• Question: in the world how much land will there be in ten years

    Asked by chloe1998 to Damien, Rachael, Simon, Suzi, Tim on 13 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Suzi Gage

      Suzi Gage answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      Hi @chloe1998

      I’m afraid I don’t know the answer to this!
      I assume you’re referring to the rise of the oceans due to global warming. This is a relatively slow process, although it is quite possible that there will be less land in 10 years than there is now. Countries that are very close to sea level are particularly at risk – Bangladesh (near India), the Maldives (in the Indian ocean) and the Netherlands (in Europe) are all low lying, and there is a danger they will get smaller as the sea rises.

      Sorry I couldn’t properly answer your question 🙂

    • Photo: Damien Hall

      Damien Hall answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      Hi @chloe!

      I think that what I wrote about a question about how big England would be in 10 years is actually more about how much land there will be in the world, so here it is!

      “I think you really need to ask a geologist about that (geology literally means ‘earth science’), as they’re the people who study rising sea-levels and stuff – which could make England bigger or (probably) smaller. Here’s a cool-looking website that could help you work it out, though:

      http://flood.firetree.net/?ll=48.3416,14.6777&z=13&m=7

      It shows you maps, and you put in how much you think the sea-level will rise by, and then it shows you how that would affect the size of different countries. For the Earth, though, ten years isn’t any time at all (compared to the billions of years since the planet was formed!) – so my guess is that in only ten years we won’t see much difference. In fifty or a hundred years, though, we could!

      What I love about my subject is how it helped me know exactly what geology meant – because I knew the Greek words that it came from. The Ancient Greeks were doing science thousands of years before anyone in this country!”

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