What if Global Warming Melted All Ice Worldwide?

13 04 2007

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Picture: Get ready to Panic! Oroville, Willows, Marysville, and Sacramento will be underwater – the Sutter Buttes will be the only landmass in the very center of the valley.

“What If All the Ice Melts?” Myths and Realities is an article which features 3D computer generated images of what the globe would look like if all of the ice (both land and sea) on the planet melted, leading to a sealevel rise of around 66 meters.

The change shown in global dry land goes from about 132 million sq. kilometers to 128 million, and the analysis seems sound, making this article a sober and very useful counter to some of the more hysterical claims which has been circulated in relation to global warming.

Even if both the poles melted along with all the ice in Greenland, which is not likely to happen unless our orbit or sun changes dramatically, it would still take hundreds if not thousands of years for it to occur. That’s plenty of time to adapt. Sure we’d lose Florida, parts of Californiua’s Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys, Seattle, Portland, and Washington along with New York and Boston, but many new areas would now be habitable due to the change.

Here’s what the Sacramento Valley would look like city-wise based on elevations:

Some Valley Cities and their elevations compared to 66 meter sea level rise
Chico 75 meters waterfront property on the southwest side
Orland 78 meters waterfront property just south of town
Oroville 58 meters 8 meters underwater
Willows 41 meters 25 meters underwater
Red Bluff 106 meters 40 meters to go
Marysville 34 meters 32 meters underwater
Sacramento 7 meters 59 meters underwater




Discovery: Photosynthesis may be Quantum Effect Driven

13 04 2007

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PhysOrg has a summary of new research suggesting that the near instantaneous energy transfer achieved by photosynthesis may rely on quantum effects. From the article:

“Through photosynthesis, green plants and cyanobacteria are able to transfer sunlight energy to molecular reaction centers for conversion into chemical energy with nearly 100-percent efficiency. Speed is the key — the transfer of the solar energy takes place almost instantaneously so little energy is wasted as heat. How photosynthesis achieves this near instantaneous energy transfer is a long-standing mystery that may have finally been solved.”

If this holds, it may mean that we’ll be able to create artificial photosynthesis ourselves, and could be a huge gain for the solar power industry.