Yes! Isn't that amazing? I printed it out to bring to my environmental studies class tomorrow.
We have, naturally, gone though global heating and cooling cycles, and yes, volcanoes can help cause them. But this one's caused by us, mostly, and is too fast -- it's just too fast. And we aren't ready.
"The Northeast Passage, also known as the Northern Sea Route, would be open between Japan and Scandinavia for two to three months in summer and early fall, the commission reported."
"The northwestern path through the ice would cut the travel distance between Europe and Asia by 6,800 miles, compared with the standard route through the Panama Canal. For supertankers, which now must sail all the way around Cape Horn at the tip of South America, the trip would be shortened by 11,800 miles."
Sorry Japan, the polar ice is melting and will be flooding your coastal homes within a few decades - but hey, at least you'll be able to take a pleasure cruise around the Arctic Circle to Norway for your holidays! Just don't get in the way to the two-mile-long tankers full of hydrocarbons we're going to send up into the atmosphere even cheaper now!
While it's nice to see discussion of the effects both good and bad, I think something that discusses benefits without more that a cursory nod to the dangers has an unhealthy bias.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2002-11-11 10:35 am (UTC)We have, naturally, gone though global heating and cooling cycles, and yes, volcanoes can help cause them. But this one's caused by us, mostly, and is too fast -- it's just too fast. And we aren't ready.
I found a couple of related links last night, too:
"Scientists working for the United Nations are developing an early warning system for areas threatened by climate-related natural disasters."
"Human actions worsen natural disasters"
no subject
Date: 2002-11-11 07:05 pm (UTC)"The northwestern path through the ice would cut the travel distance between Europe and Asia by 6,800 miles, compared with the standard route through the Panama Canal. For supertankers, which now must sail all the way around Cape Horn at the tip of South America, the trip would be shortened by 11,800 miles."
Sorry Japan, the polar ice is melting and will be flooding your coastal homes within a few decades - but hey, at least you'll be able to take a pleasure cruise around the Arctic Circle to Norway for your holidays! Just don't get in the way to the two-mile-long tankers full of hydrocarbons we're going to send up into the atmosphere even cheaper now!
While it's nice to see discussion of the effects both good and bad, I think something that discusses benefits without more that a cursory nod to the dangers has an unhealthy bias.