Interesting Links for 19-08-2016

[andrewducker]

Plans for 2,000 homes at Edinburgh Marina receive full approval (tags: edinburgh housing construction trams ) All Olympic 100m winners compared in one race (tags: visualisation race olympics history ) US ready to 'hand over' the internet's naming system (tags: internet names usa ) Uber and Volvo partner up, robot ride-sharing starts this summer

Comments

[ljgeoff]

It seems a bit of a risk to build anything right now up against the sea. According to a study (pdf) by The City of Edinburgh Council, there's not much risk -- but that's based on an estimated sea level rise of 1m, +/- 0.5m. New research suggests it's a good bet that we're going to see more that 1m.: The study-written by James Hansen, NASA’s former lead climate scientist, and 16 co-authors, many of whom are considered among the top in their fields-concludes that glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica will melt 10 times faster than previous consensus estimates, resulting in sea level rise of at least 10 feet in as little as 50 years. The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, brings new importance to a feedback loop in the ocean near Antarctica that results in cooler freshwater from melting glaciers forcing warmer, saltier water underneath the ice sheets, speeding up the melting rate. Hansen, who is known for being alarmist and also right, acknowledges that his study implies change far beyond previous consensus estimates. In a conference call with reporters, he said he hoped the new findings would be “substantially more persuasive than anything previously published.” I certainly find them to be.

But I suppose that the people who will buy these homes don't believe the seas will rise much. It's a pity; that seems like an awful lot of money to waste.

[andrewducker]

I'm glad I live 35m above sea level!