Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Sea level rise; "People seem to think..."

Doggerland: Britain's Atlantis:

Projected coast line around Britain in 6500BC and earlier. Currently most Human population is situated near water and especially the Oceans. Probably then as well.

FTA:
The area was once the ‘real heartland’ of Europe and was hit by ‘a devastating tsunami', the researchers claim.
The wave was part of a larger process that submerged the low-lying area over the course of thousands of years.
...

'People seem to think rising sea levels are  a new thing - but it’s a cycle of Earth history that has happened many many times.'


Comment:
With the current debate over anthropogenic CO2 increases and future catastrophes, it always amazes me that people have picked the 1970's as the "ideal" climate which we must prevent from changing by massive taxes and regulations. The earth has been warming naturally since the last glacial maximum extent which occurred about 18000BC.  The Great Lakes and New York State were under massive ice sheets. It has warmed since then and Humans have adapted to the changes.   CO2 is plant food and to the extent it comes from 'fossil' fuel, it is returning carbon into the carbon cycle that once existed as plants and animals. During some interglacial periods, it was far warmer than present. Yet the earth still cooled enough to have an ice age.

What makes now so unusual that we think Human activity is able to change these cycles or that we shouldn't prepare to adapt in either direction to conditions that are historically precedented?