[HN Gopher] Denmark parliament approves giant artificial island ...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Denmark parliament approves giant artificial island off Copenhagen
        
       Author : BlackVanilla
       Score  : 260 points
       Date   : 2021-06-04 21:27 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.bbc.co.uk)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.co.uk)
        
       | gvd wrote:
       | Cute
        
       | dncornholio wrote:
       | Giant? 2.5 km2 is childsplay :)
        
       | sschueller wrote:
       | Is this where they are going to send their asylum applicants? It
       | would be a lot safer for them than in their home countries where
       | they are being persecuted.
       | 
       | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57343572
        
         | geewee wrote:
         | No the property prices would be way too high there for that..
        
       | potiuper wrote:
       | Might as well be done with it and build the wall between Skagen
       | and Gothenburg.
        
       | dustymcp wrote:
       | I cant stop wondering the why its such a massive undertaking and
       | we have plenty of land just expand on the other side i cant stop
       | feeling that this is a prestige project with very little gain.
        
         | aaron695 wrote:
         | The article mentions it also "protects the port of Copenhagen"
         | 
         | But otherwise it steals value from the city and it increases
         | the coastline.
         | 
         | Increasing the coastline is truly adding to society, humans
         | value water access, but I suspect the stolen value by shifting
         | the centre of mass of Copenhagen obfuscates it's true added
         | worth.
         | 
         | It's quite different to building up or down or abstract
         | improvements like tunnels which increase density and more
         | clearly add more than they take.
        
         | lbriner wrote:
         | That's exactly what I thought. There is a ridiculous amount of
         | power that gets attached to a capital city, which means we
         | can't do the sensible thing which would be to spend far less
         | creating new towns or cities with modern sustainable methods,
         | better balance of transport/living etc.
         | 
         | I guess it is just good money after bad and the fact that
         | despite the amount of sense it makes to build elsewhere, lots
         | of companies cannot find good employees and think they need to
         | be in the big city to get those.
        
       | ed25519FUUU wrote:
       | > _A case against the development of Lynetteholm has been brought
       | before the European Court of Justice by environmental groups._
       | 
       | I'm always a little surprised that the most wild and natural
       | parts of world (the flyover country) is populated by anti
       | environmentalists (or rather, libertarians typically), and the
       | most densely populated cities devoid of most green things tend to
       | have clusters of environmentalists.
       | 
       | Don't they know they can come out to the country, buy 50 acres of
       | woods and streams and meadows and wildlife, and not worry about
       | how many cars are on the streets of Copenhagen?
       | 
       | They'd love it in these areas. People ride horses and graze
       | animals. They hunt and go bird watching and identify all of the
       | local trees.
        
         | monocasa wrote:
         | I've heard some environmentalists make an argument for dense
         | human cities. If you're going to have all those people and
         | their infrastructure either way, compress it down and maybe you
         | can leave more room for nature? They tend to be very anti
         | suburbs along the same thinking.
        
           | vidarh wrote:
           | I ended up in an argument with local "environmentalists"
           | exactly over this (in quotes, because I think being opposed
           | to high density is not very environmentalist at all):
           | 
           | They complained about new highrises near my local train
           | station. I pointed out to them that those highrises would
           | take up ~2,000 m^2 but provide housing for as many as one of
           | the nearest local roads, that with the sidewalks, houses and
           | gardens, many of which are paved over or mostly decking,
           | takes up ~40,000 m^2.
           | 
           | As such, if they wanted more green spaces the better stance
           | would be to argue for _replacement_ rather than denying
           | planning: E.g. make developers commit to buying up more low
           | density housing and demolish a proportion of it and replace
           | it with parkland or rewild it. The overall societal effect of
           | not increasing housing supply _as much_ would be a negative
           | (and so there may well be needs for government incentives),
           | but increased green spaces would be a positive. And if it
           | reduced overall resistance to more high density construction
           | to explicitly link density to replacement, I think it 'd be
           | worth it. E.g. award construction proposals with "points" in
           | favour for whatever amount of existing construction they
           | replace with parkland or nature that causes planning rules to
           | strongly favour projects that increase density.
           | 
           | But said "environmentalists" seemed dead set on seeing bigger
           | buildings as inherently bad without engaging with the point
           | that absent getting rid of people, creating more space for
           | nature means making people take up less space, and that means
           | higher density.
           | 
           | To me arguing for high density is an essential part of
           | environmentalism.
        
         | pjc50 wrote:
         | If only it was possible to have the kind of job and money
         | that's only available in big cities while living there. Maybe
         | the remote revolution will finally let this happen. Oh, and the
         | social and cultural life as well.
        
