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The
symptomatic
consequences of global warming also lead to derivative consequences that need to be
elicited to reflect the seriousness of the matter of the global
warming. Actually, the rising of the sea level is in fact a
derivative consequence of the melting of the polar ice caps.
However, there are also hidden derivative consequences of this melting of the polar ice
caps that can be surmised from consideration of the science involve
in the primary consequences.
First, consider that the melting
of the polar ice caps changes the distribution of the water masses
on the body of the planet Earth. This distribution is bound to
impact the rotation of the Earth in manners the consequences of
which have not yet been surmised.
The reality of rising sea level,
of course, from the knowledge of hydrostatics, is that the weights
of water above the Continental plates under the Oceans have
increased dramatically. Consequently, these plates now suffer higher
stresses and so adjust to these added weights by undergoing,
as per geologic sciences, more frequent movements against the plates
under the land masses. Inferentially, these movements will cause
several earthquakes in the years to come, and to some extent even
will occur in sections of the planet not always known for
earthquakes.
By this reasoning the
earthquakes of 2005 and 2007 that have visited the islands
of Indonesian and most recently visited Myanmar [or Burma] - causing
the staggering thousands of deaths - can not be entirely divorced from the possibility of being the
consequence of these global warming effect.
Attendant to the movement of the
Continental Plates, of course, is that the movement also forces a
sliding under of one plate beneath another at different sections of the planet
earth. These subductions are, as per geologic science, the cause of volcanic eruptions. Evidently, the increased
movement of the plates and the consequential subduction of the
plates will cause more volcanic eruptions than have been experienced
previously. Volcanoes that have heretofore remained dormant for
years will most likely also erupt in the near future. One such example is the recent
eruption of Chaiten
volcano in southern Chile in South America that otherwise has been
dormant for excess of nine thousands (9000) years.
There is, however, an even more
serious aspect to the rising sea level than is obvious to most
people. Basically, the rising of the sea level brings about more
surface area of water from which evaporation of water into the
Earth's Atmosphere may now occur, and most likely is already
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the water content of the atmosphere. The science supporting this
assertion is simply self-evident: The temperature of the earth has
increased and at the same time the surface area for evaporation has
increased; and both of these impacts the moisture content in the
upper atmosphere.
Though not obvious, there is
in fact a form of vicious cycle inherent in this development of
extraordinary evaporation of the sea water. However, to appreciate
this impact, recall is made of the understanding of the constituents
of greenhouses gases held responsible for the global warming as
including water vapor.
The vicious cycle is
postulated to obtain as
follows: A mixture of Carbon dioxide and water vapor in the
atmosphere causes increases of the temperature, which then cause a
melting of the polar ice caps resulting in increase of water
evaporation surface, as a result of which more water vapor is pumped
into the atmosphere, and therefore resulting in higher temperature
accelerating the melting of the polar ice caps as well as more
voluminous evaporation of the water, resulting in more greenhouse
gases in the atmosphere.
Of course, the above assertions
about the vicious cycle can be argued to be inapplicable on the
grounds that periodic rainfalls, albeit very heavy sometimes,
eliminates the support conditions necessary for the vicious cycle to
prevail. However, such argument overlooks the situation that the
continuous increase in temperature will gradually increase the
equilibrium content of water vapor in the atmosphere at which rainfall occurs. As such the water vapor content in the atmosphere will
in fact increase as asserted above. Further this equilibrium will
continue to shift as the temperature increases, due to the vicious
cyclic effect, takes hold in full force.
So far, the considerations have
focused on the impact of water vapor as a greenhouse gas. The other
greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, also impacts the earth very
substantially. In fact, not even considered at the moment is also
the possibility of reactions between the water vapor and the carbon
dioxide at high concentrations under conditions of High Energy
[atmospheric] reactions caused by lightening.
In any event, while the rate of
increase of the water vapor is mitigated by periodic rainfalls, the
effect of carbon dioxide suffers no such Nature-driven mitigating
effect.
The impact of the carbon dioxide
therefore as greenhouse gas is fully felt by planet Earth. By
interactivity then, the augmentation of the impact
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of water vapor as a greenhouse gas, due to the contribution of the heating effect of
the carbon dioxide is entirely unmitigated. In recognition of this
situation engineering and natural scientist have been working to
develop greenhouse gas mitigating technologies
for the
immediate mitigation of the effect of carbon dioxide.
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