the calculations.

[zhoutong]

It doesn't work like that. The mass of water displaced is equal to the mass of the floating ice itself. Melting a piece of ice has no change on water level.

so yeah, nothing changes.

[FreeFull]

Both the southern polar cap and the Greenland ice mass rest on ground rather than float in the ocean, which means any melting will cause the ocean levels to rise.

[zhoutong]

I was talking about the displacement only (which the parent thread discusses). I of course acknowledge the common sense that not all ice is floating on water.

[bazzargh]

Doh, of course you're right. The mass of water displaced is only greater if the ice is submerged.

[Groxx]

I don't know that that works - the south pole at least has ground, and a LOT of permafrost that isn't displacing any water.