         | rvense wrote:
         | > Don't they know they can come out to the country, buy 50
         | acres of woods and streams and meadows and wildlife, and not
         | worry about how many cars are on the streets of Copenhagen?
         | 
         | In Denmark? Hardly. If you buy 50 acres here, you'll get fields
         | or pastures, and the legal obligation to keep it as such.
         | Actually, as far as I remember anything over 30 hectares will
         | come with requirements that you have some sort of certification
         | as a farmer.
         | 
         | 0,5% of Denmark's 40,000 square kilometers is wild. The largest
         | forests are all state-owned. 60% is farmed land - 80% of which,
         | ie., 50% of the country, is used just to grow pig feed.
        
           | boublepop wrote:
           | There's no requirement to get a "certificate as a farmer" and
           | you can get European subsidies to fund converting fields to
           | forrests. The only thing you can't do is build more housing
           | on the fields, because everyone in power in Denmark is doing
           | everything they can to fight affordable housing.
        
             | rvense wrote:
             | A few years ago when I was looking at houses in the country
             | there was definitely some requirement for buying more than
             | 30 or 35 hectares of farmland. And while you might be able
             | to get permission to convert some areas into forests, it is
             | explicitly stated in the planning laws that the character
             | of the countryside is to be preserved. I can assure you
             | that there are lots of things you can't do.
             | 
             | And before that, of course, there's the price. 50 acres way
             | out in the sticks in America might be quite affordable.
             | Arable land in Denmark, less so. There's no easy escape
             | here like the post I reacted made it sound.
        
         | henrikeh wrote:
         | This case has nothing to do with urbanism but has to do with
         | how the environmental impact of the project is measured.
         | 
         | Put simply, despite planning and projecting the entire project,
         | the environmental impact is done piece by piece. This vastly
         | understated the environmental impact in the harbor and Oresund.
         | This approach is what is being challenged, since it obviously
         | disregards big picture thinking.
        
           | fogihujy wrote:
           | Also, many people are fed up with construction noise due to
           | the metro being expanded.
        
         | rsj_hn wrote:
         | It makes sense if you view all these *-isms as a form of
         | crafting a personal identity to distinguish yourself from
         | others and find a peer group. You would need to do that to
         | stand apart in a crowded city much more than out in the
         | country. People who truly love nature, rather than the politics
         | of nature, do spend a lot of time in it.
        
         | gpm wrote:
         | This has not been my experience, the most environmentalist
         | people I know were generally born in small towns... Most also
         | spent at least some time working in some form of "outdoor
         | entertainment" that included long periods of time spent in the
         | complete wilderness. Canoe/Hiking trips and the like. This
         | includes people who at least publicly admired people who stuck
         | spikes in trees to damage logging equipment (acts that people
         | on the other side classify as terrorism).
         | 
         | I get the impression that the least environmentalist people are
         | also generally in small towns, but I can't say I've ended up
         | associating with them as much. My impression is that they're
         | generally this way because they're the people that
         | environmental laws impact the most.
         | 
         | City people seem to typically fall into a middle ground, not
         | rabid in either direction.
         | 
         | (Europe may be different, I'm Canadian, but broad generalities
         | about environmentalists seem likely to carry over?)
        
         | jaza wrote:
         | Most of those environmentalists, strong though their
         | convictions may be, wouldn't give up almond milk lattes,
         | organic fusion sushi, constant social media, fast reliable
         | internet, and all the other trappings of cosmopolitan hipster
         | life, at least not for more than a few days.
        
           | Tijdreiziger wrote:
           | https://i.kym-
           | cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/259/257/342...
        
           | ilyu wrote:
           | Some of them are just nimbys who doesn't want to see new
           | residents in their neighborood especially if they esteem that
           | theirs propertys could be valued less.
        
             | vidarh wrote:
             | This "neighbourhood" is currently water. I very much doubt
             | that is the issue here.
        
           | jamil7 wrote:
           | Same tired angle over and over huh? Environmentalists are
           | city-dwelling hipster hypocrites. It's been used by various
           | politicians over the years.
        
         | a0-prw wrote:
         | The absolutely worst thing a human being can do to nature is
         | move into it XD
        
       | rhplus wrote:
       | The photo in the article is labeled, _" The port of Copenhagen,
       | where the artificial island Lynetteholm is planned to be built,
       | as it is today"_, but fails to mention that the picture is of
       | Trekroner Fort, itself an artificial island built on sunken
       | warships from 1713:
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trekroner_Fort
        
       | BurningFrog wrote:
       | > _The approval by Denmark 's parliament paves the way for the 1
       | sq mile (2.6 sq km) project to begin later this year._
       | 
       | That's not a giant island.
        
