The Editor, Sir:

Now that even George Bush II has been persuaded that global warming is not a fiction, it seems important for us to be clear about the real effects that the melting of Canada's ice is likely to have on places like Kingston Harbour.

Every now and again we hear frightening, and hopefully exaggerated, accounts of what is likely to happen to low-lying areas, particularly along coastlines, when the sea-level rises with the relentless melting ice. We even see TV news items about islands and delta areas in the Asian sub-continent which have already been made uninhabitable by rising seawater.

A year or so ago, I seem to remember, UWI geographers were warning us, in The Gleaner, of the likelihood that, in a matter of a few decades from now, most of the parish of Kingston will be inundated. Of course, we hope this is all crazy speculation, because if it isn't, then the next generation of Kingstonians are going to find themselves in deep water.

But it must be foolishness! Otherwise, why would we be spending huge sums of money on fixing up the airport on the doomed Palisadoes strip, and why would architect Jackson be telling us, in today's (October 9) Gleaner, that the new parliament building should join the other condemned monuments on Kingston's waterfront?

I am, etc.,

PETER MAXWELL

P.O. Box 237

Kingston 7