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macdoc
10th January 2011, 02:10 PM
:roll: only mildly tongue in cheek .....this is the nastiest bit of news I've seen come along on the climate change front....
so time to have some speculative fun with what the university wonks say WILL be the case 9 centuries out regardless of the action on limiting C02 emissions.

This is NOT the place to debate causes and climate change ....it's to have some fun and maybe some tears envisioning what the changes will be in your city or your fav city with 4 meters added to the sea level.

With 2/3 of major cities near the coast..... well....

- kiss the world we know goodbye...there is no turning back short of actually extracting C02 from the atmosphere....

Climate change to continue to year 3000 in best case scenarios: research
January 9, 2011

New research indicates the impact of rising CO2 levels in the Earth's atmosphere will cause unstoppable effects to the climate for at least the next 1000 years, causing researchers to estimate a collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet by the year 3000, and an eventual rise in the global sea level of at least four metres.

The study, to be published in the Jan. 9 Advanced Online Publication of the journal Nature Geoscience, is the first full climate model simulation to make predictions out to 1000 years from now. It is based on best-case, 'zero-emissions' scenarios constructed by a team of researchers from the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis (an Environment Canada research lab at the University of Victoria) and the University of Calgary.

"We created 'what if' scenarios," says Dr. Shawn Marshall, Canada Research Chair in Climate Change and University of Calgary geography professor.

"What if we completely stopped using fossil fuels and put no more CO2 in the atmosphere? How long would it then take to reverse current climate change trends and will things first become worse?" The research team explored zero-emissions scenarios beginning in 2010 and in 2100.

The Northern Hemisphere fares better than the south in the computer simulations, with patterns of climate change reversing within the 1000-year timeframe in places like Canada. At the same time parts of North Africa experience desertification as land dries out by up to 30 percent, and ocean warming of up to 5°C off of Antarctica is likely to trigger widespread collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet, a region the size of the Canadian prairies.

Researchers hypothesize that one reason for the variability between the North and South is the slow movement of ocean water from the North Atlantic into the South Atlantic. "The global ocean and parts of the Southern Hemisphere have much more inertia, such that change occurs more slowly," says Marshall. "The inertia in intermediate and deep ocean currents driving into the Southern Atlantic means those oceans are only now beginning to warm as a result of CO2 emissions from the last century.

The simulation showed that warming will continue rather than stop or reverse on the 1000-year time scale."
continueshttp://www.physorg.com/news/2011-01-climate-year-case-scenarios.html

and how many hundreds of millions live near the coasts?

It turns out that two-thirds of world's largest cities — cities with more than five million people — are at least partially in these low areas. That's important, because people are increasingly moving to cities.http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=9162438

That is NOT a long time span......the oldest building in Venice was built in 639 - 1300 plus years ago.
The next thousand will see it meters underwater as a diving site.....

Along with most of Manhattan, London et al

Now
a) we are not going to stop increasing the fossile CO2 emissions anytime soon so the time frame simply gets closer
b) the irony of the report coming out of oil sands Alberta is too delicious to ignore....

Welcome to the Anthropocene.....

and for lunch we will serving....

Lagoustine avec jelly fish...
Jellyfish are taking over the oceans: Population surge as rising acidity of world’s seas kills predators
Published 6 December 2010 Media coverage 1 Comment
Britain’s beaches could soon be inundated with records numbers of jellyfish, marine experts warned today.

Scientists say the number of jellyfish are on the rise thanks to the increasing acidity of the world’s oceans.

The warning comes in a new report into ocean acidification – an often overlooked side effect of burning fossil fuel.

Studies have shown that higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere doesn’t just trigger climate change but can make the oceans more acid.