         | bombcar wrote:
         | A square mile is pretty big, especially for an artificial
         | island. It's 640 acres (or something like 2,400 suburban
         | homes).
         | 
         | Sure it's not the size of Japan or something, but it's not
         | tiny.
        
           | danieldk wrote:
           | The Dutch artificial island 'Flevopolder' is ~970 square km.
           | So, I wouldn't say _giant_ when there is an artificial island
           | that has a 373x larger surface area.
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flevopolder
           | 
           | It is still a very nice project nonetheless!
        
             | tgv wrote:
             | Even IJburg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IJburg) is
             | 2.2km^2.
        
             | dan-robertson wrote:
             | But that's a polder made mostly by building dykes and
             | draining the land rather than raising up the ground level
             | across 970 square km. Flevopolder is about 4m _below_ sea
             | level.
             | 
             | I think the plan here is different and will not be done by
             | building up dykes and draining the area inside.
        
               | bombcar wrote:
               | Yeah replacing water with air is a big project but
               | replacing water and air with land is bigger.
        
         | 7952 wrote:
         | These kind of numbers are not intuitive. Don't forget that you
         | are working in _volume_ of material. Making something only 1m
         | high across 1 sq mile is around 2.5 million cubic metres.
        
           | BurningFrog wrote:
           | I only commented on the size of the island.
           | 
           | As island go, "giant" is far from a correct description.
           | 
           | Calling it a "giant project" would be fine.
        
       | manexploitsman wrote:
       | Wouldn't it be cheaper and better for the environment to buy some
       | land off Germany or Sweden? Once the deal is sealed, they could
       | start building the city the very next day.
        
         | mongol wrote:
         | Why do you think part of Sweden is for sale?
        
           | Hamuko wrote:
           | Yeah, countries are usually unwilling or incapable of turning
           | over their land to another country.
           | 
           | Back in 2016, the Norwegians had an idea to gift Finland a
           | new highest peak by shifting the border between Finland and
           | Norway just a bit as Finland was due to celebrate its 100th
           | year of independence. However, it never actually went
           | anywhere since it'd be unconstitutional for Norway to start
           | splitting off its country.
           | 
           | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37662811
        
         | jeofken wrote:
         | I'm not sure they would want Malmo back
        
         | flexie wrote:
         | There is plenty of space in Denmark for its existing population
         | (and for millions more, for that sake). The issue is that there
         | is not that much space in Copenhagen.
        
           | haasted wrote:
           | I don't really understand why expansion towards West is not
           | an option.
        
             | KozmoNau7 wrote:
             | Because they want to sell expensive housing close to the
             | sea, not affordable housing far from the sea.
             | 
             | It's a stupid prestige project, primarily designed to
             | attract rich investors, who will let their investment
             | object apartments sit empty, creating another dead
             | neighborhood.
        
           | boublepop wrote:
           | There is plenty of space in Copenhagen. However plans to
           | build anything anywhere gets shot down constantly with silly
           | laws and restrictions. Politicians don't want a more healthy
           | housing market in the capital because they are all some of
           | those who are profiting most from how unhealthy it is.
        
         | hadlock wrote:
         | This is to protect the local port for the capital of the
         | country, particularly during large storms. Buying land inland
         | along the border would not accomplish this protection task.
        
           | ToFab123 wrote:
           | There is a few miles of ocean between Demmark and Sweden.
        
       | iscrewyou wrote:
       | Here's a list of existing such islands:
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_artificial_islands
        
       | andrewshadura wrote:
       | This insanity must be stopped. I hope the protesters don't give
       | up and continue fighting this megalomaniac project.
        
       | boublepop wrote:
       | This is the absolute concentrate of idiocy. They need the island
       | because there isn't land to build new housing... there's plenty
       | of land to build new housing but every single attempt gets shot
       | down with excuses about "maintaining nature" because every single
       | politician has had a 3000% increase of the value of their houses
       | and apartments in the capital region and don't want to see that
       | end.
       | 
       | Once the island is finally build and complete, some politician
       | will find some species of frog on it that's suddenly vitally
       | important to conserve even though it's also verywhere else in
       | Denmark, and construction of housing will become prohibited.
        
       | perihelions wrote:
       | This is some remarkably long-term planning:
       | 
       |  _" If construction goes ahead as planned, the majority of the
       | foundations for the island off Denmark's capital should be in
       | place by 2035, with an aim to fully complete the project by
       | 2070."_
       | 
       | I can't recall ever seeing the year 2070 or later in print, in
       | the context of some definite project or plan. Are there other
       | examples?
        
