Global Warming   This image is based on GTOPO30 elevation data, freely downloadable from a US Geological Survey web site. A small C program was used to convert this data into a 16-bit PGM image, which was then used as a height field in POV-Ray. The image shows the effect of a worst-case (and not likely to happen) global warming scenario for the UK and Ireland. Virtually all of the earth's ice volumes have melted, leading to a sea level rise of nearly 80 meters. Temperature increase of the water in the oceans is responsible for an additional sea level rise of just over 0.5 meter per degree Celcius, leading to a total rise of 85 meters. Most of England and Ireland has disappeared below the sea, but large parts of Scotland and Wales are still dry. This does however not much good, because the coastal areas and Scotland's central belt, where most of the population lives, have been inundated. Looking on the bright side, my home village of Newtongrange has now become a sea resort.

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