5 ms·
The sea level rise is slow enough that no actual populated areas will be "flooded" leaving people homeless. Rather, it will be a very predictable process, each
by manholio 5y ago
The sea level rise is slow enough that no actual populated areas will be "flooded" leaving people homeless. Rather, it will be a very predictable process, each year the sea will rise by a small steady amount.
The natural life of a city building is on the order of 100 years, on the same scale as the sea rise phenomenon. So cities and people will incorporate that into their planning and property valuation and urban areas will naturally shift towards higher altitudes as new buildings are constructed and old stock is abandoned.
For particularly valuable pieces of real estate, defenses will be built. If sea walls were viable 200 years ago for agricultural land in the Netherlands, it will surely make sense for Manhattan.
- kadoban 5y agoWhat really happens is that areas flood more and more often due to "freak" storms. Eventually they're under water full time, but well before that, nobody can live there. > The natural life of a city building is on the order of 100 years That's great except sea level rise is going to be a lot faster than that.
- manholio 5y agoWhy would 0.6 m of water make a city unlivable? Will 0.6 m make a place where are no "freak" storms into a place "under water full time"? That is an entirely savage fantasy. 0.6 m is nothing compared to the natural rate of change in a modern city. See for example the embanking of the Thames, or try to imagine how the beaches of New York looked 100 years ago. They were built, rebuilt and raised and redesigned many times over.
- gmuslera 5y agoNever cross a river that is on average 4 feet deep. Storms, currents, each time more frequent extreme weather, disrupted climate features (like the polar vortex or AMOC). It won't be an orderly, even and without side consequences inch by inch sea rise. You will have pretty chaotic living conditions decades before that average sea rise, do you feel lucky? Can buy another house in another city if yours get flooded by a week long heavy rain next year? Can most people do that?
- jotm 5y agoMaybe people should abandon these cities. It's sunk cost fallacy, I think? This land is valuable, therefore we'll invest enormous resources into keeping it livable, creating even more climate change, requiring even more investment... Eventually they'll have to be abandoned anyway, that energy use would be way more efficient just a few miles inland. Which I just realized is in part what you said :D