         | Clewza313 wrote:
         | Closest I can think of is the Chuo Maglev in Japan, approved in
         | 2011 with a completion target of 2045.
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%AB%C5%8D_Shinkansen
        
           | sharken wrote:
           | You could also add Sagrada Familia in Barcelona to the list,
           | construction began in 1882 and might be done by 2032.
           | 
           | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia
        
             | mkl wrote:
             | That wasn't the original plan though.
        
               | robin_reala wrote:
               | If we're talking cathedral delays, Koln Cathedral was
               | started in 1248 and finished in 1880.
        
               | dhosek wrote:
               | Although medieval cathedral construction plans did often
               | have timelines of roughly a century. The reconstruction
               | of Notre Dame in Paris is expected to be 20-40 years
               | which puts it awfully close to the 2070 completion date
               | as well.
        
           | ehnto wrote:
           | Japan also has many artificial islands, I wonder how long
           | some of those projects took.
        
             | Danieru wrote:
             | Most of those are a continuous project. The islands are the
             | ultimate destination for incinerator ash and large garbage.
             | The occasional tunneling project will dump the dirt etc.
             | 
             | You can see from goog maps how there are a couple outline
             | online islands under "construction" and once those are
             | filled they'll outline more.
        
         | yread wrote:
         | Seems reasonable. Maasvlakte is a comparable project: an
         | artificial island (20 km2 while this island is "only" 2.8km2)
         | outside Rotterdam harbor and it was built over 25 years
         | (1974-1997)
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maasvlakte (Dutch wiki has much
         | more info: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maasvlakte )
         | 
         | Another comparable project is the new Strandeiland in Amsterdam
         | 
         | https://www.amsterdam.nl/projecten/ijburg/deelprojecten-ijbu...
         | 
         | 1.5km2, started this year, fully complete in 2040. But it's
         | built in shallow, tide-less Ijsemeer not in the sea so it's a
         | lot easier
         | 
         | EDIT; the Dutch out of necessity have plans for up to 2200:
         | https://www.delta.tudelft.nl/article/keep-our-feet-dry-new-n...
         | _"One day with a sigh of relief we will give up this country to
         | the waves."_
        
           | aerique wrote:
           | Well, to be somewhat fair: the IJsselmeer used be a sea
           | (Zuiderzee) but The Netherlands blocked it off with a large
           | dyke in the early 1900's.
           | 
           | So you could consider it part of the long term planning
        
           | ekianjo wrote:
           | Kobe in Japan has several artificial islands. all built by a
           | Dutch company.
        
             | bertil wrote:
             | I used to work with Dutch people who like to tell that "God
             | made the world, the Dutch made the Netherlands." I
             | corrected them, saying they made a lot more than that: I
             | grew up on an island in France that was under the control
             | of Dutch merchants in the XVIIth century; they built a levy
             | to double the amount of dry land. There's polders like that
             | everywhere.
             | 
             | The levy has been fine for the last four centuries, but
             | local engineers were thinking of raising it. For that, they
             | might need someone to help them translate the original
             | blueprint. I once joked about deciphering it when talking
             | to another Dutch friend on mine. She's close to the Royal
             | family and I was curious possibly needing asking Historian
             | for help. She didn't seem surprised at all. Apparently a
             | lot of Dutch diplomacy, to this day, is sharing that
             | expertise and that unique, century-long, perspective. The
             | King is a hydrological engineer (and a commercial pilot)
             | and has lead international projects.
             | 
             | The techniques and examples are pretty much ideas tested
             | centuries ago, with the occasional minor adjustment like:
             | windmills with Archimedes screw can be marginally improved
             | if you use wind power and electric pumps. I'm sure someone
             | on one of those projects has had to joke "Grand-grand-papa
             | wasn't a big believer in ballast. It was a new idea then.
             | But we can try this time."
        
           | lazyjones wrote:
           | China buit several artificial islands in just a few years -
           | and not near shores (but some on reefs).
           | 
           | https://southfront.org/chinas-artificial-islands-south-
           | china...
           | 
           | It can be done faster if enough resources are allocated...
           | Denmark doesn't seem to be in a hurry.
        
             | ajmurmann wrote:
             | Might sustainability and geological context play a role? I
             | thought the the Chinese islands were build on coral reefs
             | and existing small islands. I also wonder about differences
             | in currents and even requirements based on future use. A
             | small military base to extend your empire probably needs to
             | be less stable than a place you want to build a city on
             | that should last forever.
             | 
             | Comparison to the Palm and World islands in Dubai strikes
             | me though.
        
