Global Warming To Put Prime Coastland Under Water This Century

[cieldumort]

The Observer:
Scientists to issue stark warning over dramatic new sea level figures
Rising sea levels pose a far bigger eco threat than previously thought.
This week's climate change conference in Copenhagen will sound an alarm
over new floodings - enough to swamp Bangladesh, Florida,
the Norfolk Broads and the Thames estuary.

..."It is now

Comments

[brianthedog]

20 to 60 centimeters by 2100? Hmmm...20 centimers is about eight inches, and 60 centimeters is around two feet. Many, if not most, coastal locations already have a bigger tidal range than that; I doubt folks living around the Bay of Fundy would even notice the difference.

Global climate change is real, but I have no problem believing that special interest groups exaggerate the effects to further their own purposes, just as much as the neo-cons downplay them. OK, so sea levels are going up. Then don't build your fucking 10-million-dollar mansion right on the beach, especially if your area is prone to hurricanes.

Personally I'd be more worried about the less predictable effects of climate change. While the planet as a whole gets warmer, that heat isn't distributed evenly and some places would actually get colder. Precipitation amounts would change, causing droughts in areas that normally get plenty or rain, and turning flood plains into deserts. Problem is, we don't know which areas would get which effects. That should be the main area of study, not how many retirees in Palm Beach have to worry about their great-great-grandchildren getting their basements flooded.

[cieldumort]

Have you considered the impact of a one or two foot sea level rise on coastal communities that are mere inches above sea level?

And how about those under sea level?

I'm not arguing that some people aren't excelling at the Darwin Awards... but I am aware that over decades and even centuries or longer, modern man has built up livelihoods, even major thriving metropolises, right above sea level, and right along the coast.

[brianthedog]

The Netherlands has been dealing with its below-sea-level topography throughout its history. Whatever measures they will take will undoubtedly be similar to the ones they have used in the past that have helped them to thrive throughout the centuries. Ditto Bangladesh, but without the thriving. It's pathetic that something can't be done to keep hundreds of thousands of lives from being lost every time a cyclone hits, but the industrialized nations of the world would probably get bitch-slapped for interfering with the local culture and means of livelihood if they stopped. As for countries such as the Maldives, Kiribati, etc., I can't help but think that if the U.S. routinely commandeered such locales back in the 1940s and '50s, moving the entire populations off these islands just so they could blow them up with experimental nukes, they should be able to move them again if need be. The sea is going to rise anyway, even if our contribution to global warming somehow stopped tomorrow.

Sorry if I seem to be having an attack of Limbaugh-itis here, but the time-frame here is decades, not months. When I read some of these dire warnings about the sea level rising n meters by 2100, I can't help but wonder if they're not misinterpreting 2100 to mean 9 pm.:)

[cieldumort]

I understand. But even if 91 years seems like "a whole lifetime" away (so not to worry) it is arguably very unfair to dump this problem on future generations, and other species. Imagine if they are right about 2100, how things are on track to be in 2200, 2300, and so forth. Kevin Costner starts to come to mind ;)

[cieldumort]

Anyway, it is clear that you didn't read the whole story.

Here's the RDV:

IPCC put out a (extremely conservative) forecast of 20 to 60 cm by 2100.

The scientists actually studying this were trying to push them to accept the preliminary findings of their work, but the IPCC is a right wing-leaning, watered-down, climate-science-for-the-politicians-and-mass-audience machine.

Two years later, the scientists actually tasked with forecasting sea level rise are now so confident in their findings, that they are expecting sea level rise of no less than one meter by 2100.