Global warming seems to be definite because of several factors, one of which is the lack of snow. In a late volume of the manga, Alpha is startled by a snowfall and says that she's never seen snow before. As she has been alive for a number of years, this would indicate that the Yokohama area rarely sees snow in her era. Snow is currently not uncommon in Yokohama, although deep snow is rare.
Also, while looking for snowfall information on the Web, I noiced a picture of Yokohama's Landmark Tower, a 971 foot building with the Royal Park Hotel in its top floors. Its website information boasts about its quake-proof construction. Looking at pictures of the surrounding areas on the Web, and comparing it with views of the city on page 21 of the first volume of the manga, most of the surrounding tall buildings are gone, with the notable exception of an unusual building with an odd rounded side that is visible in some photographs some distance away from the Tower.
The loss of a large number of skyscrapers combined with the resloping and truncation of Mt. Fujiyama indicates a period of MAJOR tectonic activity. Combined with a huge ongoing rise in sea level . . . ?
- El Gonzo
Monday, April 18, 2005
You know after reading that I'm inclined to go along those lines of your theory. Something like the major undersea quake that triggured the Boxing Day tsunami had to have occured for things like that to take place. Add that along with melting polar ice caps and you get the kind of waves and riptides Sensei and Ojisan saw when they were younger. Plus there had to be major huricanes and landslides if the roads were covered in sand during Sensei and Ojisan's motorbike ride in the flashback chapter. Between the wind and the water swells (the exact techincal term for what causes flooding during a huricane escapes me) you'd get a lot of sand tossed up onto roadways. It's what happened during Hurricane Charley last summer in Florida. Across the main road on one barrier island in the Gulf where the hurricane struck they ended up with close to five inches of sand across the road.
That had to have been some major geothermal and plate techtonic activity for all that to happen. Makes one wonder if the moon somehow went off kilter with its orbit and contributed to all of this. Would that even be possible?
- Chiristine K.
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
CK--
I think the hurricane term you're thinking of is the storm surge.
It's thought in some circles that one of the problems caused by global warming would be extreme storms and an unusual number of high-powered hurricanes, so the sand deposits on the coast are a good idea.
It would cause an approaching planetary mass or a huge asteroid collision to knock the moon out of its orbit, so I wouldn't think it would be a factor.
A global disaster could have as an effect the fracturing of Japan into several smaller countries (balkanization), especially as communications were disrupted and rising water separated some of the island land masses.
- El Gonzo
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Sorry, I meant to say in the above post: "It would TAKE an approaching planetary (or greater) mass or a huge asteroid collision to knock the moon out of its orbit, so I wouldn't think it would be a factor. "
- El "bad proofreader" Gonzo
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Must have been the nuclear waste dumps on the far side blowing up. I told Commander Koenig about that, but would he listen...
Hmm... Moonbase Alpha?
Naaaah.
- Andy Tucker
Thursday, April 21, 2005
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