           | Muromec wrote:
           | My most favorite fact about Strandeiland is how it looks on
           | google maps plan view. Apparently google already extracted
           | streets from the satellite imagery, but didn't yet updated
           | the shape of island itself. So you see streets on IJ surface.
           | https://goo.gl/maps/wrL42MHhBvPf1Ben9
           | 
           | Oh and of course in this country cycling paths are built
           | before any houses.
        
             | krab wrote:
             | Some countries export streets, addresses and buildings in a
             | machine readable format. So it could be based on a periodic
             | import, not on image recognition.
        
         | dane-pgp wrote:
         | It's not unusual to see such timeframes in the context of
         | nuclear decommissioning. For example:
         | 
         | "At around 2116, care and maintenance will end and any
         | remaining buildings will be removed and the site returned as
         | close as possible to its original state."[0]
         | 
         | Also, depending on what you mean by "some definite plan", and
         | how young you are, your pension plan may include an estimated
         | retirement date later than 2070.
         | 
         | [0] https://www.anglesey-today.com/decommissioning-wylfa.html
        
           | shoto_io wrote:
           | I think that's about the time that interplanetary space
           | travel starts in Star Trek. I always thought that's way too
           | early and the whole time should be starting 1,000 years
           | later.
        
             | guerrilla wrote:
             | Seems like Blade Runner did even worse.
        
               | shoto_io wrote:
               | Indeed. I don't get it though. Why not push every
               | timeline out by a safety margin of hundreds/thousand
               | years?
        
               | dane-pgp wrote:
               | Personally I would have a hard time suspending disbelief
               | if a story set in 2200 didn't have super-human AI and all
               | diseases cured. Similarly there should be no pollution or
               | over-population, at least in first world countries.
               | 
               | For humanity to avoid achieving those things, there would
               | have to be some significant barriers to progress that we
               | don't know about yet, or a fairly disastrous collapse,
               | which would limit the possible stories that could be
               | told.
               | 
               | I suppose that setting a story thousands of years into
               | the future allows there to have been multiple collapses
               | and renaissances, but I'm not convinced that such a path
               | is as likely as a permanent collapse or reaching some
               | sort of uninterruptible paradise state.
        
             | another-dave wrote:
             | Given only 58 years from the first flight to getting
             | someone in space, they probably thought another 100 years
             | of innovation sounded OK!
             | 
             | Crazy looking back to think that Star Trek originally aired
             | before the moon landing.
        
           | Retric wrote:
           | I think the retirement thing is a stretch. A 16 year old
           | might see a retirement age of 2070 using a retirement age of
           | 65.
        
             | jltsiren wrote:
             | Someone born in the late 1990s might expect to retire
             | around 2070. Given the population structure in wealthy
             | countries, early retirement at 65 is no longer feasible for
             | most people in the younger generations.
        
               | tiagod wrote:
               | Calling 65 years old early retirement is insulting...
        
               | cyberlurker wrote:
               | Not sure if joking but that's generally the age where
               | pension kicks in/an individual can start pulling from tax
               | advantaged retirement accounts.
        
               | Retric wrote:
               | In the US you can start pulling from retirement accounts
               | in your 40's as long as it's even distributions for the
               | rest of your life.
        
               | MomoXenosaga wrote:
               | People from my mother's generation often started working
               | when they were just 16. So when I see someone talking
               | about them retiring at 65 it's important to keep that in
               | mind.
        
               | mech422 wrote:
               | I was actually working 30+ hours/week from 12-13 years
               | old, and I'm GenX. We're slated to retire at 67.
               | 
               | P.S. - I was doing data entry for local real estate
               | companies and simple BASIC 'cash register' setups for
               | local businesses.
        
               | Ericson2314 wrote:
               | This is an oft-quoted phenomenon, but I think it's
               | important to point out it need not be true. We've had
               | chronically weak demand, in which case more retires
               | should actually be _good_ , raising wages and spurring
               | productivity improvements.
               | 
               | In the US, just need to keep healthcare costs under
               | control.
        
               | adrianN wrote:
               | Retirees are not known for generating large amounts of
               | demand compared to younger people who work.
        
               | Ericson2314 wrote:
               | I don't really follow? Workers are supply (their labor)
               | _and_ demand (their consumption), but as we have more
               | productive industrial capacity and more of it, the cycle
               | breaks down as not enough labor is needed, reducing their
               | purchasing power and further slackening the labor market
               | in a vicious cycle.
               | 
               | Retirees don't work, which means nevermind the absolute
               | amount of demand (no kids, etc., make less per household
               | sure) the _ratio_ of supply to demand offsets the
               | productivity  / industrial capacity gains. Coupled with
               | more retires, that could restore the balance and get the
               | "Keynsian feedback loop" going again.
               | 
               | (We could still go into a massive worldwide recession,
               | but that would be a _political_ result of the powers that
               | be not wanting the profit share of national income to
               | decrease. That is plenty possible but not some
               | unavoidable  "demographic destiny".)
        
