The Earth-pire Strikes Back!

[Ronald A. Lau]

Wanna laugh?

Read this:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/04/23/weisman.volcano.iceland.earth...

Both Iceland and the United States exalt democracy as a social achievement worthy of lasting an eternity. Yet the latter's unprecedented strength has derived not just from enlightened government,
but from the release of its own hot clouds: exhaust from its vast
industries, fleets and mechanized agriculture.

As we have learned, these gases form an invisible barrier that, like a greenhouse's glass ceiling, keeps reflected heat of the sun from escaping our
atmosphere. The denser that gaseous barrier grows, the hotter things get and the faster glaciers
melt.

As they flow off the land, we are warned, seas rise. Yet something else is lately worrying geologists: the likelihood that the Earth's crust, relieved of so much formidable weight of ice borne for
many thousands of years, has begun to stretch and rebound.

As it does, a volcano awakens in Iceland (with another, larger and adjacent to still-erupting Eyjafjallajokull, threatening to detonate next). The
Earth shudders in Haiti. Then Chile. Then western China.
Mexicali-Calexico. The Solomon Islands. Spain. New Guinea. And those are
just the big ones, 6+ on the Richter scale, and just in 2010. And it's
only April.