Global warming maps
What will your hometown look like as the oceans start to rise? Alex Tingle has used google maps and added flood information.
You can scroll and change the elevation. Terrific educational tool and rather scary. Give it a try and play God here.
The image here is a screen shot of Tokyo at elevation set to 7 meters. Click to enlarge. Discussion here.
Comments
Of course we could all decide that global warming (and rising sea levels) is not a good idea, and decide to cut down on green house gas emissions. At least the Kyoto Protocol was a first step...
But are we really ready to give up the car, the air conditioner, the vacations by jet planes? Where do we draw the line...?
An interesting proposal is being promoted by journalist/educator Richard Heinberg. Called the Oil Depletion Protocol, it was written by Dr. Colin Campbell, the UK petroleum geologist who started Association for the Study of Peak Oil (of which your countryman Kjell Aleklett is President.)
Anyway, the protocol dovetails nicely with addressing global warming as it looks not only at reducing oil and gas use, but also simultaneously reducing green house emission (ie, no fair burning coal instead). It seems to be a practical, gradual, long term solution.
The website is Oil Depletion Protocol.
http://www9.ocn.ne.jp/~aslan/
The Oil Depletion Protocol is a must read. Thanks!
Never had the pleasure of meeting him.
Grain
China's emergence as a major corn importer could aggravate the tightness of the global corn market, adding to the pressure caused by growing US demand for ethanol as an alternative fuel and making it hard for Japan to secure enough corn at low cost.
"If China becomes a net corn importer when exportable US corn declines, that will cause serious problems," said Marubeni Research Institute director Akio Shibata, adding that China could become a net importer as early as next year.
Japan, which consumes a massive 16 million tonnes of corn a year, is totally dependent on imports, sourcing over 90 percent of its supply from the United States.