[LINK] We live in interesting times.... Or - is the gold standard really extinct.

[Ivan Trundle]

On 22/10/2008, at 2:12 PM, Marghanita da Cruz wrote:

> What has puzzles me about the Global Warming is the downside for Cold
> places...would people in Cold climates really be worse off in a
> Mediterranean or Tropical climate? I know which one I would prefer.  
> Though I
> don't fancy the extreme amounts of sunlight across the year.

It's not that simple. A warming of the planet will not make the world  
a better place, but rather make many places uninhabitable, or totally  
unproductive (wrong soil types, wrong climate, wrong seasonal changes,  
etc). One good example is what happens to the Great Barrier Reef: it  
won't simply move somewhere else - it is a unique combination of  
landforms and geographical circumstances that created it, and a rise  
in sea levels or increase in sea temperature will kill it, and no  
replacement will survive anywhere else. Further, the loss of the reef  
has significant effects on the surrounding region (coastal and  
otherwise), further degrading the environment.

The only bright spot in all of the modelling to date is that if we can  
cope with the incredible release of methane from the melting  
permafrost of Siberia, the Siberian area generally will become the  
wheat bowl of the world (but only if the soil is good enough).

There are many other examples of how a simple rise in temperature is  
not enough, and climate models show that much of the current  
population centres will be difficult places to live, and will consume  
more energy to match the adverse weather conditions that come with the  
change.

iT