HOME | POLITICS | SPORTS | LIFE | SCI/TECH | OPEDS | HELPFUL TIPS
|
July 29, 2004 “Today Greenland, tomorrow the world.” Greedo stretched, happy that after centuries of waiting those stupid creatures on the surface of the planet were playing into his hands and opening the way to a future he would control. He exhaled in exultation and sent another wave of heat permeating through the permafrost of his northern polar prison. He had been expelled there many centuries earlier to a lonely existence, waiting for the levels of greed and stupidity on the planet’s surface to rise until the conditions wee right for his awakening. He breathed in the rarefied air. It was now much warmer and made him feel at home; the cold around his entombed body was not as harsh as it had been when he was imprisoned. He could feel success within reach. The day would not far away when he would be able to break free of his ice prison and roam free through the earth’s oceans over a kingdom that had once been his until the ancient God’s had conspired against him to trap his waters into vast blocks of ice at the two extremes of the earth and release the land to those stupid creatures scurrying across the dry surface like so many annoying parasites. In less than a heart beat of cosmic time the waters would return and drown them so he could reclaim his rightful place as the dominant God. Oh, no, not another disaster movie scenario, I hear you groan. If only that was it but unfortunately the latest scientific studies in Greenland show that this could be a scenario in the immediate future and not something dreamed up in the mind of a fantasy novelist. The permafrost in Greenland is melting, the temperature is rising at an alarming rate and the land is disintegrating as the frost releases its hold on the soil particles. This is not a forecast for the future but fact from the present; already parts of Greenland are being abandoned as whole villages are being evacuated to higher ground. So that’s only one country, why the panic? As Greedo says: Today Greenland, tomorrow the world. Stop and think of the amount of water trapped in the two ice caps. Just the water released from the northern ice caps would flood most low-lying areas by a couple of meters – and there is still the melting ice from the southern hemisphere. As the temperature rises other frozen water will flow down from the mountains. Bangladesh is underwater already, imagine what would happen when the snow and ice from the Himalayas is added to the flow through the country. Islands in the Pacific are slowly being engulfed by the rising seas, another two or three meters would drive many into submarine playgrounds without any land on which to live. “So that’s their problem,” a common comment in the industrialized West. Nice attitude when most of the causes of the global warming are generated by these same nations. Will they be unaffected? Not bloody likely is my colloquial response in the good old Kiwi vernacular. The scientists have calculated that a rise of two or three meters would sink most of London, large parts of New York and other major coastal cities. Melting permafrost would have major impacts in large areas of northern Canada and Russia where the soil is held together by frost that has been in situ for centuries. The vast plains of central USA were once underwater, either as an ocean or a swamp, and the vast range of animal specimens dug up in the last 100 years has proved this without any doubt. It would not take a major rise in water levels to return this area to its former ‘water world’ glory. Even my own home sits less than three meters above sea level so I’d have to grow gills or else vacate, along with the many millions around the world who would be seeking higher ground. So we run to the hills, but what about our animal neighbours? As the water continued to rise land would become a scare resource as more disappeared into the hungry sea. Cliffs would erode and go crashing down, taking everything in their path with them. Less land means less area to grow food for the remaining people who survive the disaster, so we can add starvation to the disaster scenario. It’s time we faced the truth and sent old Greedo back into his prison before it is too late to control the forces he will release in the very near future. It is no good forming yet another committee to talk about what we must do; that will give the forces being released the timeframes they need to pass beyond our control. We must act now to reduce the causes of global warming and through them the impact of rising water levels. The choice is simple – Think or Sink! ------------ About the author Alan M Brooker: New Zealand author of science fiction, fantasy and adventure novels published in the USA by Amber Quill Press LLC. My web page is The Gateway to an Unknown Reality (http://www.brookersworld.co.nz) Latest book out is Tharne's Quest, a horror novel, but four novels currently available through Amber Quill Press at http://amberquill.com Email: ambrook@igrin.co.nz Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
