Think global, calculate local

"How high is Scotland? Given that it varies between sea level and 1344 metres at the top of Ben Nevis, Britain's highest mountain, it might sound odd just to say 200m. But that was the height that had to be used in 2001 for the Met Office's Hadley Centre modelling of the Earth's atmosphere with its HadCM3 Global Climate Model, using the fastest supercomputers then available. The 3D world divided the Earth's atmosphere into boxes roughly 300km by 300km, and 40 "layers" (from 5km below the sea to 30km above it); the entire British Isles were covered by just five grid cells."

Source: The Guardian

This is one complicated article about a very complicated subject. No wonder there are so many heated discussions concerning globalwarming and how to calculate the effects of it.

U.N. Security Council holds climate debate

"The U.N. Security Council held a groundbreaking debate Tuesday on the impact of climate change on conflicts, brushing aside objections from developing countries that globalwarming is not an issue of international peace and security.

Britain holds the council presidency this month and organized an open meeting to highlight what its foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, said was the "security imperative" to tackle climate change because it can exacerbate problems that cause conflicts and threatens the entire planet."

Source: CNN

Finally things are starting to happen. The question is whether it will stay at just talks or will they actually do something. Bringing an issue to the Security Council usually meens loads of opinion, arguments, but no action as one or two members won't agree with the others.

Climate change in your backyard

"Climate change is already affecting Britain's green spaces - hotter, drier summers and water shortages have been forcing gardeners to abandon thirsty lawns and parched native flowers in favour of Mediterranean-style plants. Garden centres have reported a tenfold increase in the sales of cordylines, grey foliage and other species accustomed to hot, dry climates, while British garden favourites such as pansies, lupins and delphiniums have been steadily declining in popularity.
Experts are so concerned that they have launched a drive to Save Our Great British Gardens."

Source: The Guardian

The British people are crazy about their gardening. Where it takes a threat to national security to open the eyes of Americans, perhaps a threat to gardening is what is needed to make the British more aware of globalwarming.