Jez
12-01-2006, 09:58 PM
I seem to recall a discussion here about climate change and the possible repecussions of a 2-degree temperature rise...this book review (and the book obviously) might be worth a look for those interested...
I wasn't aware of how quickly glaciers can melt with just a small change...nor how the actual melting occurs...scary predictions for the future of some highly populated regions and the world as a whole.
An international commission predicts that there is a high likelihood that all of the Himalayan glaciers will melt by 2035. The Himalaya will turn black, and the Ganges and other rivers that flow from it will dry to seasonal streams. The 500 million people in India who depend on water from these rivers will have no other source. As mountain glaciers andsnow packs melt everywhere, China, the Andes and California will face the same climate shock - no water.
Meanwhile, the melting ice will raise the seas. Lonnie Thompson and other researchers are discovering that once glaciers start to melt, they can melt all the way to bedrock very rapidly. If all of the Earth's mountain glaciers were to melt, it would raise the sea level by a foot and a half and that would be the end of places like Bangladesh and Louisiana's bayou country. But the polar ice caps are showing the same tendency for rapid melting, and a mere two degree Fahrenheit rise in global temperature could be enough to cause a complete disintegration. Sea levels could start rising by 3 feet every 20 years. We will have to act quickly and drastically to avert this inundation.
Click here (http://www.energybulletin.net/11999.html) for the rest of the article.
I wasn't aware of how quickly glaciers can melt with just a small change...nor how the actual melting occurs...scary predictions for the future of some highly populated regions and the world as a whole.
An international commission predicts that there is a high likelihood that all of the Himalayan glaciers will melt by 2035. The Himalaya will turn black, and the Ganges and other rivers that flow from it will dry to seasonal streams. The 500 million people in India who depend on water from these rivers will have no other source. As mountain glaciers andsnow packs melt everywhere, China, the Andes and California will face the same climate shock - no water.
Meanwhile, the melting ice will raise the seas. Lonnie Thompson and other researchers are discovering that once glaciers start to melt, they can melt all the way to bedrock very rapidly. If all of the Earth's mountain glaciers were to melt, it would raise the sea level by a foot and a half and that would be the end of places like Bangladesh and Louisiana's bayou country. But the polar ice caps are showing the same tendency for rapid melting, and a mere two degree Fahrenheit rise in global temperature could be enough to cause a complete disintegration. Sea levels could start rising by 3 feet every 20 years. We will have to act quickly and drastically to avert this inundation.
Click here (http://www.energybulletin.net/11999.html) for the rest of the article.