When one reads articles like this one it conjures up thoughts of just how far the melting could go. There are plenty of historical maps that have been created to show Gaia -- the orginally clumped-together continents. Similarly, other maps show how previous ice ages have flooded current continental areas.
On this note, when a person reads about what's going on in Greenland, it feeds the imagination. What setting might we face 100 to 200 years in the future? If the melting accelerates, it may be sooner for coastal towns to go under water.
Living in Seattle a few blocks from the water's edge, this concept really gets me wondering. So, I'll take these excerpts from the article serously:
- If the Greenland ice cap melted entirely, oceans would rise by 23 feet
- Over the last 30 years, its melt zone has expanded by 30 percent.
- In the past 15 years, winter temperatures have risen about 9 degrees Fahrenheit on the cap, while spring and autumn temperatures increased about 5 degrees Fahrenheit.
The first quoted statistic gives me ideas as to what Seattle might look like after the sea rises 20 feet or more. The Alaska Way piers would all be gone and the Chittenden Locks would all be flooded over. Hmmm, how would this work? My imagination is creating a future water world here in the Seattle metropolis.
So, keep reading the scientific details if you want to write speculative fiction. There's plenty of change going on to feed your creative process. More news is coming every day...unfortunately for the solid ground.
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