Monday, July 21, 2008

It Strikes me Funny: How old will you be when Antarctica melts?

In my next column (online this Thursday) in The Londoner I ask the questions:

Will I be alive when Greenland and Antarctica completely melt?

Will I want to be? 

Based on current information about the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere at present (387 parts per million) and annual increases I calculated that Greenland and Antarctica would melt about two weeks before my 72nd birthday.

I also wrote that things could change for the better or worse.

Consumption of fossil fuels related to our excessive consumption of goods and services could decrease or increase based on our own actions.


[On the beach at Port Bruce, not Antarctica: photo by GAH]

Readers may surmise from final statements re China’s high production of coal-fired energy plants and our own wasteful habits in Deforest City that I’m leaning toward the belief I’ll be younger than 72 when Antarctica disappears.

How old will you be?

Click here for another post re Antarctica and Greenland.

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