4 ms·

> that's thousands of years of stored water and energy released You make this sound like it matters whether the water accumulated over 10,000 years or 30 days.

by Flavius 1mo ago

> that's thousands of years of stored water and energy released You make this sound like it matters whether the water accumulated over 10,000 years or 30 days. It doesn't.

glitchcrab 1mo ago
Quite, it's the volume water and the speed of release which matter, nothing else.
- lightedman 1mo ago
  As a studying geologist, I find such a simplistic reduction to be very absurd, there are many factors which influence how that released energy causes its damage. Are there physical impediments in the way? Are there breaks in the path of flow? Is the environment already used to this amount of water flowing through it suddenly (the evidence of life everywhere says no so no surprise a ton of life gets lost when it suddenly blows through.) Such a simplistic reduction also does serious disservice to the structural geologists, soil analyst techs, and others in the geological profession whose work focuses on preventing exactly this sort of situation. It's more complex than "Volume and speed."
  - NooneAtAll3 1mo ago
    > there are many factors which influence how that released energy causes its damage. Are there physical impediments in the way? Are there breaks in the path of flow? Is the environment already used to this amount of water flowing through it suddenly and nothing of what you listed is "how long this particular water volume stayed in its particular location before starting to move" (because energy is energy) don't lose context of what is complained about, dude.
applfanboysbgon 1mo ago
The point is that if the local environment is used to dealing with X amount of water every 30 days, the life and environment will be adapted to the flood zone. If X amount of water comes once in 10,000 years, this is not the case.
- monkmartinez 1mo ago
  The point is that we have a group of humans that are incentivized to live in an area that isn't safe to live, full stop. Said with tongue firmly planted in cheek: "The Himalayas are the highest, youngest, and most unstable mountain system on Earth. Let's terraform these bastards to extract energy and incentivise people to live there. They can build these giant, terribly unsafe, concrete buildings right on the bank of a river fed by a an unstable glacier. Let's also have one way in and one way out! The mountains are too steep for meaningful egress upward, so rock crawl your way out there for the bi-seasonal melt floods!!!!"
  - mylies43 1mo ago
    Are SF, and LA not built on fault lines? Is Tokyo not built in the middle of them? Is Omaha not right in the middle fo tornado valley? Why do people settle in Florida when it gets hit by tornados. Everywhere has a inherit risk with it, maybe they like it there or are from there. Victim blaming them isnt helpful
0xd00d00 1mo ago
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by Flavius 1mo ago

> that's thousands of years of stored water and energy released You make this sound like it matters whether the water accumulated over 10,000 years or 30 days. It doesn't.

glitchcrab 1mo ago

Quite, it's the volume water and the speed of release which matter, nothing else.

lightedman 1mo ago
As a studying geologist, I find such a simplistic reduction to be very absurd, there are many factors which influence how that released energy causes its damage. Are there physical impediments in the way? Are there breaks in the path of flow? Is the environment already used to this amount of water flowing through it suddenly (the evidence of life everywhere says no so no surprise a ton of life gets lost when it suddenly blows through.) Such a simplistic reduction also does serious disservice to the structural geologists, soil analyst techs, and others in the geological profession whose work focuses on preventing exactly this sort of situation. It's more complex than "Volume and speed."
- NooneAtAll3 1mo ago
  > there are many factors which influence how that released energy causes its damage. Are there physical impediments in the way? Are there breaks in the path of flow? Is the environment already used to this amount of water flowing through it suddenly and nothing of what you listed is "how long this particular water volume stayed in its particular location before starting to move" (because energy is energy) don't lose context of what is complained about, dude.

applfanboysbgon 1mo ago

The point is that if the local environment is used to dealing with X amount of water every 30 days, the life and environment will be adapted to the flood zone. If X amount of water comes once in 10,000 years, this is not the case.

monkmartinez 1mo ago
The point is that we have a group of humans that are incentivized to live in an area that isn't safe to live, full stop. Said with tongue firmly planted in cheek: "The Himalayas are the highest, youngest, and most unstable mountain system on Earth. Let's terraform these bastards to extract energy and incentivise people to live there. They can build these giant, terribly unsafe, concrete buildings right on the bank of a river fed by a an unstable glacier. Let's also have one way in and one way out! The mountains are too steep for meaningful egress upward, so rock crawl your way out there for the bi-seasonal melt floods!!!!"
- mylies43 1mo ago
  Are SF, and LA not built on fault lines? Is Tokyo not built in the middle of them? Is Omaha not right in the middle fo tornado valley? Why do people settle in Florida when it gets hit by tornados. Everywhere has a inherit risk with it, maybe they like it there or are from there. Victim blaming them isnt helpful

0xd00d00 1mo ago

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