OFF: FLOODS ARE COMING

[Mark Jermy]

Robert C. Mayo wrote:
>remember the ice age? well, i don't really mean to ask if you remember
>it...but let's start there...

>what melted all that ice? global warming, to be sure...but certainly not
such
>caused by polution/greenhouse gasses. it was (is) a natural cycle of
climate
>change, yes? continuing as we speak.
Correct in as much as there is a natural and an anthropomorphic (Latin, 'the
fault of the George Bush' ;-) ) global warming effect, and the two add
together. We may be experiencing natural warming, but do we wish to
accelerate the process?

Besides which, if even there was no anthropomorphic greenhouse effect, if we
continue to rely on fossil fuel we will run out. Maybe not in our lifetimes,
but what about our children's lifetimes?

Academic and industrial opinion is rapidly approaching a concensus that
using hydrogen as a way of transporting energy is the best solution. You can
generate it in many ways, from fossil or renewable energy sources, you can
use it in a number of ways, and the wast product is water.

>and even if it were true that the ice caps will melt, etc, why would that
>cause flooding, necessarily? when the ice in a glass of icewater melts,the
>glass doesn't overflow; the 'new' water takes up (nearly) the same space as
>the ice that it used to be...did.

Why does ice float? Because it's less dense than water. Floating ice (e.g.
the Arctic and the coast of Antarctica) may not raise much water above sea
level, but ice on land masses does (e.g. Antarctica, Greenland, northern
Eurasia and America). Melt the ice, return it to the sea, raise the sea
level. Plus there is the thermal expansion of water. Heat the oceans, expand
the sea.

Mark