Since the start of the industrial revolution, acidity levels of the oceans have gone up 30 per cent, marine biologists say.
http://oceanacidification.wordpress.com ... predators/ (http://oceanacidification.wordpress.com/2010/12/06/jellyfish-are-taking-over-the-oceans-population-surge-as-rising-acidity-of-worlds-seas-kills-predators/)Exotic food: Jellyfish‎
New Zealand Herald - Lincoln Tan - Amelia Wade - 3 hours ago
Miss Gan describes the texture of jellyfish as "crunchy". It is sweet and savoury and goes well with noodles or rice porridge. Exotic food enthusiast Eddie ...http://rationalia.com/forum/images/smilies/cheers.gif

So let your speculation run..since it IS coming,...what will your home town or fav cities be like 900 years out....with 4 meters of water added... http://rationalia.com/forum/images/smilies/grin.gif

Vic Vega
10th January 2011, 02:29 PM
I'll be dead about 950 years by that point.

Is it wrong to say that I just don't care?

:D

macdoc
10th January 2011, 03:57 PM
That's an ethical stance but there is an element of fatalism that "we have now within current technology limits changed the world as humans knew it for the last few millenia."

We are moving out of the relatively benign Holocene where there was at most a 1.5 C swing over 10,000 years to something not seen on the planet for 15 million years.

And that change will unfold in a geological blink of time and aside from a Manhattan level effort to remove C02 - not just stop emitting - but remove....the change will come and many will simply shrug and I can hardly blame them.

We built a fantastic technical civilization and we sacrificed - and for 250 of 300 years, unknowingly - the planetscape the civilization emerged from.

So now we cope and try to blunt the changes and the pace of change.

The difference with this article is, there is no escape from the changes. Regardless of what we do except for removing carbon....the changes are coming.

So let's have some black humour fun speculating about a scuba tour of Wall Street or the Paris subways.
New York is long over due for a hit and every mm of sea level rise and every 1/10th of a degree of warmer water increases the damage potential as that's a fine funnel for the storm surge.

Waterworld is a long ways off tho.....Antarctic mainland would take thousands of upon thousands of years to melt.

Greenland and Western Antarctic, not so long.

This map lets you see your area with various levels of sea level.

http://flood.firetree.net/

macdoc
10th January 2011, 06:40 PM
Anyone plot how high the Vatican is off the 4 meter level ( the irony would be too delicious??

Washington?? ditto

:rolleyes: :D

geni
10th January 2011, 06:49 PM
Year 3000? I think post-glacial rebound well have taken care of london before that.

geni
10th January 2011, 06:54 PM
Anyone plot how high the Vatican is off the 4 meter level ( the irony would be too delicious??


About 29 meters. The Vatican is built on Vatican Hill.

Trakar
10th January 2011, 08:18 PM
Anyone plot how high the Vatican is off the 4 meter level ( the irony would be too delicious??

Washington?? ditto

:rolleyes: :D

Vatican sits on a low hill, St Peters Square is 19 meters above sea level. The 7 Hills will become the seven isles.

(Opps, sorry, didn't see your response geni)

Ladewig
10th January 2011, 08:20 PM
With 2/3 of major cities near the coast..... well....

- kiss the world we know goodbye...there is no turning back short of actually extracting C02 from the atmosphere....


Even if the ocean level didn't change one centimeter, we would be kissing the world we know goodbye anyway if we are talking about 1000 years in the future.

Yes, I'll be sorry to see Venice go, but it is possible that 200 years from now we can build a monstrous cofferdam around the city and save it from destruction.

macdoc
10th January 2011, 09:12 PM
They sort of are trying that now - with marginal success.....mind you Venice like New Orleans has the double whammy of sinking as well the sea level and storm surge issue.

•••

About 29 meters. The Vatican is built on Vatican Hill.

damn - have to wait for the main event.....the whole Antarctic :( ;)

•••

If you think about history tho 1,000 years is not so long...and we have had generally the same geography for the entire Holocene....

These guys understood that 1,000 years was not so long...

http://www.terragalleria.com/europe/france/pont-du-gard/picture.fran41423.html

macdoc
10th January 2011, 09:18 PM
Post glacial rebound - interesting point...looks like the Scots win and the Brits are underwater


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Post-glacial_rebound_in_British_Isles.PNG

Interesting point.

