Re: Global Warming (was New Medit List Members?
- Subject: Re: Global Warming (was New Medit List Members?
- From: Tony and Moira Ryan t*@xtra.co.nz
- Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2002 10:44:06 +1300
Rona Sadja wrote:
>
> I've been hearing about the possibility that global
> warming could actually trigger an ice age:
Yes, I have seen this too and recently read a book expounding the
theory. Unfortunately, my short-term memory is nowhere near as sharp as
it once was, so I don't remember more than the broad outlines, but I do
know it suggested that at least the most recent returns of the ice were
proceeded by some similar sort of global warming, so I don't think it is
a theory altogether without foundation.
In the southern hemisphere we are much more concerned so far with the
_warming_ effects (which already are certainly going on visibly and
alarmingly in Antarctica) as the water from the rapid melting of the ice
must inevitably eventually raise the sea level.
If you look at a map of the South Pacific you can see that almost all
the land which makes up Oceania, instead of being gathered into a few
large land masses is spread between innumerable island groups which,
small as they are in territory, are mostly inhabited and each
mini-nation in their own right. Some of the more substantial
archipelagos, including New Zealand, are lucky enough to have a rocky
(even moutainous) basis to their islands which lifts them well above the
sealevel, but quite a few others, (Kiribati for instance) consist of no
more than odd volcanic cones sticking out of the waves and surrounded
with a fringing coral reef. Many of these latter are at best only a few
feet above the waves and a rise in sea level of no more than two or
three feet would render them entirely uninhabitable. Awful to think of
one's entire country simply disappeaing into the sea.
This is also likely to have a severe effect on the lives of all the
animals native to the region, for instance the seals and relatives and
the penguins which breed on the Antarctic islands or the ice around the
southern continent, and especially the vast crowd of creatures from
whales to seabirds which directly or indirectly depend on the upwelling
of the nutritious cold currents to provide them with food. (I also have
seen on Tele that problems directly caused by the melting of the ice are
already facing indigenous people and Polar bears in the North also).
No doubt it will be an equal struggle for the plants to adapt and many
will not make it..
> > Tropical Future for UK Gardeners as Climate Changes
> > LONDON (Reuters) - Green-fingered Britons could soon
> > be growing bananas and
> > avocados instead of lupins and rhododendrons as a
> > result of climate change,
> > according to leading horticulturists.
> >
> > Long-term forecasts on climate change suggest
> > British gardeners could face
> > Mediterranean weather with hotter summers, droughts
> > and warm, wet winters with
> > the risk of flooding, the Sunday Times newspaper
> > reported.
> >
> > Lush lawns, often the pride of suburban gardens,
> > will also come under threat,
> > according to a new report to be published this week
> > from the Royal Horticultural
> > Society (RHS) and the National Trust.
> >
> > The report's author, Richard Bisgrove from Reading
> > University, said the climate
> > changes over the next 80 years could threaten some
> > native plants, but would also
> > give fresh opportunities to gardeners.
Very similar predictions are being made by our air and water experts
here, where climate bands are it seems set to migrate north (towards the
tropics) in a similar timescale.
Around my home area (Wellington) we started from a climate already
naturally warm enough for peaches, but not for avocados and are being
assured we shall end up with subtropical growing conditions before the
end of the century such as now prevail only from Auckland northwards.
As we are already beginning to experience quite regularly warmer winters
than ever before the argument seems to have some weight.
> >
> > "Southern England will become like Bordeaux...in
> > domestic gardens we will see
> > more exotic plants -- things like palms, olives and
> > peaches."
> >
> > The report is based on trends set out in the
> > government's UK Climate Impacts
> > Programme.
The one thing we gardeners will all have to learn this century I suspect
is lots of adaptibility and skill at lateral thinking.
Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan,
Wainuiomata, North Island, NZ. Pictures of our garden at:-
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cherie1/Garden/TonyandMoira/index.htm
