This is my first (not book related) post and it came about from a discussion; which led to pondering, which was going to become a tweet, but couldn't be condensed to 140 characters, so here it is.

I agree with Al Gore, Sting and every other Eco-warlord that we need to change the way we live or it will be at the detriment of the world we leave for future generations. I do however feel that there is a lot of scare-mongering and political agendas being played out under the guise of an environmental initiative, where in fact the politicians motivation is for anything but the well-being of our planet.

My discussion which prompted this concerned the polar ice-caps melting.

We are led to believe that they are disappearing at rate not experienced since the end of the Ice age. I have no reason to disbelieve this. I was not around then, and i also do not live at either of the poles so can not give a first-hand account.

We are also led to believe that the ice-caps are melting due to the temperature of our planet increasing. Now i am not a scientist. I have not studied the effects of Greenhouse gases on the Ozone layer, but my initial reaction to this would be, has it really increased that much? I am not arguing for those irrational enough to encourage the effects of global warming on a cold day, they are in fact idiots, all i am saying is has the temperature of the earth actually increased enough to warm the seas and melt a country made of ice?

Finally, and this is where i feel that political claims become most contentiuos, is that we are led to believe the ice-caps melting will lead to water levels rising, and therefore currently populated land being re-claimed by the sea.

tip of the iceberg

Displacement! Archimedes discovered with a scream of 'Eureka' the effects of dense objects on water. When an object denser than water is added to water the water level increases, and when something is removed from water, the level of the water goes down. Also lets not forget that ice is frozen water, and the majority of an icecap or iceberg is below the surface of the water.

So what i'm trying to get at (undoubtedly less succinctly than a physician or chemist) is, if ice caps are melting then:

• Surely the melted ice (i.e. water) from the ice cap due to the oceans warming , would simply replace the space left in the ocean left by the ice cap melting and therefore keeping water levels the same???
• If the argument is that it is the top of the ice-cap, or tip of the iceberg that is melting, due to atmospheric temperature increasing (i.e. that above the water level) because of Ozone layer depletion, and it is that which is increasing the water levels: Then i would argue that ice caps float and if you took the top off, the bottom would simply get closer to sea level and the space left would be replaced by the melted ice.

Oceans swell and shrink, tectonic plates shift and continents move, it's what the world does. Don't try to bully us into living our lives how you want us to. Sensible sustainability is the key. Try to live a lifestyle that has as least impact on the planet as possible. You don't have to live up a tree naked, just recycle, conserve energy and be conscientious. Things we make, brake or shape from natural resources will usually have an effect of earths natural evolution, so try to avoid this where possible.