Xephyr
10th January 2011, 09:34 PM
I have a tendency to believe we'll be our own demise far sooner than 1000 years from now, and it'll have nothing to do with climate.

Yes, I'm a pessimist and have absolutely no faith in mankind's cranial capabilities.




*puts tinfoil hat back on*

macdoc
10th January 2011, 09:39 PM
Yet we've bumbled along to date......what makes you think a total demise.

Had you said a 90% die off of humans I might agree and actually think that's a good thing.....but human extinction.....I'd assess no.

We are in agreement about the "silly monkey's" aspect of H Sap

Xephyr
10th January 2011, 09:58 PM
Yet we've bumbled along to date......what makes you think a total demise.

Had you said a 90% die off of humans I might agree and actually think that's a good thing.....but human extinction.....I'd assess no.

We are in agreement about the "silly monkey's" aspect of H Sap


Well when I say "demise" it could represent 50%, 70%, 40%, etc. I highly doubt we could completely wipe out ourselves into total annihalation and non-existance forever more.

Somebody, somewhere is hiding out in a bunker as we speak with their collection of pork and beans and AK47's.

piojunbabia
10th January 2011, 10:17 PM
Post glacial rebound - interesting point...looks like the Scots win and the Brits are underwater


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Post-glacial_rebound_in_British_Isles.PNG

Interesting point.
Interesting..

Year 3000? I think post-glacial rebound well have taken care of london before that.

By the year 3000, its already the end of the world... somewhere in the Middle East... :D

Trakar
11th January 2011, 10:53 AM
...damn - have to wait for the main event.....the whole Antarctic :( ;)
...

This ignores that the vatican was the first (2007) carbon neutral nation by policy. and the Papal gardens are at about 60 meters. Even in a de-iced world much, if not most of the Vatican would probably be above sea-level, so no scuba diving in the Sistine Chapel!

macdoc
11th January 2011, 12:37 PM
Yeah but he encourages breeding = enemy :mad:

geni
11th January 2011, 01:22 PM
Even if the ocean level didn't change one centimeter, we would be kissing the world we know goodbye anyway if we are talking about 1000 years in the future.


So? The UK has 1000 year old buildings kicking around (churches mostly). We've lost the odd settlement to the sea in that time (Dunwich for example) but that kind of thing tends to be localised so even though it's right next to the sea Portchester Castle is still around.

Ladewig
11th January 2011, 02:45 PM
So? The UK has 1000 year old buildings kicking around (churches mostly). We've lost the odd settlement to the sea in that time (Dunwich for example) but that kind of thing tends to be localised so even though it's right next to the sea Portchester Castle is still around.

Indeed yes. On the other hand, I doubt any of the buildings in NYC will be useable 1000 years from now even if they were protected from the sea. In any case, I am not saying that a 4 meter rise is negligible. I am saying that the phrase "kiss the world we know goodbye" in this context is meaningless.

macdoc
11th January 2011, 03:22 PM
The geography of the planets shorelines is going change far more over the next 900 years than ever over the holocene. Areas like Southern Florida and Bangladesh will be unrecognizable...and the Bahamas just to mention one ...and then there is S Manhattan

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m269/macdoc/Screenshot2011-01-11atJan11201161536PM.jpg

MostlyHarmless
11th January 2011, 04:38 PM
1000 years is a long time. We could be living in underwater cities and on the moon in that time frame. People will die, but humans will live on.

CapelDodger
11th January 2011, 05:04 PM
I have a tendency to believe we'll be our own demise far sooner than 1000 years from now, and it'll have nothing to do with climate.

Yes, I'm a pessimist and have absolutely no faith in mankind's cranial capabilities.




*puts tinfoil hat back on*

We are definitely multi-skilled when it comes to messing things up. Two things in particular seem to get us every time : resource depletion and dumping our crap out of the window.

We'd be facing a global cluster-hump, with or without climate change. The Malthusian crisis will just be brought forward a little by AGW.

