The sea ice in the arctic zone is melting, as the conditions of the sea change the permafrost is going to melt very rapidly (3.5 times greater than the average 21st century warming rates predicted in global climate models). The melting of the permafrost is going to release huge amount of CO2 into the atmosphere (increasing it from 30% to 100%), which will function as a strong positive feedback into the warming mechanism. The bottom line is that good times are coming as the permafrost melts [research, thanks to Open Mind].
As the permafrost melts the great plains of Siberia will be mild enough to grow cereals, solving the world’s food problem. The mighty rivers of Siberia will support hundreds of millions of people each (Egypt’s population is 70 million compared with Libya’s nine, all thanks to the river), this will solve the world’s overpopulation problem. The warming up of the northern hemisphere will cut the consumption of energy for heating that will elevate the world’s energy problem.
Of course the perfect weather of Little England (warm & wet temperate & moist) will be completely reversed (cold & dry extreme), which is unfortunate but they did have a few centuries of perfect weather that they successfully leveraged to become the world’s dominant power, let no one complain.
Also, all cities built on the shore will probably lose a few blocks and that should be a lesson for them: what you build on the sands, you lose to the waves. All the great cities in history were built well inland: Babel, Memphis, Thebes, Beijing, Delhi, Rome, Baghdad, Damascus, Paris, London, Moscow, Samarkand, Kyoto, Marrakech, Fes, Kiev, Sparta, Ancient Athens, Madrid, Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) and many others. The common attribute shared between all these cities: they were all capitals of great powers in their time.
Now let’s look at capitals built in the last few centuries (the same time England enjoyed perfect weather): St. Petersburg, New York, Sidney, Tokyo, Shanghai, Calcutta, Bombay, Dubai, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and many more. All of them built on the waterfront and at least five are built on marshes or swamps.
Some countries are already waking up to the foolishness of building permanent cities on impermanent grounds and have moved their capitals inland: Brazil moved to Brasília and Myanmar moved to Nay Pyi Taw (just in time to avoid a destructive hurricane).
Global warming is already here, the feedback mechanisms have already taken over, and there is nothing we can do about it. The opportunities opened up by global warming are much more than any damage it can ever do; those who think otherwise have lost their faith in humanity. It is a fallacy to look at the local consequences of a global phenomenon. It is the height of foolishness to claim that ice and snow is preferable to warmth and rain.
If the Maldives are sinking then its people should move to Oman, which will be flourishing thanks to the increased rainfall due to global warming (remember Gonu).
If the one third of the Netherlands that was part of the sea until they pumped it dry is going under, then its people should move to the other two thirds which is less densely populated and can easily contain the whole population of the country, but the Dutch will have to give up their subsidised agriculture including the sixteen million pigs they produce; a pig per capita and as much pigs as the whole of China!
If the American Midwest will be flooded frequently than people should stop living in the Mississippi flood plain and move to higher grounds (see Atlas Broken). If California will burn yearly than people should stop living in the middle of the wild shrub and either clear the land or move to the new invention: cities!
Global warming is already here and we should start adapting to it and we should start before the oil runs out; that would be a real problem. I say: pump CO2 into the atmosphere until palm trees grow in Magadan.
