Letting global warming happen?

I'm no expert on world climate, nor am i an expert on what would happen if the sea levels and temperature did rise (would there be more hurricanes and cyclones? how many people would be affected? where would they go? etc etc), and to be honest, this could be totally wrong, so if we keep that in mind...

..from what I've read about global warming if we keep going the way we are, we will have to deal with a sea level rise of about two metres over the next hundred years or so...

in countries with strong infrastructure, that's probably not going to be a massively big deal, especially if it happens over decades and action can be planned in advance etc..

however.. in third world countries a lot of people live on low lying river flood plains as that's where their food is grown, these places already flood nearly every year anyway, it's expected!

but, a significant portion of the world lives in these areas, so if the sea levels go up, they will have to move inland or perish! :( Some of these low lying countries are already over crowded, a huge push inland of millions of people could lead to famines and wars. For instance, there's not much high ground in Bangladesh at all.

Land areas effected by Sea level rising

also affected would be low lying regions of Indonesia, Thailand, Egypt, Pakistan, Iraq, and all of these places have high population densities already.. moving these people elsewhere would be an extreme problem to those affected.

from the various speculations on the interwebz, the average population that would be affected if the sea level were to somehow rise two metres today, is about fifty million people, which would probably mean that another fifty million people would be affected by having to share the land with these new arrivals ... soo lets say a hundred million people world wide would be affected ... not a small amount of people.

..., but if we ignore the displacement of millions of people for a moment, if the temperature does go up, doesn't that mean there will be more moisture in the air?

now correct me if my high school science is rusty, but hotter air can hold more moisture, and with the temperature up, more water will evaporate from the oceans, and with more water in the air, it stands to reason that it's going to rain more often, right?

now I know that as the temp goes up so does the temperature at which it can rain also goes up as well, but hello, moisture into the air during the day, wouldn't that all rain down at night time? hmmm... maybe i'm just being stupid

Water vapour at wikipedia

sure we don't want all those people along coast lines to have to move or have them stomped upon by mother nature, but what is happening to this planet?

it's *drying* up isn't it?

There are deserts that haven't seen rain in decades on this planet, don't we *want* more rain? I think there is a desert in Chile that hasn't gotten rain in a hundred years!!

Here's a good article about global temperature change

http://www.pittmag.pitt.edu/mar96/m96classesh.html

Now i'm not saying that if it rains more, it's going to rain on the spots that need it, but it's a start is it not?

So if the temperature goes up, sure we'll get more storms and floods, but if it brings rain to the frikking desert doesn't that mean that trees and grass can grow again, thus the deserts will *stop* growing and allowing more rain forests to grow??

Now i am certainly not saying go and dirty up the planet and *make* the temperature rise on purpose, but if we have more rain, doesn't that mean we can feed more people? Clean drinking water is a major problem in Africa, but it if rains often enough, those local communities can store their own drinking water and rivers will flow again bringing fresh water.

What if the temperature were to drop, wouldn't that be worse? Aren't places cold enough already? If the temp stays the same, aren't the deserts just going to keep getting bigger anyway? The Rain Forests shrank during the Ice Ages, there's some evidence that the Amazon turned into savannah grass land.

Here's a graph of temp/carbon/dust levels over the last 400,000 years


just what sort of conditions did the Amazon and Congo and all the rain forests form under anyway?? do you think it was during the ice age? bzzz! no!! where are all the rain forests? near the equator, right? where it's hot!

Some cool info about the biggest rain forest, the Amazon...


so if we have more areas with hot enough conditions to suit rain forests, don't we then create more natural carbon absorbers? not to mention that more ocean surface area from the higher sea levels means more area to absorb the carbon and more moisture in the air means more clouds and more clouds means more heat is reflected back into space in the first place...

the planet self regulates, but like i said at the start, i have only a very basic understanding of what would happen long term, but if the temperature goes up, it *will* mean that we lose coastal areas to the ocean, but won't we also "gain" inland areas?

isn't a whole chunk of the planet uninhabitable because it's too frinking cold or dry to live there? Imagine if Antarctica became suitable for *farm* land? I'm sure Siberia could take a few refugees too, gawd, why don't they move Bangladesh to Siberia?

of course if the temp goes up, it's likely that the animals that are accustomed to having the wilderness to themselves will not enjoy the spread of mankind onto their turf but sheesh, i can't think of everything. but if each country had their own sufficient supply of water for everyone, isn't that one basic need that is met? don't people go to war over water supplies?

lack of clean water means people are forced to risk drinking dirty water, drinking dirty water can lead to dysentery, which leads to death if not treated. lack of any water at all means farms don't get watered, and if no there is food, people go hungry and eventually die...

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the temperature of the planet could stand to go up a degree or two........

if there *is* a conspiracy about global warming, wouldn't it be more beneficial to those shady "powers that be" new world order types to *keep* the massive populations pre-occupied with their squabbles over basic needs? Maybe when it gets really bad they will come to the "rescue" and form their world government on the premise that since the world is in crisis because of an extreme lack of clean water, that the richer nations *must* share resources with other nations, and foot the expense of getting it there?

I'm sorry to say it, but if Africa keeps going the way it is, then aren't we going to end up with another massive famine again? actually it's already bad

This cycle will keep repeating, and eventually countries will need to look out for their own people as their own natural resources dwindle.

so I say *let* the temperature go up, podgy fat arses like me would have to lose some weight to handle the increase in temperature but this is a good thing.. and people are bound to bitch about having mozzie season all year, or even finding out what a mozzie is in the first place,

and what are we worrying about global warming for anyway, if it gets to be too much, we can just call up China!

Chinese scientists artificially induced the second major snowstorm to wreak havoc in Beijing this season, state media said, reigniting debate over the practice of tinkering with Mother Nature.