Peoples Republic of South Devon

What a relief

December 9th, 2007

Posted by Cptn

Given the current climate, rising sea levels will probably be seen as a message from ‘God’ - a bit like what educated people are calling ‘the Noah’s Ark Myth’. But according to new research, that anti-deluvian [sic] phenomenon kick-started the European agrarian economy (that’s farming to you).

Around 8,000 years ago the North American Ice Sheet melted, increasing global sea levels by about 1.4 metres (around the same as contemporary predictions) and flooded the Black Sea, forcing around 145,000 clever farming types west into the hunter-gatherer communities, taking their culture with them. Et voila.

Professor Chris Turney of the University of Exeter, lead author of the paper, told a damp PRSD: “This research shows how rising sea levels can cause massive social change. 8,000 years on, are we any better placed to deal with rising sea levels? The latest estimates suggest that by AD 2050, millions of people will be displaced each year by rising sea levels. For those people living in coastal communities, the omen isn’t good.”

And, with that in mind, Greenhouse Britain, which looks at the environmental, political and economic challenges of rising sea levels caused by climate change, has extended its run at the CCANW until Sunday January 20.

Its central feature is a multimedia video projection onto a giant relief model of mainland Britain onto which one will see the waters gradually redraw the coastline.

Entry Filed under: Environment, Society