WITH reference to "Day after tomorrow" (Kate Smith, Letters, Tuesday, March 15), the figure I've used in my letters is a sea level rise of 80 metres, or around 256 feet.

It's not simply just a case of the Arctic ice (which is rapidly thinning) and Antarctic Ice melting.

If it becomes warm enough to melt the polar caps, it will also be warm enough to melt Greenland's ice sheet along with all the tundra and the world's glaciers, many of which are already melting.

As a result of the Americans closing down airline travel following 9/11, climate researchers discovered that cloud cover dissipated, due to the ban on air travel.

From this they have deduced that air travel and industry are responsible for putting minute dust particles into our atmosphere.

These dust particles are smaller than the pollen grains that normally cause cloud formation, and are producing clouds over large parts of the globe, that are reducing solar radiation by up to two thirds.

This effect has "skewed" climate forecasts of global warming. We may be underestimating global temperature rises by up to 6C, which implies we may produce a global temperature rise of as much as 12C, by around 2100.

If that worst-case scenario occurs, Worcester Cathedral will be totally submerged and The Malvern Hills will be islands poking above a globally-warmed Bristol Channel.

And what remains of our nation will be basking in the warmth of an African savannah.

We are wrecking our climate - winter has gone. The only question remaining question is how catastrophic will it become.

N TAYLOR,

Worcester