Flooded Cities by 2013?

ENVIRONMENT - According to a new report given to the Canadian Parliament, the world's port cities will experience flooding in the summer of 2013 as the last arctic ice melts in the Canadian arctic and Greenland. See Arctic Ice to Vanish by 2013.

When that happens sea levels will rise approx. 7 meters (approx. 22 feet) and many of the world's port towns and cities will be flooded.

New roads and bridges will also have to be built as many coastal roads will be underwater. Transportation, tourism and many other industries will be harmed, to say nothing of all the houses that will suffer damage from flooding.

"2013 is starting to look as though it is a lot more reasonable as a prediction. But each year we've been wrong – each year we're finding that it's a little bit faster than expected," says scientist Warwick Vincent, one of the researchers who developed the prediction for the Canadian government. "We're losing, irreversibly, major features of the Canadian ice scape and that suggests that these more pessimistic models are really much closer to reality."

BUT ITS ALL A BIT UNBELIEVABLE

You see that's the problem with pessimistic predictions. Its rather hard to believe that we could actually be facing a global catastrophe such as is being predicted.

Governments especially are guilty of ignoring these predictions. The old adage "better safe than sorry" doesn't seem to ring true when it comes to governments.

Take the Bush Administration for example: When George W. Bush and the White House was warned the dykes in New Orleans needed repairs or else they could risk flooding during a hurricane, what did Bush do? He cut funding from the repair budget and used that money for the War in Iraq.

And then when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans the dykes broke and the rest is history.

You see therein lies the problem with governments regularly: When faced with the possibility of disaster many prefer to ignore the problem and hope it turns out to be false.

At this point its too late anyway. As the scientists in the new report point out, its already past the point where governments could do anything to stop melting sea ice. Its not a question of IF the ice will melt, but when.

See Also:
Rising Sea Levels
Climate Change will effect Economy
Ancient ice shelf snaps free from Canada
Global Warming in Russia & the North Atlantic
7 Environmental Problems That Are Worse Than We Thought
The Theory of Rapid Climate Change