             | JamilD wrote:
             | The options for retirement funds in my 401(k) include
             | "LifePath Index 2065 Account A", but that's as far as it
             | goes for now.
        
         | adventured wrote:
         | Dams, skyscrapers, military bases, housing mortgages, bonds,
         | business contracts, commercial leases, land/resource/farm
         | leases.
         | 
         | Lots of things have 50 (or longer) year plans, contracts,
         | payoffs, repayment schedules, and so on.
         | 
         | Here's Austria's recent 100 year bond (paying a comical 0.88%):
         | 
         | https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-06-24/austri...
         | 
         | The deal on Hong Kong was supposed to be 50 years, with it
         | operating as a SAR.
         | 
         | Modern US aircraft carriers are usually given a ~50 year
         | service life. CVN-79, USS John F. Kennedy, would be planned to
         | operate until roughly 2070. (the prior John F. Kennedy aircraft
         | carrier, CV-67, made it about 40 years, 1967-2007)
        
           | Gravityloss wrote:
           | DC-3 aircraft from the thirties still operate. And aircraft
           | experience nontrivial loads and wear.
           | 
           | Good engineering and craftsmanship.
        
         | keiferski wrote:
         | Not quite the same, as it's already completed, but John
         | Malkovich made a film with Robert Rodriguez that won't be
         | released until 2115.
         | 
         |  _100 Years is an upcoming experimental science fiction film
         | written by John Malkovich and directed by Robert Rodriguez.
         | Advertised in 2015 with the tagline "The Movie You Will Never
         | See", it is due to be released on November 18, 2115. The
         | 100-year span matches the time it takes for a bottle of Louis
         | XIII Cognac to be properly aged before its release to
         | consumers._
         | 
         |  _Pending release, the film is being kept in a high-tech safe
         | behind bulletproof glass that will open automatically on
         | November 18, 2115, the day of the film 's premiere._
         | 
         | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Years_(film)
        
           | grp000 wrote:
           | That's just pomp and show business though. I think the
           | ancients were very long term planners. One of the upsides to
           | a regime with very centralized and absolute power. Great wall
           | of China, Pyramids of Giza to name some.
        
             | Zenst wrote:
             | One of my favorite would be
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petra
             | 
             | Which even today looks like it would take many years to
             | produce as is.
        
             | Someone wrote:
             | The Great Wall is impressive, but wasn't fully built as one
             | project. It was patched together from multiple parts (with
             | some major upgrade/renovation projects)
             | 
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Wall_of_China:
             | 
             |  _The Great Wall of China (traditional Chinese: Wan Li
             | Chang Cheng ; simplified Chinese: Mo Li Chang Cheng ;
             | pinyin: Wanli Changcheng) is a series of fortifications
             | that were built across the historical northern borders of
             | ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection
             | against various nomadic groups from the Eurasian Steppe_
        
             | keiferski wrote:
             | On that note, if you are interested in the complexities of
             | building a multi-generational structure, I really recommend
             | Kafka's short story, _The Great Wall of China._ It is not
             | about the actual historical wall, as far as I know, but it
             | uses it as an example to make some genius insights about
             | human society and psychology.
             | 
             | http://www.kafka-online.info/the-great-wall-of-china.html
        
           | cozzyd wrote:
           | yeah, I bet their safe software fails in 2038.
        
             | nealabq wrote:
             | On Jan 19. At 03:14:07 UTC.
        
               | cozzyd wrote:
               | You don't know that! Can't predict leap seconds
        
           | londons_explore wrote:
           | What are the chances the tape contains an empty tape?
           | 
           | Nobody is going to come and complain you didn't do the work
           | you were paid for...
        
             | keiferski wrote:
             | The movie was made before he knew it was the one that would
             | be locked away.
             | 
             |  _100 Years is apparently a short film, Rodriguez having
             | stated in a 2019 interview with French YouTuber InThePanda:
             | "I was making several short films for them, and I finished
             | that one first, we shot that one first, I thought that was
             | gonna be a commercial or something. And then I showed them
             | the movie and they said 'Yeah, that's great, that's great.
             | That's the one we lock away.' And I said 'What? That's the
             | one you lock away? What about the other one with the
             | future--' 'No, that's the commercial.' [...] The one that I
             | was most attached to was the one they locked away."_
        
