Environment - Global Warming
Recently, the esteemed Ms. Manitoba asked me why I was so fucking paranoid about global warming and the melting of the polar ice caps (I'm paraphrasing, so don't you beat on me now!). I was trying to explain to her that I'm very troubled by the thought of the sea level rising, because most human settlements around the world are near the coast or near any source of fresh water. They have to be. Humans cannot survive without water for drinking, bathing, cooking, and cleaning. Much of civilization - most large towns and cities - are coastal. And when the polar icecaps melt, they will raise water levels by meters, not by inches.
I was wondering if there were any resources that would help me visualize my concerns. Then I found this:
This is an aerial view of Atlantic City, New Jersey.
This is the same view if the sea level rises 1.5 meters.
Better buy swimming/boating/fishing gear now, I say. Go look at the rest of the pictures. Pretty damned scary.
Labels: changes, environment, global warming
Stumble It!
posted by ThePoliticalCat @ 1:17 PM
2 Comments:
dream on - sensationalism is great for the movies, but you just have to relax and do some research - have a read of
www.coyoteblog.com/Skeptics_Guide_to_Anthropogenic_Global_Warming_v1.0.pdf
Well written, and good analysis of research. It covers the research into rising sea levels amongst other areas of anthropogenic global warming.
regds,
stuart
p.s. If I remember rightly most of the rise is from heated water expanding - not the melting of the ice caps. And, it might relax you a little to hear that it seems that Antartica is actually increasing - not decreasing in overall ice.
I found CoyoteBlog, but could not find the article you linked to. I got a 404.
The issue is not whether ice is expanding or contracting in differing areas - the issue is what effect the rapidly melting ice will have on living beings. Regardless of the increase of ice in the Antarctic, rapid melting of ice in the Arctic will raise sea levels.
The disappearance of glaciers in northwest China has already caused both floods and drought in that country, and because the glaciers are the primary source of fresh water for nearly a billion people, you can well imagine what the consequences will be in the coming decade. Polar bears, who are native to the Arctic, cannot migrate to the Antarctic, and most likely will not survive more than a decade or two. I suppose we could airlift them there, but animals don't do well outside their native terrain, as you might know. Thanks for visiting!
Post a Comment
<< Home