From: CurtAdams@aol.com
Date: Sun Jul 28 2002 - 15:37:51 MDT
In a message dated 7/27/02 22:03:59, kevin.bluck@mail.com writes:
>The situation in Western Antarctia is precarious, geologically speaking. It
>is very active geothermally. Much of the Western ice sheet is grounded on
>bedrock that is below sea level.
>It is unclear what effect global warming might have on such a process.
>It
>may in fact be irrelevant, and a suitably large eruption would cause this
>catastrophe even if we somehow completely eliminate human impact on the
>climate. On the other hand, maybe human impact will be the final straw.
>We don't really know.
Actually we do know that even with global warming Antarctic temperatures
remain far below freezing and in any case it takes a long time for a
temperature change to penetrate thick ice. Definitely in this case, human
welfare is maximized by increasing our ability to tolerate rapid sea-level
fluctuations. Any costly anti-global warming policy would be
couterproductive.
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