Land Orientation for Hottest/Coldest Earth
The Old Man
>>> air, what location for the continents leads to the hottest (average)
>>> planet and coldest (average planet). My guess is that a single
>>> continent wrapping entirely or mostly around the worth in the tropics
>>> would give the warmest and for the coldest, a continent wrapped around
>>> each pole.
>>> Any ideas if these are right?
>> I was recently reading about paleoEarth. During the Permian the
>> continents were shoved together into a supercontinent called Pangeia.
>> From the way the book described it, it was like the Sahara on
>> steroids, with only the coastal areas or areas along rivers being
>> habitable. Temperature fluctuations tended to be extreme with hot days
>> and very cold nights.
> Interesting.
> How about this future? I've been fantasizing about a post-GCC world
> where northern Canada and Russia and Antarctica become temperate,
> zones now temperate like the USA become tropical, and the tropics become
> uninhabitable, so hot that travel through them is difficult.
> What sort of politics would you have? You'd have a lot of population
> displacement from the tropics, but there aren't that many people there now,
> Brazil and Indonesia being exceptions. Suppose the Middle East became
> uninhabitable too??? Yeah, it'd rid us of so many headaches but what about oil?
> Now a lot of areas currently tundra or worse would be good farmland,
> though that's depend on water supply, how new and existing rivers would develop,
> and what subterranean aquifers could be tapped.
> With the sea rise, you'd have population displacement from all the coastal
> cities - a lot of the world's current population.
> You'd probably have to develop special sea vessels for trans-tropical
> transportation! A new North-South political polarization could develop.
> It'd all depend on how fast it happened, of course. If it took 200 years, it
> might not be bad at all. If it took 30 years, it'd be catastrophic.
> I know, this isn't a what-if involving the past, it's future speculation and thus OT.
> Dennis
Taking your points one at a time:
"tropics become uninhabitable, so hot that travel through them is
difficult."
"there aren't that many people there now, Brazil and Indonesia being
exceptions."
I would have to say that there would be a serious die-off of both
people and animal life until both start to adapt to the changing
conditions. One such adaptation might be migration both north and
south (where possible) to cooler climates. As far as vegetation is
concerned, where there is desert, look for expansion and where the
moisture can support forestation, look for an expansion there as well.
"What sort of politics would you have? Suppose the Middle East
became uninhabitable too?
Yeah, it'd rid us of so many headaches but what about oil?"
First off, I can see a gradual (or not-so-gradual) socialization of
resources "for the good of the community" and an increasing
totalitarianistic state, maybe wrapped in terms of "for the time
being" or "until this crisis passes" - translation - Permanent. As far
as oil is concerned, look for Chinese, Russian Alaskan and Canadian
oilfields to expand. I don't know what oilfields are in the Southern
Hemisphere, so that might be a future flashpoint.
"Now a lot of areas currently tundra or worse would be good
farmland, though that's depend
on water supply, how new and existing rivers would develop, and what
subterranean aquifers
could be tapped.
Agreed
"With the sea rise, you'd have population displacement from all the
coastal cities - a lot of the world's current population."
Those that didn't die off in the initial change would try to migrate.
How they fare would be up to their neighbors to the north or south.
Most wouldn't survive.
"You'd probably have to develop special sea vessels for trans-
tropical transportation!"
They're known as submarines, if the heat is truely that bad.
Otherwise, container ships with very heavy duty air-conditioning for
the crew and cargo or passengers.
"A new North-South political polarization could develop."
With the North becoming the new superpowers. Portions of Australia,
New Zealand and South Africa, some of southern South America and
Anarctica would be powerful, but to a lesser degree.
"It'd all depend on how fast it happened, of course. If it took 200
years, it might not be bad at
all. If it took 30 years, it'd be catastrophic."
Again, agreed. I would add that you might look for some kind of new
caste system, perhaps financial or social, to arise which would
further divide the haves and the have-nots.