tower@mit-prep.ARPA (Leonard H. Tower Jr.) (08/27/86)
A friend recently told me of an interesting study done by two
geologists. He wasn't able to supply me with the reference, and I'm
hoping one of you can!
The study was an explanation of why none of the predicted sea coast
flooding has occured yet. This flooding is predicated by those who
fore see global warming due to the CO2 and halogen-organics that have
been added to the atmosphere since the start of the Industrial
Revolution. The geologists claim that the water added from melting
ice has about the same volume as the water that has been impounded in
reservoirs by dams et. al.
They claim that the impounding is slowing down, and sea coast flooding
will start soon. If we seek to continue to prevent the sea coast
flooding with this technique, we have until the middle of the next
century. Most of the easily used volumes are below sea-level. The
following regions are among those that will have to be flooded:
Caspian Sea, Russia and Iran
Dead Sea, Israel and Jordan
Imperial and Death Valleys, California, USA
Quattar Depression, Egypt
Congo River Basin and Lake Chad Basin, Zaire et. al.
Interesting set of ecological and political problems. I hope other
solutions can be found.
Any how, can anyone provide me with a reference?
I'll mail (or post) the reference, if I get (enough) requests.
Thanx, Len
--
Len Tower
Project GNU of the Free Software Foundation
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HOME: 36 Porter Street, Somerville, MA 02143, USA +1 (617) 623-7739berman@psuvax1.UUCP (Piotr Berman) (08/31/86)
Problem: ice-melting due to greenhouse effect may be a danger. Some geologist claim we would already see some flooding, but so far impounding water in reservoirs prevented it. Now > They claim that the impounding is slowing down, and sea coast flooding > will start soon. If we seek to continue to prevent the sea coast > flooding with this technique, we have until the middle of the next > century. Most of the easily used volumes are below sea-level. The > following regions are among those that will have to be flooded: > > Caspian Sea, Russia and Iran > Dead Sea, Israel and Jordan > Imperial and Death Valleys, California, USA > Quattar Depression, Egypt > Congo River Basin and Lake Chad Basin, Zaire et. al. > > Interesting set of ecological and political problems. I hope other > solutions can be found. > > Any how, can anyone provide me with a reference? > -- > Len Tower It seems to me that it is not a good idea. To prevent oceans to rise by a foot, one would need to dispose more than 100,000,000 sq mile X foot of water. Levelling Caspian See with ocean level would absorb less than one third of that. All other regions would not add up as much as that. Thus, with enormous expenditures could diminish the flood by 8 inches. I would say: back to the drawing board. Piotr Berman
bob@islenet.UUCP (Bob Cunningham) (09/07/86)
> The study was an explanation of why none of the predicted sea coast > flooding has occured yet. This flooding is predicated by those who > fore see global warming due to the CO2 and halogen-organics that have > been added to the atmosphere since the start of the Industrial > Revolution... A more reasonable explanation is that the predictions might be wrong. My own: global cooling has been occuring since the 1930's, and will continue until next century...and only then will we see the results of accumulated "greenhouse effect" warming. -- Bob Cunningham {humu|ihnp4}!{islenet|uhmanoa}!bob cunninghamr%haw.sdscnet@LLL-MFE.ARPA Hawaii Institute of Geophysics, University of Hawaii
friesen@psivax.UUCP (Stanley Friesen) (09/10/86)
In article <2785@islenet.UUCP> bob@islenet.UUCP (Bob Cunningham) writes: >A more reasonable explanation is that the predictions might be wrong. >My own: global cooling has been occuring since the 1930's, and will >continue until next century...and only then will we see the results of >accumulated "greenhouse effect" warming. The problem with many of these predictions is that climate is a very complex phenomenon. There are *natural* climatic cycles, the shorter of which have a duration on the order of centuries. Until we have a precise model of the *causes* of the natural cycles we have no way of telling whether a given trend is natural or man-made. Thus, even if the climate does begin to warm in the next century it may well just be the natural up side of the current cooling trend! Though by that time we will hopefully have the precise model necessary to tell the difference. --- Sarima (Stanley Friesen) UUCP: {ttidca|ihnp4|sdcrdcf|quad1|nrcvax|bellcore|logico}!psivax!friesen ARPA: ??