Global Warming

[Thorne]

Holland would be in the shadow of the sea wall until after midday!

Hate to tell you this, TYWD, but Hollands sea wall is generally on the WEST side of the country. They would get plenty of morning sun. Sunset, on the other hand, would tend to come rather early.

according to the American University's figures, an 8 or 9 foot rise by 2100 is the best we can hope for.

Then we don't have anything to worry about. The Mayan calender says that the world will end in the year 2012, less than five years from now.

On a more serious note, though, there's been some talk here about the costs of mitigating the rising sea levels, such as building sea walls. But aside from the financial costs involved, which I agree would be prohibitive, the energy costs would do even more damage. All those construction materials which will have to be manufactured, then transported, and all the tools which will have to be built to construct these structures, will all add to the problem, don't you think?

[Guest 91108]

...
Then we don't have anything to worry about. The Mayan calender says that the world will end in the year 2012, less than five years from now.
...

hrm food for thought.

Actually 2012 is more representative of the end of a time period that was within their understanding .. not the end of the world but the end of a cycle of time.
2012 is also when we will begin to pass through the galactic spiral as a planetary system. They expect all kinds of "side effects" from that.

2012 is theorized to be the end of many changes that will be the start of that "new time period" ( a Golden Age).
see http://hinduism.about.com/od/basics/a/goldenage.htm

[Thorne]

hrm food for thought.

Actually 2012 is more representative of the end of a time period that was within their understanding .. not the end of the world but the end of a cycle of time.
2012 is also when we will begin to pass through the galactic spiral as a planetary system. They expect all kinds of "side effects" from that.

2012 is theorized to be the end of many changes that will be the start of that "new time period" ( a Golden Age).
see http://hinduism.about.com/od/basics/a/goldenage.htm

Yes, I'm familiar with the concepts and it's mostly a matter of interpretation. There are no Mayan left to ask, are there? My own take is that the Mayan who was doing the calculations died before training his replacement.

[Ozme52]

Yes, I'm familiar with the concepts and it's mostly a matter of interpretation. There are no Mayan left to ask, are there? My own take is that the Mayan who was doing the calculations died before training his replacement.

The Mayan calendar is very complex because it was important to them to know and understand a tremendous number of cyclic events. Their calendar 'starts' and 'ends' at a confluence of all those cycles.

My cut at it is they figured why do "page" 2 if "page" 1 is exactly the same.

If it mattered to us enough, we would have a seven year calendar... where the date and day matched. Or a lunar calendar that was 33-34 years long, matchng a date to a particular phase of the moon, or a 210+/- year calendar matching date-day-and lunar phases... But those things don't matter to us, so we have a one year calendar.

Here's a great wikipedia explanation.

BTW, the source of the end of the world theory is a New Age concept... If someone were to offer it today for the first time and you'd label it cultist. From the wikipedia article: "The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar forms the basis for a New Age belief, first forecast by José Argüelles, that a cataclysm will take place on or about 21 December 2012."



All that aside...