On Fri. Jan 18, Keith Hudson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>According to BBC Radio news this morning (based on an article in the
>current issue of "Science"), the ice in West Antarctica is becoming
>thicker "thus allaying fears of global warming".
>
>The last time there was demonstrable global warming (at the end of the
>last Ice Age about 10,000 years ago) 10 million square kilometres of land
>(equivalent to South America and the US combined) were flooded and now
>lie under the sea. The odds are still in favour of global cooling rather
>than warming.
sez Hoo? That'll be big news to the vast majority of the people who
actually study and know something about this topic.
> Thus our descendents are more likely to experience a massive gain
>in land surface rather than loss. But, as a lot of land would be covered
>with glaciers, this scenario would be a great deal more serious
>economically than the one produced by global warming doomsters.
An increase in snow cover will be moot if it is due (as is likely)
to warmer temperatures, which mean warmer seas in the neighbourhood
of the ice shelves. In fact, if the ice over the sea melts away
while more snow piles up on the neighbouring land, the extra weight
will simply increase the speed with which the ice falls into the ocean.
>As I suggested before, I humbly maintain that the jury is still out on
>this
>one and we need more evidence yet before panicky (and quite insufficient)
>measures are taken -- as promoted mainly by European Union bureaucrats
>who want to demonstrate to the world just how far-seeing they are.
Maybe they just have the good sense to realize that a ten metre rise in
sea level will cost billions in their backyard, nevermind the
humanitariam catastrophe among the poor in distant lands. So perhaps
a little caution now is infinitely more prudent than sitting around
saying "I think it probably won't happen, (even though I know very
little about the subtlety of the issue), so I think we should wait
and do nothing until it is far too late, because doing something might
cause me some sort of mild inconvenience". So far the only people
besides yourself that I've heard denying the link between fossil fuels
and global warming are all in the business of making money from
fossil fuel, either directly or indirectly.
The main battle is going to be in changing the consciousness of
the mass of humanity to the understanding that 1) it could truly
be that our actions have caused this and 2) that it is easily
within the power of our actions to affect the outcome if we
act concertedly. But only if we start very soon. By the time
we get enough hard evidence to convince the conservative skeptics,
it will be too late to avoid substantial upheaval.
-Pete Vincent
