Friday, March 24, 2006
More on the topic of Water....
Two articles that I read today caught my attention. The first was about rising sea levels, due to Global Warming. The next one was in The Winnipeg Sun on the topic of this years flood forecast for Manitoba.
The only reason the Sun article caught my attention, was because it made me realize something. Flooding ain't that bad. Even during the flood of 1997, I'm pretty sure there wasn't one fucking death. When there are fatalaties, it's usually due to what caused the flooding, like a tsunami, hurricane or cyclone. Flooding is shitty, but as humans, we've got a pretty good handle on flowing water.
Two examples of cities that have a pretty good handle on flowing water, are Winnipeg, and New Orleans. Yes, what happened in New Orleans this summer was the shits. But again, it was caused by a hurricane, and shoddy levees. The area of New Orleans has been populated since the early 1700s. In the early 1900s they built the levee system, so that the swampy area below sea level would be more habitable.
On the topic of swamps and cities... back to Winnipeg. Winnipeg also was built on a swamp, albeit a prarie-swamp. Historically, Winnipeg has had a lot bigger problem with flooding. In 1969, the brilliant people of this city took a really old-school approach to the problem, and they built The Red River Floodway. It's also known as "Duff's Ditch", but I prefer to think of it as a moat.
The "new research" presented in & Mail makes some horrific claims about the future of ocean levels:
A six meter rise in the ocean level would change things a bit:
Let me step into a more sarcastic frame of mind. Are we supposed to be terrified of a six meter higher ocean? I'm sure glad I live in Winnipeg! I bet real-estate prices in Manhattan are going to plummet. Not. Is global cooling the solution? Should we all be begging for another ice age? We in Winnipeg are still hungover from the last one.
To quote the Smashing Pumpkins - "Life is suicide". The fucking climate has been changing since, well the beginning of the earth. There have been ice-ages, warm periods, and everything in between. And it won't stop either, ever.
It gets worse too, if you listen to scientists. Not only is the earth's climate in constant flux, but the entire universe could someday colapse upon itself. I know it's hard to believe, but it's true. Big Bang Theory coupled with current Astro Physics knowledge make it a near inevitability.
The way it goes, is that at the Big Bang, the universe exploded into space and time as we know it. That was about 12 billion years ago, with a 'B'. A few years ago, some astronomers realized that the universe was actually still in expansion. Everything is actually moving further away from everything in space. They also realized that this rate of expansion was slowing... leading them to believe that it was coming to a halt.
A universe without the energy to keep expanding poses its own problem. A universe leaves a lot of gravity in it's wake. The postulation is that eventually the gravity of the universe, will begin to reverse its own expansion, by condensing it. The weirdest part is, that at the momment when the universe goes from expanding to contracting... time will reverse itself. The universe will eventually go back to its original state of being a tight ball of mass and energy.
My point with all of this, is that as a race we humans seem to solve problems well. In Winnipeg and New Orleans, we solved water problems with ease. Global warming will cause sea levels to rise, and Vancouver will probably still be on the map in 200 years. 100 billion years from now, we might be caught in this exact same momment with time reversing and the universe imploding upon itself. People find a way to cope though, so I'm not too worried about it.
The only reason the Sun article caught my attention, was because it made me realize something. Flooding ain't that bad. Even during the flood of 1997, I'm pretty sure there wasn't one fucking death. When there are fatalaties, it's usually due to what caused the flooding, like a tsunami, hurricane or cyclone. Flooding is shitty, but as humans, we've got a pretty good handle on flowing water.
Two examples of cities that have a pretty good handle on flowing water, are Winnipeg, and New Orleans. Yes, what happened in New Orleans this summer was the shits. But again, it was caused by a hurricane, and shoddy levees. The area of New Orleans has been populated since the early 1700s. In the early 1900s they built the levee system, so that the swampy area below sea level would be more habitable.
On the topic of swamps and cities... back to Winnipeg. Winnipeg also was built on a swamp, albeit a prarie-swamp. Historically, Winnipeg has had a lot bigger problem with flooding. In 1969, the brilliant people of this city took a really old-school approach to the problem, and they built The Red River Floodway. It's also known as "Duff's Ditch", but I prefer to think of it as a moat.
The "new research" presented in & Mail makes some horrific claims about the future of ocean levels:
If current temperature trends continue to the end of the century, the Earth's climate will be warm enough to cause a massive melting of Greenland's ice sheet and a partial collapse of the Antarctic ice sheet, resulting in a torrent of melt water that will raise global sea levels by up to six metres, according to a pair of new research papers.
A six meter rise in the ocean level would change things a bit:
The increase in ocean levels would devastate low-lying coastal areas, put dozens of major cities under water, and become irreversible at some point later this century
Let me step into a more sarcastic frame of mind. Are we supposed to be terrified of a six meter higher ocean? I'm sure glad I live in Winnipeg! I bet real-estate prices in Manhattan are going to plummet. Not. Is global cooling the solution? Should we all be begging for another ice age? We in Winnipeg are still hungover from the last one.
To quote the Smashing Pumpkins - "Life is suicide". The fucking climate has been changing since, well the beginning of the earth. There have been ice-ages, warm periods, and everything in between. And it won't stop either, ever.
It gets worse too, if you listen to scientists. Not only is the earth's climate in constant flux, but the entire universe could someday colapse upon itself. I know it's hard to believe, but it's true. Big Bang Theory coupled with current Astro Physics knowledge make it a near inevitability.
The way it goes, is that at the Big Bang, the universe exploded into space and time as we know it. That was about 12 billion years ago, with a 'B'. A few years ago, some astronomers realized that the universe was actually still in expansion. Everything is actually moving further away from everything in space. They also realized that this rate of expansion was slowing... leading them to believe that it was coming to a halt.
A universe without the energy to keep expanding poses its own problem. A universe leaves a lot of gravity in it's wake. The postulation is that eventually the gravity of the universe, will begin to reverse its own expansion, by condensing it. The weirdest part is, that at the momment when the universe goes from expanding to contracting... time will reverse itself. The universe will eventually go back to its original state of being a tight ball of mass and energy.
My point with all of this, is that as a race we humans seem to solve problems well. In Winnipeg and New Orleans, we solved water problems with ease. Global warming will cause sea levels to rise, and Vancouver will probably still be on the map in 200 years. 100 billion years from now, we might be caught in this exact same momment with time reversing and the universe imploding upon itself. People find a way to cope though, so I'm not too worried about it.
