Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Climate Change Calls For Drastic Measures


A new report from the National Trust has warned that the sea level will rise up to a metre this century and will affect one of Northern Ireland's most important tourist areas.

The Giant's Causeway one of the most popular tourist attractions in Northern Ireland could be badly affected, says the Trust.

Problems could start as early as 2020 and could be affected by as much as an inch rise in sea levels by 2050 and 5 inches by 2100.
Hilary McGrady, National Trust director for Northern Ireland, said it was essential for more detailed coastal data to be collected.

The Giant's Causeway is made up of 40,000 interlocking basalt columns and is the result of ancient volcanic eruption and was lined up by the Irish giant Finn McCool who built the causeway to walk to Scotland to fight his Scottish counterpart Benandonner.

Legend tells that Finn fell asleep before he got to Scotland. When he did not arrive, the much larger Benandonner crossed the bridge looking for him.
To protect Finn, his wife Oonagh laid a blanket over Finn and pretended he was actually Finn's baby son when Benandonner saw the size of the 'infant', he assumed the alleged father, Finn, must be gigantic indeed.
Benandonner fled home in terror, ripping up the Causeway in case he was followed by Finn.

Another more realistic version has the Irish giant Finn being too lazy to complete the causeway as it is a well known fact that the Irish are quite slothful and a Scotsman would always have a go no matter the size of the opponent.

The National Trust has gotten together with a movie special effects company in Belfast called "Northern Lights FX" who have developed the plan to take a resin cast of the stones in the lower lying areas and fit the new resin case over the stones but raised 8 inches.

The new higher stones will be painted by scenery artists to match the rest. The plan is due to start in 2010 at a cost of 6 million pounds and should be finished in 2 years.

"Having seen the mock-ups I am amazed. A blind man on a galloping horse wouldn't know the difference," added Hilary McGrady.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

funny story. I liked it.

Anonymous said...

Why don't they dig a big hole in the sea bed and make a hill on land that will lower the sea level.