RE: Rising sea levels are going to mess with the internet

["Naslund, Steve" <SNaslund () medline com>]

Well, the problem might be that I am an old guy and remember very well in the 70s when the "scientific community" 
screamed at us about the coming ice age.  Next, we had global warming.  Now we just call it climate change because we 
just don't know which way it's going to go.  Those same anthropologists also know that in my area which is Illinois, it 
was once much hotter and we had Tyrannosaurus running around.  We also had ice ages that carved the Great Lakes that I 
am sitting next to.  All of that way before we were here.  Did we warm up the climate and prevent the coming ice age in 
the 70's or could it be that the Earth is still in the cycle of coming out of the last ice age?  We know the climate 
has changed without our input.  As an engineer I would like to know how we separate what would be happening without us 
from what effect we are having.  I am not denying that there are changes but I am not confident in what effect we have 
and whether our effect is counter or accelerating the normal trend.

So, I am not sure what is causing climate change but I am very sure that there will be major climate changes on Earth.  
Whether a species survives or not is a matter of whether they adapt.  

Steven Naslund

> Anthropologists say (there was a pretty good article on this in The
> Atlantic a year or two ago) that's what we (humanity) have done
> historically, adapted, eventually learned to eat acorns or rats or
> whatever*.
>
> And very little if anything to combat the basic problem even if we
> understood it well enough.
>
> We'll adapt and adapt because the problems tend to evolve slowly.
>
> Unfortunately I tend to think that's the likely outcome here simply
> because whatever we (more developed countries) do several billion
> people out there will undo faster because let's face it they want to
> eat regularly, have reliable electricity, etc. etc. etc.
>
> And a lot of what could be done works against their getting all that,
> at least if it's limited to their means.
>
> Perhaps not in theory.
>
> But call me when the G8 or G20 proposes to plunk down the many
> trillions it would likely cost to provide the rest of them with
> fertilizer and farming techniques and energy generation plants and so
> on which aren't contributing to the problem.
>
> Didn't India recently state that they won't even talk about slowing
> down the rate of increase (2nd derivative) of coal usage for at least
> ten years?
>
> Not picking on India, they have their reasons, but just trying to be
> realistic and move past these late-night dorm room bull sessions about
> how the world ought to work.
>
> * One significant exception was crop and field rotation which worked
> very well where it was possible.
>
> -- 
>        -Barry Shein
>
> Software Tool & Die    | bzs () TheWorld com             | http://www.TheWorld.com
> Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: +1 617-STD-WRLD       | 800-THE-WRLD
> The World: Since 1989  | A Public Information Utility | *oo*