I am a geography undergraduate student at Royal Holloway, University of London and for my final year I have to do a dissertation which contributes considerably towards my degree.
The topic is London and Climate Change, and i would be very grateful if you could fill out this survey for me on your opinions of the issue of climate change in London. I doesnt take very long!
If you could spare a moment, that would be great. thank you
Hi. I rarely do surveys as all questions to me are "Yes but, No but" so either obvious or unanswerable via a tick box.
I'm of the view that the planet changes as it wants to - with clearly no regard for anything living or growing on it. However, a friend who works to promote the reduction of man's effect is firmly convinced that even if natural changes do/will happen, there's no doubt that man is speeding some disadvantageous changes. Q: Are governments and international measures making a difference, or just a means of raising taxes or whitewashing or misdirecting the real problems?
I don't get the focus on London. If the world goes barmy and the sea level rises "stupidly", then we really are all in it together as the economic ramifications will reverberate faster than rising water will.
I don't know if this helps, probably not at all unless your points are scored by being able to accumulate survey answers from people who probably have little idea, and certainly no more idea than the scientists all at loggerheads have...
You aren't really saying that you think global warming isn't to do with humans and nothing to be concerned about are you Mosy? All the evidence points towards this, despite the efforts of some right wing politicians (who seem tot think they more about it then scientists).
Lee
I do appreciate this is a very difficult subject and people many times more knowledgeable than me are in disagrement.
Of course what we, and especially China , are pumping into the atmosphere may be changing the climate. However there are numerous natural phenomenon which also alter climate and have done so for billions of years, well before we started our pollution just over 200 years ago.
I am old enough to remember a number of Panorama's in probably 70's that convinced me we are heading for a new Ice Age. We seem to be due an ice age rather than a mass warming but who can say for certain.
Another theory is that the pollution we are pumping out is delaying another ice age.
However clever our scientists I do believe largely guess work. Frightening either way I think.
@ leenewham. Hi. I think man is wrecking the planet by things such as deforestation, plus upsetting the natural ecology by things like overfishing, seabed dredging, chopping down hedgerows etc. Air pollution, yes that too especially now that aeroplanes are almost like confetti in the skies. Incidentally, the term "global warming" was changed to "climate change" after learning that there was doubt that the planet was in fact getting warmer.
In London terms, it could make sense to heighten and strengthen the Thames Barrier and even perhaps build a secondary one (depending on what/where is likely to flood) or digging reservoirs maybe as run-off pools, like in nature, to slow the flow down given The Thames is particularly fast flowing.
However, floods in Hull a couple of years ago were due to the level of ground water table rising and not being carried away (clogged drains) such that water rose up from the ground (rather than the river breaking its banks). In a "sea flood" there'd be nowhere to drain excess water to, ouch, so that's another area where far-sighted experts, geological I guess, would certainly need to have more say than short-sighted politicians in my view.
There could even be an argument for building desalination plants, currently very expensive and not really necessary; however, as droughts seem to happen quite frequently, they could become worth their weight in gold. Water is currently transferred across counties - what happens if "water wars" start such that there'll not be a drop to drink or spare?
