From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Apr 10 2003 - 22:54:17 MDT
--- Steve Davies <steve365@btinternet.com> wrote:
> Steve Davies writes
>
> What the record shows
> > > is that climate change is good news for some, bad for others. So
> the
> > > Medieval Climate Optimum was pretty good if you were a Viking but
> disastrous
> > > for Dutchmen as it led to the huge flood in the 12th century that
> drowned
> > > two thirds of the low countries and created the Zuyder Zee (much
> of
> which is
> > > still there).
>
> Lee asks
>
> > How quickly did the inundation occur? I'm wondering if it would
> > be quite easy for the Dutch today to prevent something similar.
>
> It happened overnight (in 1153 if my memory is correct) as the result
> of a huge storm that smashed though the existing coastline. The Dutch
> today obviously have more tricks up their sleeve but you need to
> realise rising sealevel isn't the acute problem. It's rather the
> threat of much more frequent extreme weather events (100 year
> storms) which can cause massive floods, especially if combined
> with something like a high tide, backing up
> of the Rhine and Maas. Sure they can defend against such a risk but
> at very high capital cost.
Then any warming would not be a problem. The second half of the 20th
century had half as many severe hurricanes/cyclones worldwide as the
first half of the 20th. Since those claiming the sky is falling claim
the most warming occured in the second half of the 20th, it indicates
that warming reduces severe storms.
THis is quite logical, since the warming does not occur at the equator,
but at the poles. The reduced temperature differential between equator
and polar regions will naturally result in less severe storms. The
Dutch should be more worried if we have another Little Ice Age
(especially since the date you cite was at the beginning of that Age).
=====
Mike Lorrey
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
- Gen. John Stark
"Pacifists are Objectively Pro-Fascist." - George Orwell
"Treason doth never Prosper. What is the Reason?
For if it Prosper, none Dare call it Treason..." - Ovid
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