Ian Sample (Extracted from "Sea level rise doubles in 150 years", The Guardian, 25 November 2005)

"Global warming is doubling the rate of sea level rise around the world, but attempts to stop it by cutting back on greenhouse gas emissions are likely to be futile, leading researchers will warn today."

{Ed Besides, there are far worse problems than a sea level rise, the loss of Arctic ice, a diminution in the number of polar bears, a shifting of the flora and fauna and the gradual shifting of populations onto higher ground. One of the biggest problems is the spread of new viruses in populations that are concentrated in cities connected by millions of travellers who fly around the world every day taking diseases with them. The HIV and H5N1 viruses will probably kill hundreds of millions of people in the next decade or so. The epidemiologists tell us that there will be more to come and quite as nasty. The more successful we are in taming diseases, the more opportunities there are for viruses to mutate. Until human civilisations start to live again in small communities, less prone to the transfer of disease, then global warming pales into insignificance as a prime concern.]