The Great Flood

by **Gouda** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 11:32 am

The earth is heating up. No, it isn't. Yes, it is. No, it's something else. Don't worry, whatever it is, it works out ok for us survival-wise. Though the BBC makes sure to point out that this weather problem can be so damn costly! All those donor dollars and euros going down the drain, yikes. From the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4839834.stm">BBC</a>: <blockquote>Quote:<hr>Climate change 'harms world poor' The poorest people in the world in Asia and Africa will be worst hit by climate change, a UK government report says. It says droughts and floods fuelled partly by carbon emissions from countries such as the UK will hurt the same people targeted by overseas aid. The report was obtained by BBC News under the Freedom of Information Act. It says emissions are making natural disasters worse and warns that rising sea levels could undo more than half the development work in Bangladesh. The internal report at the Department for International Development reveals the depth of concern shared by officials about climate change. Rising seas It warns that the cost of rising greenhouse gas emissions will fall predominantly on the poorest people who will be unable to cope. Global warming, it forecasts, threatens to reduce India's farm output by as much as a quarter. And half of the $1bn (£0.58bn) in aid given by rich nations to Bangladesh is at risk as sea levels rise. In Africa, it says the number of people at risk from coastal flooding could rise from one million to 70 million by 2080. It points out that natural disasters already cost donors $6bn annually, says BBC environment correspondent Roger Harrabin, and as 73% are climate-related, this bill is set to soar. In a separate development, a study in the US journal Science suggests Earth could be headed for catastrophic increases in sea levels in the next few centuries. If greenhouse gases continue to rise at present rates, it said, Greenland could be as warm by 2100 as it was 130,000 years ago, when melting ice raised sea levels by 3-4m. <hr></blockquote>

by **Gouda** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 11:44 am

<a href="http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/264196_meltdown24.html?dpfrom=thead">seattlepi.nwsource.com/na...from=thead</a> <blockquote>Quote:<hr>Earth's warming likely irreversible, scientists say By ANDREW C. REVKIN THE NEW YORK TIMES Within the next 100 years, the growing human influence on Earth's climate could lead to a long and irreversible rise in sea levels by eroding Earth's vast polar ice sheets, according to new observations and analysis by several teams of scientists. One team, using computer models of climate and ice, found that by about 2100, average temperatures could be 4 degrees warmer than today and that over the coming centuries, the world's oceans could rise 13 to 20 feet -- conditions last seen 130,000 years ago, between the last two ice ages. The findings, being reported today in the journal Science, are consistent with other recent studies of melting and erosion at the poles. Many experts say there are still uncertainties about timing, extent and causes. But Jonathan Overpeck of the University of Arizona, a lead author of one of the studies, said the new findings made a strong case for the danger of failing to curb emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases. "If we don't like the idea of flooding out New Orleans, major portions of South Florida, and many other valued parts of the coastal U.S., we will have to commit soon to a major effort to stop most emissions of carbon to the atmosphere," he said. According to the computer simulations, the global nature of the warming from greenhouse gases, which diffuse around the atmosphere, could amplify the melting around Antarctica beyond that of the last warm period, which was driven mainly by extra sunlight reaching the northern hemisphere. The researchers also said that stains from dark soot drifting from power plants and vehicles could hasten melting in the Arctic by increasing the amount of solar energy absorbed by ice. The future rise in sea levels, driven by loss of ice from both Greenland and West Antarctica, would occur over many centuries and be largely irreversible, but could be delayed by curbing emissions of the greenhouse gases, said Overpeck and his fellow lead author, Bette Otto-Bliesner of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. In a second article in Science, researchers say they have detected a rising frequency of earthquakelike rumblings in the bedrock beneath Greenland's 2-mile-thick ice cap in late summer since 1993. They add that there is no obvious explanation other than abrupt movements of the overlying ice caused by surface melting. ... Sea levels have been rising for thousands of years as an aftereffect of the warming and polar melting that followed the last ice age, which ended about 10,000 years ago. Discriminating between that residual effect and any new influence from human actions remains impossible for the moment, many experts say.<hr></blockquote>

The Great Flood

The Great Flood

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