CapelDodger
11th January 2011, 05:09 PM
So? The UK has 1000 year old buildings kicking around (churches mostly). We've lost the odd settlement to the sea in that time (Dunwich for example) but that kind of thing tends to be localised so even though it's right next to the sea Portchester Castle is still around.

It is, of course, in the nature of castles that they're built at high points.

On the South-East coast there have been two opposite influences : glacial rebound dropping the land and silting building it up. Perhaps the solution for London is to let the Thames Estuary silt up.

CapelDodger
11th January 2011, 05:21 PM
Even if the ocean level didn't change one centimeter, we would be kissing the world we know goodbye anyway if we are talking about 1000 years in the future.

I bet people will be much the same though :).

Yes, I'll be sorry to see Venice go, but it is possible that 200 years from now we can build a monstrous cofferdam around the city and save it from destruction.

Venice is built on piles, so it may be possible to jack it up. It would be a monstrous engineering project, but once the current difficulties are over there may well be an appetite for such ambitions. Like there was for the Apollo program back in more confident times.

CapelDodger
11th January 2011, 05:30 PM
Year 3000? I think post-glacial rebound well have taken care of london before that.

The Thames Barrier wasn't built with global warming in mind, of course. The inexorable sinking of the South-East made it vital.

It's in danger of being out-flanked on the South, and when economic conditions are right no doubt something will be done about that. Oh dear, I crack myself up sometimes ... :)

geni
11th January 2011, 05:33 PM
It is, of course, in the nature of castles that they're built at high points.

Not porchester (or most of the other castles in that area). It's costal defence. A bit like Hurst Castle only about a thousand years older.

geni
11th January 2011, 05:34 PM
The Thames Barrier wasn't built with global warming in mind, of course. The inexorable sinking of the South-East made it vital.

It's in danger of being out-flanked on the South, and when economic conditions are right no doubt something will be done about that. Oh dear, I crack myself up sometimes ... :)

The kind of thing that can be solved by large numbers of people with shovels. Of course to get that many people you need economic conditions to be in conventional terms wrong.

geni
11th January 2011, 05:43 PM
Indeed yes. On the other hand, I doubt any of the buildings in NYC will be useable 1000 years from now even if they were protected from the sea. In any case, I am not saying that a 4 meter rise is negligible. I am saying that the phrase "kiss the world we know goodbye" in this context is meaningless.

It isn't though. For a site to be occupied for a thousand years is far from uncommon. A 4 meter sea level rise will be somewhat dissruptive to this.

Trakar
11th January 2011, 07:05 PM
Yeah but he encourages breeding = enemy :mad:

Our species and civilization ends much more quickly and definitely if we all quit breeding, than if we merely keep recovering and burning fossil fuels.

macdoc
11th January 2011, 08:10 PM
Uncontrolled breeding - we are a plague and he's adding to the issue by using misplaced moral suasion against birth control.

••

This guy has quite the vision of a flooded world sans ice caps...
Images and info.

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m269/macdoc/Studio-Lindfors-Flooded-Cities-53rd-st.jpg

more

http://inhabitat.com/a-haunting-visual-prediction-of-our-flooded-future-world/

Trakar
12th January 2011, 12:22 PM
Uncontrolled breeding - we are a plague and he's adding to the issue by using misplaced moral suasion against birth control.

••

This guy has quite the vision of a flooded world sans ice caps...
Images and info.

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m269/macdoc/Studio-Lindfors-Flooded-Cities-53rd-st.jpg

more

http://inhabitat.com/a-haunting-visual-prediction-of-our-flooded-future-world/

The Pope isn't against birth control, he just doesn't support artifical birth control. http://www.newadvent.org/library/docs_pa06hv.htm (reference - Licitness of Recourse to Infecund Periods - a little less than half-way down the page)

CapelDodger
12th January 2011, 03:00 PM
Not porchester (or most of the other castles in that area). It's costal defence. A bit like Hurst Castle only about a thousand years older.

I know Portchester Castle (I worked in Fareham for a while, and I do love castles) and it's on a relatively high point. Coastal defences are all very well, but you don't actually build them on the beach :).