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03/02/2007 by peter.
The following sites may be of interest to those wondering if they are safe from the impending rise in sea level. Scotland is very mountainous and mainly made of igneous rock so river channels are deep and narrow thus being in a town next to a river usually means you are about 35 feet above water level, however England has lots of limestone and therefore has wide river valleys and large flood planes (which are cheap land and therefore used by councils to build council houses on) Something to think about…
Since the problem with burning fossil fuels is that you release carbon dioxide that was absorbed by plants in the carboniferous period and which was subsequently turned into coal and oil, we can expect to see temperatures and seal levels rise to the levels around that during and before this period, that is to say world average of 22 deg versus 12 today and sea level rise in the order of 300meters. However this is assuming we burn EVERY last scrap of coal and oil and since a fair quantity has been turned into plastic that is now in landfill, that ain’t going to happen. Also remember that since no little man has been recording sea levels over the last 500M years, all our information is based on scientific extrapolations so may be wrong like all science. Another thing you will have notice is that if the data we have is correct, then the time for the temperature or sea levels to change significantly may be in the order of millions of years, so no need to build houses on 1/2 kilometre stilts yet!
There is also the possibility of Global Dimming taking effect which will cause more problems.
One final note, remember weather is chaotic by nature, hence we have trouble telling what the weather will do tomorrow let alone in a year and there are natural cycles and cycles of cycles. For instance when the Romans invaded they grew grape vines as far north as Perth so it must have been as warm as the vineyards of France!!
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01/02/2007 by peter.
Just in passing I found a good looking book for anyone looking for a guide to electronics “Practical Electronics for Inventors” ISBN 0071452818.
Or for those of you looking for some levity check out the web comic The Fart Party.
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