Teleidoscope

Wed, Nov 22, 2006

Climate and Ecological Change

Posted at 7:11 pm MST to Current Events

Getting ready to work on the story that has been growing in my head.

In the past day or so I've done Google searches for pictures and information on mules, donkeys, Asian Wild Asses (onagers) and Morgan horses, Turkish and Armenian given names, and possible future coastline changes due to the icecaps melting. Also the old Silk Road overland trade routes. (I'm not sure the overland routes will be in the story.)

Europe must have steep coasts except for the Netherlands and Venice and a few localized spots elsewhere (London, for example) Even a 6 meter increase in ocean depth doesn't make a lot of difference there, while it prety much wipes out the Eastern Seabord of North America.

Of course, if the Gulf Stream shuts down when the Arctic Ocean goes ice-free, Europe is going to have another set of problems. I'm glad I saw Venice when there was only a few inches of water on St. Mark's Square at high tide... and I kind of hate to think of Greece and Istanbul dealing with Newfoundland winters.

It's really hard to judge things from orbital distances, so I may be misreading things. When Google Earth first came out, I looked at my house, and the Denver/Boulder area, and it looked inhabited. (I could see my birdbath! No one else would know what that teeny white spec was, but I knew.)

I also looked at the area of Connecticut where I grew up, and all I saw was trees. I remember walking in the Connecticut woods and seeing stone walls everywhere, because the woods were cornfields 100 to 150 years ago and they needed to do something with all the rocks. And now it's all turning back to scrubby forest.

And the deer are taking over the place, and coyotes are moving in fromn the west...

A bit of trivia: in those fountains in Japanese gardens where water fills up a piece of bamboo until it tips and spills out, and the bamboo falls back down with a "bonk" sound, part of the original reason for the noise-maker was to scare the deer away. I wonder if it would work in Colorado. (I wonder if it worked in Japan: it may be like squirrel-proof bird-feeders, where making the effort makes you feel good but the squirrels don't usually go hungry).

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