The World in 2030

The World in 2030 111
In January 2007 The British Meteorological Office warned
that 2007 will be the warmest year on record. 219 (although
it looks as if it will turn out to be the wettest). The trend
towards extreme weather is starkly obvious – and it is being
repeated across much of mainland Europe.
And in October 2007 The New York Times reported
alarming news under a headline ‘Arctic Melt Unnerves The
Experts’:
The Arctic ice cap shrank so much this summer that
waves briefly lapped along two long-imagined Arctic
shipping routes, the Northwest Passage over Canada
and the Northern Sea Route over Russia.
Overall, the floating ice dwindled to an extent unparalleled
in a century or more, by several estimates.
Now the six-month dark season has returned to the
North Pole. In the deepening chill, new ice is already
spreading over vast stretches of the Arctic Ocean. Astonished
by the summer’s changes, scientists are studying
the forces that exposed one million square miles
of open water — six Californias — beyond the average
since satellites started measurements in 1979. 220
The IPCC specifically identified human activity over the
last 250 years as the culprit for the atmospheric warming
but new evidence now suggests that the problem started way
before that. Emeritus Professor William F. Ruddiman 221 of
the University of Virginia is a paleo-climatologist with over
sixty years’ experience. In his recent book ‘Plows, Plagues and