Friday, May 4, 2007 Got a question? Get an answer. Send an e-mail to Dear Mr. Mullings Dear Mr. Mullings: A couple of weeks ago in a Dear Mr. Mullings you wrote that "Ninety-seven percent of the earth�s water is in the oceans. Two percent is in glaciers and ice caps at the two Poles. One percent is divided among the world�s lakes, rivers, groundwater, soil moisture, and water vapor in the air." If that is the case, what's the big deal about the ice caps melting? Thousands of you I actually asked a friend who was not just a staffer for Al Gore when he was Veep; but worked on enviromental issues. Here's the answer: Because 2 percent of a very big number is still a lot of water! Yes, most of the water is in the oceans�how much? The area covered by oceans is 140 million square miles and the average depth is more than 2 miles deep. So, a sea level rise of 7 meters (21 feet from Greenland melting) and about 20 inches from glaciers melting, and up to 61 meters (183 feet) if ALL of both the West Antarctic and East Antarctic ice shelf melted is still only a teeny portion of that 2 mile deep ocean�s water, but so much of our coastal infrastructure is within 1-200 feet of sealevel, that a LOT of coastal infrastructure would be inundated. Click HERE for some basics. The lengths I go to for this feature ... Dear Mr. Mullings: After President Bush rightfully vetoed the Iraq spending bill with a timetable for a pull out do the dems have any idea what they should do or send up next? I have yet to hear a plan of action from them except the "all is lost" platform. Also, if they could have gathered enough votes to override the veto what good would it do? They don't have authority to order a pull out. The President is still the Commander-in-Chief. Darryl A reporter called and asked if the Nancy Pelosi were going to stand under a banner reading: "Mission Surrendered" The Democrats never had any place to go with this. Sooner or later they were going to have to send the President a bill funding the Iraq war without telling the enemy how long they needed to wait until we left. However, the Administration is in such weak shape on this issue, that the President has no choice but to pretend he wants to negotiate with Pelosi and Harry Reid and, in fact, has assigned three senior White House staffers the job of doing just that. It is possible that Pelosi might have trouble in the House getting a majority of Democrats to vote for a funding bill without a timetable attached; but it will pass even with a minority of Dems and almost all the Republicans supporting it. Last one Dear Mr. Mullings: I'm sure you have heard this one by Eric Hoffer but I came across it again the other day and it really should be reflected on these days. What do you think? "When freedom destroys order, the yearning for order will destroy freedom." Mil I had not heard this exact quote, but I have stated often that it is very dangerous for a society to be willing to trade stability for freedom - something which, I fear, is afoot among Iraqis. It is that exact trade which led Germany to accept - embrace - Adolph Hitler. Following WW I (which was, at the time known as "The Great War" because we didn't know we were going to have to start numbering them) Germany was reduced to rubble by physically and economically. Inflation was so severe that, according to the Concise Library of Economics: "On average, prices quadrupled each month during the sixteen months of hyperinflation" following World War I. See you next week. Rich Got a question? Get an answer. Send an e-mail to Dear Mr. Mullings                                     Click here to return to the Secret Decoder Ring page Copyright © 2007 Barrington Worldwide, LLC