On 21/04/2008, at 7:46 PM, Wayne Eddy wrote: > >>> Starvation (drought, a colder Europe if the Atlantic Conveyor fails, >>> and reduced farmland), and disease (malaria could easily jump back >>> over the Mediterranean and reinvade Europe as the summers get warmer >>> and wetter...). > > You were watching SBS too last night I take it?
I was, but this is something I've spent a long time looking at. I've known about the Atlantic Conveyor for years. I grew up in the UK and spent 8 years in Cyprus, so I'm as familiar with Europe as I am with Oz (and I've without doubt seen more of Australia than most natives), and seeing average temperatures in Western Europe dropping by 5 - 10 degrees would be, without doubt, a catastrophe. Britain and Ireland would suffer greatly. It's only a matter of time before there's a huge flood in London. > > > I missed part of the documentry, but I thought warming is historically > followed by increased glaciation. Sea levels may end up dropping not > rising, Possibly - but increasing glaciation in the northern land masses would take a long time to suck up the water from the Greenland melt and the Antarctic ice sheets. There'll be a lot of rise before there's a fall (and if we keep forcing the climate, the reverse may not come for a LOOOOOOONG time). > and malaria might fall back towards the equator. Might. It was endemic in Europe until the 1950s. Wasn't the climate that pushed it out, it was insecticides taking out the _Anopheles_ mossies. Warm summers are enough to bring it back and we might well not be able to eradicate it again - the tools we've previously used aren't as effective now. > > > All the more reason to worry about things that we know are going to be > problems and not things that might cause problems. We *know* the world is warming. We need to know what the effects are so we know which of those effects will become problems, 'cause we need to prepare for those. > > > I agree that sustainable development is a with out a doubt a very good > thing, but I still don't think that global warming is the main > reason it > should be pursued. That's cool by me. If we agree on the destination, then the reasons don't matter that much. Charlie. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
