The ‘Big Freeze’: arctic Britain in February
2004
(PA/EMPICS)
The 'O' zone
Okay, so you don’t see yourself as a long-haired green hippie,
living off pulses and nuts in a purpose-built solar-powered commune.
Why should your way of life be interrupted by flag-waving ’save
the world’ zealots? But your life will be different if
climate change continues.
Enjoy skiing? How about this. The Larsen B ice shelf in Antarctica
fell into the seas in March 2002. Next stop, your favourite ski
resort. How about waving bye-bye to the likes of Venice, New York
or Tokyo as they disappear under water? Three cities you can score
off your ‘must visit’ list.
Why? Well, imagine Greenland as a massive ice sheet – that’s
what it is, effectively. It comprises enough water to raise the
sea level by about six or seven metres if it melts. What, don’t
you think it’ll melt? Well put this one in your pipe and smoke
it. Eight out of ten of the warmest years on record fell in the
last decade. Okay, I won’t go into the science bit … but experts
have formulated their theories following extensive research, using
the sun as a giant barometer, checking the world’s oceans and
doing some serious digging in Siberia. They found that temperatures
didn’t follow the slow, predictable pattern they’d expected, but
dropped suddenly and catastrophically. Britain, said one, could
turn into Alaska at the flick of a switch.
Want some more stats? Here’s a good one. One thousand schools
were closed, and air, sea and land traffic ground to a halt, in
February last year when snow and extreme temperatures plunged
Britain into arctic conditions. In central and south-east America,
the three Ds – death, damage and destruction – were caused when
more than 300 tornadoes hit in the first two weeks of May 2003.
And in the same year, the hottest European summer caused more
than 20,000 deaths. |