           | DonHopkins wrote:
           | Oh Yeah: Dieter Meier, of the band Yello, made a plaque with
           | a promise that he honored 22 years later.
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieter_Meier
           | 
           | >As a conceptual artist, he has been keeping himself busy
           | with many art exhibitions. He began his career as a
           | performance artist in the late 1960s. In 1972 as part of
           | Documenta 5, Meier installed a commemorative plaque at the
           | railway station in Kassel (Germany) which read: "On 23 March
           | 1994, from 3 to 4 pm, Dieter Meier will stand on this
           | plaque". He honored the promise 22 years later.
           | 
           | https://www.dietermeier.com/1994
           | 
           | https://fawny.org/shyello.html
        
         | jacquesm wrote:
         | The Dutch fairly routinely reclaimed land that could only be
         | built on decades later (once it dried out sufficiently to be
         | stable enough to build on).
        
           | danieldk wrote:
           | One of the largest such projects was the Zuiderzee works,
           | which closed a large inlet of the North Sea. Then (according
           | to the table in the Wikipedia page), 1650 km^2 land was
           | claimed from the sea (the land was large enough to add a new
           | province to The Netherlands in 1986).
           | 
           | Even though (AFAIK) the timeline was not exactly laid out, it
           | was clear from the outset that this project would take many
           | decades.
           | 
           | The scale of the Zuiderzee works is really insane. Even
           | building of the dyke that encloses the inlet was projected to
           | cost _a year_ of the national budget.
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zuiderzee_Works
        
         | HPsquared wrote:
         | Cathedral projects often took decades.
        
           | another-dave wrote:
           | Ground breaking on Sagrada Familia in Barcelona was in 1882
           | -- it was consecrated in 2010, but still not finished!
           | 
           | According to Wikipedia they're expecting it to take more than
           | 5 years more, with a completion date of "post 2026"
        
             | mmmmmbop wrote:
             | Construction of the Cologne Cathedral began in 1248 and was
             | not completed until 1880, with a generous break between
             | 1560 and 1840. During the break, a medieval crane remained
             | in place as a landmark of the Cologne skyline for 400
             | years. [0]
             | 
             | [0] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Sch%C3%B6nscheidt,_
             | J._H....
        
         | renewiltord wrote:
         | That's true. California has projects that have true timelines
         | like that but there are usually lies about completion dates.
        
         | Bayart wrote:
         | That's similar to the timeframe of the ITER/DEMO/PROTO project,
         | if you bake in the delays.
        
         | Zenst wrote:
         | It will be good to see how many Y2038 issues they run into over
         | such a duration and certainly be a good project that will touch
         | upon that issue more than most due to planning dates.
         | 
         | Y2038 issue for those that don't know
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem
        
         | grecy wrote:
         | Japan built an island for the Kansai airport. Construction
         | started in 1987 and the airport opened in 1994.
         | 
         | Japan have a host of "long term big engineering projects"
         | they're always working on.
        
           | umeshunni wrote:
           | That's only 7 years?
        
           | ehnto wrote:
           | I flew in and out of there the first time I visited, it was
           | so cool. Japan is an infrastructure nerds dream.
           | 
           | It didn't feel like being on an island at all, since it's
           | entirely developed. But once you hop on a train you shoot out
           | across the ocean and it's quite spectacular.
           | 
           | I recommend going up to the viewing tower if you have time
           | before your flight, it's an inimitable view.
        
             | grecy wrote:
             | A couple of years after it was built I stayed high up in
             | the hotel that is immediately on the mainland with a view
             | directly along the bridge to the island.
             | 
             | 10/10
        
         | tonyedgecombe wrote:
         | That's the retirement date for someone leaving school in the UK
         | this year. If they go straight into work then they will be
         | signed up for a workplace pension with that date in mind.
        
         | mushishi wrote:
         | John Cage's musical piece is played hundreds of years.
         | 
         | > The longest music piece in the world is being performed in
         | the city of Halberstadt in Germany: John Cage's composition for
         | organ ORGAN2/ASLSP - As SLow aS Possible - is resounding here
         | in an extreme interpretation of 639 years, that means until the
         | year 2640! Halberstadt is a town (43,800 inhabitants in 2015)
         | in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, and the capital of the
         | district of Harz.
         | 
         | https://universes.art/en/specials/john-cage-organ-project-ha...
        
         | Zenst wrote:
         | Whilst this does today seem like a long way off and a lifetime
         | project. There have thruout history been many projects of far
         | longer duration and some early examples would be:
         | 
         | https://www.archi-ninja.com/the-10-longest-construction-proj...
         | 
         | Which for the longest has a duration of 2,000 years for the
         | great wall of China.
        
