When the Antartica melts completely in 20 years time.

jimi

jimi

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Will it leave an attractive cruising area like the West Coast of Scotland or a pile of cwap like the mudholes of Easten England?
 
The good news is that being scoured by ice for millennia, the antarctic continent will look like Slartibartfarst's master work, i.e. all fjords and bare rock, with very little tide. The sun will shine all summer long so it will be very warm as well. The major drawback for the UK is that global sea levels will rise by at least 2000 metres, so the only land left in the British isles will be Wales and the central Scottish Islands, or mountains as we call them today. This could have a serious effect on the property prices in the south, but on the other hand, as the Solent will effectively then stretch from Swansea to Edinburgh, the potential for more marinas will be vastly increased. Buy shares in MDL now, I'd say.

The other disadvantage is that the Antarctic mainland will be vastly reduced in area, resulting in millions of homeless penguins. Now, while generations of Antarctic explorers and scientists have found them actually quite cute, especially after the long austral winter, they are in reality stroppy little buggers with a penchant for crapping everywhere and liable to give you a nasty peck in the kneecap. Or worse, if you are vertically challenged. These penguins are likely to find their way north, looking for rocky outcrops to inhabit, e.g. the remaining bits of the British Isles. The best course of action is to begin the domestication of the Leopoard seal now, so that their numbers can be kept in check.

Hope this helps.
 
Forgive me for being geograpically inept, but if the Antartic melts, surely the arctic cap will as well!

Therefore if I train a Leopard seal for the penguins heading north, wht do i do about Polar Bears heading south!!! Surely they are even more stroppy than Penguins!?

In thoery I should start looking for a Scottish Croft as I currently live in Norfolk!!!
 
Still put 40% of our village under water at high tide, even worse, one pub already gets cut off at spring high, with the increase it may cut off the second pub.

Brian
 
Suspect they'll both die of heat stroke before this marriage made in heaven happens. If you read the guardian article then the melting of the artic ice cap will lead to more efficient marine traffic routeing between Europe and the Pacific via the North POle. One othe benefit might be the possibility of another RTW sailing record, Antartica to Antartica via the North Pole!
 
There are lots of waders for Polar bears: Curlews, redshanks, Godwits... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif .... it is said that the Polar bear only recognises two types of animal: Polar bears, and "Prey".
 
Geography was never my strong point.

Actually, being slightly more serious for a moment, I believe current thinking is for the Arctic ocean to melt in the next 50-70 years, resulting iin zero rise in sea level. That much is a foregone conclusion. This will be followed by the Greenland ice cap. The sea level rise this causes will vary, apparently the presence of the ice cap itself causes slightly higher sea levels around Greenland so North America and North West Europe will suffer the least. Mind you, it may only be completely ice free in the summer, and it will still be pretty nippy that far north.

Antarctica isn't thought to be likely to melt completely, although the "Western" antarctic ice shelf may go completely over the next hundred years (or more), as it has done at regular intervals in the last few aeons. The much larger "Eastern" antarctic ice shield is thought to be more stable.
 
Apparently the reason Antartica wo'nt melt completely is because of the high altitude of its mountains. Forecasts are for areas around sea level to be completely ice free .. and probably sooner than 50 to 70 years
 
----Quote'' even worse, one pub already gets cut off at spring high''-----

Sounds rather good. Does it have good dinghy parking?
 
just as much of an issue is the risk of a change in the North Atlantic currents resulting in the west (and east) coast of Scotland icing up in the Autumn. The East Coast may have the odd mud hole but at least we'll be able to sail!
 
It sounds like you're talking about somewhere that will look like Greenland looks now. But probably a bit colder. There are several good anchorages on the western side of the peninsula (Graham Land if you're British, Palmer Land if you're American) already well known, see any of several books by the various nutty yachtsmen, mostly French, who visit on a regular basis. Charts are patchy, HMS Endurance goes around surveying quite a lot, mostly finding submerged rocks by running into them from what I recall.

The weather is more Scottish than East coast, with the current 5-10m of annual snowfall and ablation unlikely to change, I would guess. Temperatures in the summer vary from 0-ish to +10C ish, but the sea rarely gets warmer than about 5C. I suspect you'll still get a 50% chance of sea ice in the winter, more like 100% if you're considering the Weddel sea or east of there.

Why, are you planning a Scuttlebutt cruise in the near future?
 
[ QUOTE ]
So where are all these 2000+ metre peaks in Scotland and Wales then? I think I might like to go skiing there.

[/ QUOTE ]Where do you get the 2000+metre rise?

This is what the UK will look like in the not too distant future

ts28waterlevel.jpg


Yes, the southcoast as it is today has gone, but look at the potential new places to visit. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
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hammer.thumb.gif
"Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity"
 
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