oncentration parallel global warming and cooling. Further, there may also be a relationship between ocean circulation, atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases and global temperature change. The production and dampening of North Atlantic Deep Water in particular is considered to be a mechanism whereby temperature change over the Arctic ice cap is translated into global change. Whatever the particular cause of climatic change, what interests many observers is how the changes will impact on human existence. It is reasonably safe to say that, in aggregate, the changes will be large and profound. Indeed, it is quite possible that human life and ecosystems in some parts of the world will not be able to survive. In all likelihood, the change is probably going to be a reasonably quick one, occurring perhaps within decades, and most certainly within a century. Across the globe, changes in temperature would be reflected, in complex ways, in the migration of rainfall patterns, with enhancement in some areas and drying in others. Short-term weather events might become more variable and severe and unusual storms occur more frequently. Forests, sensitive to temperature, might be severely damaged if the rate of warming exceeded the rate at which the forest species could migrate toward more suitable conditions, and such migration would be widely obstructed where other land uses stood in the way. Moreover likely is that the melting of the polar ice caps would cause the sea level to rise. While some credible arguments actually suggest that the sea level would decrease (due to increased precipitation in the polar regions), the mainstream logic does rather suggest a rise to the tune of several centimetres per decade. In time, this would surely flood very low-lying coastal areas, and increase erosion and stress on shorelines around the world. This knowledge, however, is of little comfort or interest to most people. The only fact that can ...