         | lucb1e wrote:
         | I saw 2069 yesterday when reading about the plan to do a fly-by
         | of the nearest star system (Alpha Centauri), so technically
         | yep, 2070 is the longest-ahead plan I've seen so far! And more
         | concrete, too (literally, hah).
         | 
         | (In case anyone wants to read more, there isn't much info yet
         | but:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Centauri#Future_explorat...
         | )
        
       | ajcp wrote:
       | The city of Copenhagen has a more comprehensive breakdown of the
       | project.[1]
       | 
       | I think it's interesting that they intend to build residential
       | property to accommodate 35,000. The area around that island is
       | very...heavy industry related. It's also very very windy over
       | there, but then again so is Denmark in general.
       | 
       | 1. https://www.kk.dk/lynetteholm
        
         | tokai wrote:
         | The time and money spent per resident is ludicrous. But I guess
         | it is a politically much easier way to get housing build, than
         | finding/making space elsewhere in the city for development.
        
           | Clewza313 wrote:
           | It's also meant to protect Copenhagen against sea surges and
           | rising water levels.
        
             | tokai wrote:
             | Could be done quicker and cheaper with other means than an
             | artificial urbanised island.
        
               | katbyte wrote:
               | Sure but you wouldn't get dual use out of it, need
               | housing need a storm break why not combine them?
        
               | KozmoNau7 wrote:
               | Because the storm break could be a relatively simple
               | dike, a thin structure jutting out, instead of a massive
               | artificial island.
               | 
               | There will be hundreds of trucks driving through
               | Copenhagen every single day for decades, to dump the
               | necessary dirt to construct the island. That is going to
               | cause _massive_ noise and disturbance problems for people
               | living in the city, all for a prestige project that has
               | been hastily jammed through, including a runaround on
               | environmental regulations.
               | 
               | The end result will be even more unaffordable luxury
               | apartments, which will be bought by rich investors,
               | creating yet another dead area devoid of local culture
               | and life, just like Orestad and Nordhavn, where a huge
               | number of expensive apartments sit completely empty,
               | bought only as investment objects.
               | 
               | A much better alternative would be to construct a simpler
               | storm break, and then expand Copenhagen westwards,
               | increasing density in the suburbs and outlying areas, by
               | predominantly building affordable apartments and ensuring
               | good public transit coverage, to combat the current
               | situation of students and working class people being
               | pushed out of the city by ever-increasing housing prices.
        
           | jltsiren wrote:
           | $100 / square foot sounds like a reasonable price for urban
           | land close to the center of a major city. All good land is
           | already in use, the remaining unbuilt areas are expensive to
           | build or too far away, and new construction in existing parts
           | of a city is a massive struggle that requires a lot of time
           | and effort.
        
       | davidhyde wrote:
       | My knee jerk reaction to this was "Why build an island when the
       | glaciers are melting and the global sea level is rising?" but
       | then I looked into it and by 2100 the average rise will be about
       | 0.3m. Just dredge up more mud and you should be good!
       | 
       | https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/...
        
         | bobthepanda wrote:
         | Global sea level rise also doesn't affect all places equally.
         | Northern Europe is expected to be below average for sea level
         | rise. https://www.climatecentral.org/news/ice-melt-means-
         | uneven-se...
        
           | YetAnotherNick wrote:
           | Yes, sue nature for 4 times more tidal range than the 0.3m
           | cited due to climate change. If you can handle the tide, you
           | should just need to allocate bit more space to shore.
        
           | BurningFrog wrote:
           | Northern Scandinavia is rising by ~5mm/year, because the land
           | is still adjusting from being weighed down by ice during the
           | ice age 10k years ago.
           | 
           | But Denmark is not affected by this.
        
         | mercutio2 wrote:
         | It depends very much on what happens with Antarctic and (to a
         | lesser extent) Greenland ice sheets.
        
         | Barrin92 wrote:
         | As the article states one of the functions of the island is
         | actually to protect the rest of the land from rising sea levels
         | because it will involve building advanced flooding protections.
         | 
         | (Also as a side note, a 0.3m rise doesn't sound like much, but
         | that is an enormous mass of water. IIRC a rise of that level
         | would destroy more than a quarter of the land of most American
         | coastal cities)
        
           | jessriedel wrote:
           | That 1-foot sea level rise destroying a quarter of American
           | costal city land sounds wrong to me. I think you may be
           | recalling wrong.
        
             | yitianjian wrote:
             | It may be "putting at risk" - I can easily imagine that
             | most seawalls aren't 1 foot above high water line but are
             | designed with some safety in mind for storms and such, but
             | now are at risk to smaller storms.
        
         | gregwebs wrote:
         | According to that link 2 meters is possible as well.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2021-06-05 23:02 UTC)