16 ms·

Man, you don't have any faith in human resilience? An average global temperature increase of 4c is bad, but survivable easily with modern technology and good p

Man, you don't have any faith in human resilience? An average global temperature increase of 4c is bad, but survivable easily with modern technology and good planning. 80% of the worlds population live within 50 miles of a coast line. There's still plenty of room inland. You want a retirement plan? Buy land in the the Rockies or the Alps.

graeme 8y ago
You're joking, right? It's hard to tell, because people propose "adaptation" seriously quite often. The loss of all coastal cities would be apocalyptic.
- pliny 8y ago
  While many cities are on a coast, very few of those are built within 1m of sea level, which the 'worst case' (by 2100) projected in AR5. Loss of coastal cities over 100 years is not apocalytic, that is a time scale where people can/will just replace buildings near the advancing coastline with buildings further inland.
  - betterunix2 8y ago
    I am not sure things are quite that linear. Sure, few US cities are on the coasts, but the ones that are happen to be some of the most important pieces of the freight distribution network and economy of North America. If the frequency of catastrophic storms increases by a relatively small amount, we will cross an inflection point and there will be a rapid cascading failure across the entire continent.
- godshatter 8y ago
  If we lost them all tomorrow, sure. But sea level is rising slowly enough that we can go quite a while just abandoning the land right on the coast that is becoming unusable as it becomes unusable. People will see the writing on the wall and either move farther inland or to some other city, without the apocalyptic aspects. Some cities without higher ground nearby will have a harder time, though. I'm curious if anyone knows of a source of statistics for land area that has been abandoned due to rising sea levels. How quickly is this happening now?
  - ForHackernews 8y ago
    https://www.nola.com/environment/index.ssf/2017/06/sinking_feeling_louisiana_coas.html https://www.nola.com/environment/index.ssf/2017/06/sinking_f... https://www.economist.com/united-states/2017/08/26/louisiana-fights-the-sea-and-loses https://www.economist.com/united-states/2017/08/26/louisiana... https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/02/24/us/jean-lafitte-floodwaters.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/02/24/us/jean-lafit... > Between 2004 and 2008 alone, Louisiana shrank by more than 300 square miles.
walls 8y ago
All the extinct species will just magically return as well!
pippy 8y ago
Relocation will the last of your worries. Climate change's big killer will be that crops that used to grow in places, can't grow anymore. This will cause mass human migration. Combine this with a larger, increasing human population you've got a recipe for disaster. Many scientists speculate that the Syrian war and the Arab spring was a result climate change. An interesting tidbit is that the death count from one of the most cited nuclear war simulations (of 50 warheads) wasn't the people who died in nuclear blasts. It was the people who died as result of climate changed caused by nuclear weapons.

graeme 8y ago

You're joking, right? It's hard to tell, because people propose "adaptation" seriously quite often. The loss of all coastal cities would be apocalyptic.

pliny 8y ago
While many cities are on a coast, very few of those are built within 1m of sea level, which the 'worst case' (by 2100) projected in AR5. Loss of coastal cities over 100 years is not apocalytic, that is a time scale where people can/will just replace buildings near the advancing coastline with buildings further inland.
- betterunix2 8y ago
  I am not sure things are quite that linear. Sure, few US cities are on the coasts, but the ones that are happen to be some of the most important pieces of the freight distribution network and economy of North America. If the frequency of catastrophic storms increases by a relatively small amount, we will cross an inflection point and there will be a rapid cascading failure across the entire continent.
godshatter 8y ago
If we lost them all tomorrow, sure. But sea level is rising slowly enough that we can go quite a while just abandoning the land right on the coast that is becoming unusable as it becomes unusable. People will see the writing on the wall and either move farther inland or to some other city, without the apocalyptic aspects. Some cities without higher ground nearby will have a harder time, though. I'm curious if anyone knows of a source of statistics for land area that has been abandoned due to rising sea levels. How quickly is this happening now?
- ForHackernews 8y ago
  https://www.nola.com/environment/index.ssf/2017/06/sinking_feeling_louisiana_coas.html https://www.nola.com/environment/index.ssf/2017/06/sinking_f... https://www.economist.com/united-states/2017/08/26/louisiana-fights-the-sea-and-loses https://www.economist.com/united-states/2017/08/26/louisiana... https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/02/24/us/jean-lafitte-floodwaters.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/02/24/us/jean-lafit... > Between 2004 and 2008 alone, Louisiana shrank by more than 300 square miles.

walls 8y ago

All the extinct species will just magically return as well!

pippy 8y ago

Relocation will the last of your worries. Climate change's big killer will be that crops that used to grow in places, can't grow anymore. This will cause mass human migration. Combine this with a larger, increasing human population you've got a recipe for disaster. Many scientists speculate that the Syrian war and the Arab spring was a result climate change. An interesting tidbit is that the death count from one of the most cited nuclear war simulations (of 50 warheads) wasn't the people who died in nuclear blasts. It was the people who died as result of climate changed caused by nuclear weapons.