RE: Only nuclear power can now halt global warming

["Riely, Brian P." <brian.riely@ngc.com>]

My understanding is that the world was very hot at one time.  Water had to get to Greenland and there had to be some gravitational well that held the water in place.  It is not clear to me that what held the water in Greenland initially would not still hold the water.  Of course, you can argue that the gravitational well extends across the whole earth and there are no local wells (at least large local wells).  I guess your argument that my  analogy, does "not hold water" is based on the idea that if I place an ice cube on a piece of land then when the ice melts, there will be more water.  That argument does not address how the ice cube got there in the first place.  Also there is the argument about both the north and the south poles melting would cause the ocean levels to rise.  I read that people believe that  Antarctica is floating. If that is true, then my argument analogy "holds a

lot of water."  In anticipation of someone making the simplistic argument that as ice melts more water is added, I mention, "for example, the earth's surface has changed such that the gravitational potential that initially held the water in Greenland would no longer hold the water"  John, you did say something that make a lot of sense, "If I remember correctly, as glaciers melt, the landmass rises."  If the land mass rises, to me that says the depths of the oceans decreases, which implies, given the same volume of water, the level of the ocean increases.  



Too often people assume simple explanations not taking other factors into account.



Thanks for your comment.



Brian



-----Original Message-----

From: John Jacobus [mailto:crispy_bird@yahoo.com]

Sent: Monday, May 24, 2004 3:53 PM

To: Riely, Brian P.; John_Sukosky@DOM.COM; radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu

Subject: RE: Only nuclear power can now halt global warming





If I remember correctly, as glaciers melt, the

landmass rises. Thus, there is a volume increase in

the oceans as melted waters are added to it.  Also,

you analogy, does "not hold water."  Water should be

added to the glass as melting glaciers would add water

to the oceans.



I ran across this detailed study about glaciers

http://www.tufts.edu/as/wright_center/fellows/zachfinal.pdf



--- "Riely, Brian P." <brian.riely@ngc.com> wrote:

> In the reference article, it states:

> "...the melting of the Greenland ice sheet, which

> will raise global sea levels significantly..."

> 

>  On a simplistic level, when a chuck of ice that is

> floating in a glass of water melts, the water level

> does not rise; so, why would the melting of the

> Greenland ice sheet cause sea levels to rise

> significantly everywhere. I can think of several

> scenarios where the above would be true--for

> example, the earth's surface has changed such that

> the gravitational potential that initially held the

> water in Greenland would no longer hold the

> water--but they would be just made up stories.  Does

> anyone know the reason why professor Lovelock 's

> statement is true?

> 

> Brian

> 

> -----Original Message-----

> From: John_Sukosky@DOM.COM

> [mailto:John_Sukosky@DOM.COM]

> Sent: Monday, May 24, 2004 11:57 AM

> To: radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu

> Subject: Only nuclear power can now halt global

> warming

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> Maybe this will cause reasonable people to re-think

> an unreasonable

> position they may hold on nuclear power:

> 

>

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=524313

> 

> Leading environmentalist urges radical rethink on

> climate change

> By Michael McCarthy Environment Editor

> 24 May 2004

> 

> 

> Global warming is now advancing so swiftly that only

> a massive expansion of

> nuclear power as the world's main energy source can

> prevent it overwhelming

> civilisation, the scientist and celebrated Green

> guru, James Lovelock,

> says.

> 

> His call will cause huge disquiet for the

> environmental movement. It has

> long considered the 84-year-old radical thinker

> among its greatest heroes,

> and sees climate change as the most important issue

> facing the world, but

> it has always regarded opposition to nuclear power

> as an article of faith.

> Last night the leaders of both Greenpeace and

> Friends of the Earth rejected

> his call.

> 

> Professor Lovelock, who achieved international fame

> as the author of the

> Gaia hypothesis, the theory that the Earth keeps

> itself fit for life by the

> actions of living things themselves, was among the

> first researchers to

> sound the alarm about the threat from the greenhouse

> effect.

> 

> He was in a select group of scientists who gave an

> initial briefing on

> climate change to Margaret Thatcher's Conservative

> Cabinet at 10 Downing

> Street in April 1989.

> 

> He now believes recent climatic events have shown

> the warming of the

> atmosphere is proceeding even more rapidly than the

> scientists of the UN's

> Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

> thought it would, in their

> last report in 2001.

> 

> On that basis, he says, there is simply not enough

> time for renewable

> energy, such as wind, wave and solar power - the

> favoured solution of the

> Green movement - to take the place of the coal, gas

> and oil-fired power

> stations whose waste gas, carbon dioxide (CO2), is

> causing the atmosphere

> to warm.

> 

> He believes only a massive expansion of nuclear

> power, which produces

> almost no CO2, can now check a runaway warming which

> would raise sea levels

> disastrously around the world, cause climatic

> turbulence and make

> agriculture unviable over large areas. He says fears

> about the safety of

> nuclear energy are irrational and exaggerated, and

> urges the Green movement

> to drop its opposition.

> 

> In today's Independent, Professor Lovelock says he

> is concerned by two

> climatic events in particular: the melting of the

> Greenland ice sheet,

> which will raise global sea levels significantly,

> and the episode of

> extreme heat in western central Europe last August,

> accepted by many

> scientists as unprecedented and a direct result of

> global warming.

> 

> These are ominous warning signs, he says, that

> climate change is speeding,

> but many people are still in ignorance of this.

> Important among the reasons

> is "the denial of climate change in the US, where

> governments have failed

> to give their climate scientists the support they

> needed".

> 

> He compares the situation to that in Europe in 1938,

> with the Second World

> War looming, and nobody knowing what to do. The

> attachment of the Greens to

> renewables is "well-intentioned but misguided", he

> says, like the Left's

> 1938 attachment to disarmament when he too was a

> left-winger.

> 

> He writes today: "I am a Green, and I entreat my

> friends in the movement to

> drop their wrongheaded objection to nuclear energy."

> 

> His appeal, which in effect is asking the Greens to

> make a bargain with the

> devil, is likely to fall on deaf ears, at least at

> present.

> 

> "Lovelock is right to demand a drastic response to

> climate change," Stephen

> Tindale, executive director of Greenpeace UK, said

> last night. "He's right

> to question previous assumptions.

> 

> "But he's wrong to think nuclear power is any part

> of the answer. Nuclear

> creates enormous problems, waste we don't know what

> to do with; radioactive

> emissions; unavoidable risk of accident and

> terrorist attack."

> 

> Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth,

> said: "Climate change and

> radioactive waste both pose deadly long-term

> threats, and we have a moral

> duty to minimise the effects of both, not to choose

> between them."

> 

> 

> John M. Sukosky, CHP

> Dominion

> Surry Power Station

> (757)-365-2594 (Tieline: 8-798-2594)

> 

>

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=====

+++++++++++++++++++

"We cannot escape danger, or the fear of danger, by crawling into bed and pulling the covers over our heads."

-- Franklin Delano Roosevelt



-- John

John Jacobus, MS

Certified Health Physicist

e-mail:  crispy_bird@yahoo.com





	

		

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