The Flooded EarthThe Flooded Earth
Our Future in a World Without Ice Caps
Title rated 3.8 out of 5 stars, based on 17 ratings(17 ratings)
Book, 2010
Current format, Book, 2010, , All copies in use.Book, 2010
Current format, Book, 2010, , All copies in use. Offered in 0 more formatsExamines the science of higher sea levels as a result of melting ice caps and the impact it will have on our planet and civilization in the future through detailed descriptions of the earth's appearance in 2050, 2100, 2300 and beyond.
Examines the science of higher sea levels as a result of melting ice caps and the impact it will have on the planet and civilization through detailed descriptions of the earth's appearance in 2050, 2100, 2300, and beyond.
By 2050: the sea will rise by 2 to 3 feet. Wealthy coastal cities will fight the rising water with dykes and levees; others will lose their underground infrastructure (including electric and fiber optic systems), and face building collapses.
By 2300: the sea will rise by 65 feet. As Antarctica melts, massive floating icebergs will interfere with shipping in the southern hemisphere. The world's geography will change drastically, featuring new rivers and lakes where they never before existed.
By 2500-5000: the sea will achieve its maximum height. Most formerly coastal cities will no longer exist at all. Massive migrations will take place, all deltas and low-lying agricultural areas will have been wiped from the map, and the newly de-iced Greenland and Antarctica will be important farmlands. Humans will have to cope with the spread of tropical diseases like Malaria and Dengue Fever, and the possibility of runaway mass extinctions.
Sea Level Rise Will be an Unavoidable Part of our Future, no matter what we do. Even if we stopped all carbon dioxide emissions today, the seas will rise three feet by 2050 and nine feet by 2100. This---not drought, species extinction, or excessive heat waves---will be the most dramatic effect of global warming.
The effects of three feet of sea-level rise will be massive. Nine feet will be catastrophic. Incursions of salt into the water table will destroy most of our best agricultural land---for instance, the Central Valley of California---and corrosion will devour the electrical and fiber-optic systems of coastal cities, as well as our roads and bridges. Amsterdam, Miami, Venice, and other cities, might have to be abandoned. The melting of the ice caps will not be a slow trickle of water into the sea; it will release armadas of icebergs that will make shipping in the Southern Ocean hazardous or impossible. As icebound regions melt, new sources of oil, gas, minerals, and arable land will also be revealed---as will fierce geopolitical battles over who owns the rights to them.
In The Flooded Earth, species extinction expert Peter D. Ward describes in intricate detail what our world will look like in 2050, 2100, 2300, and beyond. In this blueprint for a foreseeable future, Ward also explains what politicians and policy makers around the world should be doing now to head off the worst consequences of an inevitable transformation, including the complete melting of the ice sheets, stagnant oceans, and greenhouse extinction.
Writing for general readers, Ward (biology and earth and spaces sciences, U. of Washington-Seattle) projects the consequences over the next few centuries of the impending and accelerating rise of the oceans due to global warming. He begins with how sea level change is happening now, and the geological record of past sea level changes. Then he discusses human population change, carbon dioxide, global warming, the impact of rising sea levels on agriculture, continental ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica and how they formed and will melt, previous epochs without ice sheets, and potential fixes for rising seas. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Rising sea levels will not extinguish humanity, but they will transform human life as we know it. An eminent scientist explains what our world will look like.
Sea level rise will happen no matter what we do. Even if we stopped all carbon dioxide emissions today, the seas would rise one meter by 2050 and three meters by 2100. This?not drought, species extinction, or excessive heat waves?will be the most catastrophic effect of global warming. And it won’t simply redraw our coastlines?agriculture, electrical and fiber optic systems, and shipping will be changed forever. As icebound regions melt, new sources of oil, gas, minerals, and arable land will be revealed, as will fierce geopolitical battles over who owns the rights to them.
Examines the science of higher sea levels as a result of melting ice caps and the impact it will have on the planet and civilization through detailed descriptions of the earth's appearance in 2050, 2100, 2300, and beyond.
By 2050: the sea will rise by 2 to 3 feet. Wealthy coastal cities will fight the rising water with dykes and levees; others will lose their underground infrastructure (including electric and fiber optic systems), and face building collapses.
By 2300: the sea will rise by 65 feet. As Antarctica melts, massive floating icebergs will interfere with shipping in the southern hemisphere. The world's geography will change drastically, featuring new rivers and lakes where they never before existed.
By 2500-5000: the sea will achieve its maximum height. Most formerly coastal cities will no longer exist at all. Massive migrations will take place, all deltas and low-lying agricultural areas will have been wiped from the map, and the newly de-iced Greenland and Antarctica will be important farmlands. Humans will have to cope with the spread of tropical diseases like Malaria and Dengue Fever, and the possibility of runaway mass extinctions.
Sea Level Rise Will be an Unavoidable Part of our Future, no matter what we do. Even if we stopped all carbon dioxide emissions today, the seas will rise three feet by 2050 and nine feet by 2100. This---not drought, species extinction, or excessive heat waves---will be the most dramatic effect of global warming.
The effects of three feet of sea-level rise will be massive. Nine feet will be catastrophic. Incursions of salt into the water table will destroy most of our best agricultural land---for instance, the Central Valley of California---and corrosion will devour the electrical and fiber-optic systems of coastal cities, as well as our roads and bridges. Amsterdam, Miami, Venice, and other cities, might have to be abandoned. The melting of the ice caps will not be a slow trickle of water into the sea; it will release armadas of icebergs that will make shipping in the Southern Ocean hazardous or impossible. As icebound regions melt, new sources of oil, gas, minerals, and arable land will also be revealed---as will fierce geopolitical battles over who owns the rights to them.
In The Flooded Earth, species extinction expert Peter D. Ward describes in intricate detail what our world will look like in 2050, 2100, 2300, and beyond. In this blueprint for a foreseeable future, Ward also explains what politicians and policy makers around the world should be doing now to head off the worst consequences of an inevitable transformation, including the complete melting of the ice sheets, stagnant oceans, and greenhouse extinction.
Writing for general readers, Ward (biology and earth and spaces sciences, U. of Washington-Seattle) projects the consequences over the next few centuries of the impending and accelerating rise of the oceans due to global warming. He begins with how sea level change is happening now, and the geological record of past sea level changes. Then he discusses human population change, carbon dioxide, global warming, the impact of rising sea levels on agriculture, continental ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica and how they formed and will melt, previous epochs without ice sheets, and potential fixes for rising seas. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Rising sea levels will not extinguish humanity, but they will transform human life as we know it. An eminent scientist explains what our world will look like.
Sea level rise will happen no matter what we do. Even if we stopped all carbon dioxide emissions today, the seas would rise one meter by 2050 and three meters by 2100. This?not drought, species extinction, or excessive heat waves?will be the most catastrophic effect of global warming. And it won’t simply redraw our coastlines?agriculture, electrical and fiber optic systems, and shipping will be changed forever. As icebound regions melt, new sources of oil, gas, minerals, and arable land will be revealed, as will fierce geopolitical battles over who owns the rights to them.
In The Flooded Earth, species extinction expert Peter Ward describes in intricate detail what our world will look like in 2050, 2100, 2300, and beyond?a blueprint for a foreseeable future. Ward also explains what politicians and policymakers around the world should be doing now to head off the worst consequences of an inevitable transformation.
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- New York : Basic Books, c2010.
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