[HN Gopher] 2022 Sea Level Rise Technical Report
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       2022 Sea Level Rise Technical Report
        
       Author : bryanrasmussen
       Score  : 108 points
       Date   : 2022-02-17 20:08 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (oceanservice.noaa.gov)
 (TXT) w3m dump (oceanservice.noaa.gov)
        
       | TigeriusKirk wrote:
       | >About 2 feet (0.6 meters) of sea level rise along the U.S.
       | coastline is increasingly likely between 2020 and 2100 because of
       | emissions to date.
       | 
       | Carbon capture and sequestration is an absolute must investment.
       | That's massive damage and human suffering on the way if we don't
       | remove the emissions that have already happened.
        
         | s1artibartfast wrote:
         | >Carbon capture and sequestration is an absolute must
         | investment. That's massive damage and human suffering on the
         | way if we don't remove the emissions that have already
         | happened.
         | 
         | As long as it is cheaper to prevent emissions, we should do
         | that instead of capture and sequestration. If you stop emitting
         | CO2, the atmospheric levels take care of themselves. That is to
         | say, we went to zero emissions tomorrow, they would go down
         | quickly- faster than they went up.
         | 
         | For this reason, we should only capture carbon if it is cheaper
         | than prevention, or prevention is maxed out.
        
       | kingsloi wrote:
       | has there been any reports on how global sea level rise will
       | effect (if any) the Great Lakes, like Lake Michigan?
        
         | bagels wrote:
         | How would it raise Lake Michigan? Different precipitation
         | patterns or changes in consumption due to climate change maybe,
         | but how could a foot of sea level change lake Michigan's level?
        
           | kingsloi wrote:
           | silly question I know. I know they're indepenent, and higher
           | than sea-level, but just wondered, more precipitation, snow
           | melt, etc.
           | 
           | Should've googled it before I asked
           | 
           | > The Great Lakes are land-locked bodies of water that drain
           | via the St. Lawrence River into the Atlantic Ocean. Lake
           | Ontario, the lowest of the Great Lakes, sits 246 feet above
           | sea level. It (and the other four Great Lakes at elevations
           | of 571 feet for Lake Erie, 577 feet for Lakes Michigan/Huron
           | and 600 feet for Lake Superior) will not be affected by
           | rising oceans, whose rise will be only about one foot by the
           | year 2100. Oceans have been rising at an average rate of 0.14
           | inches per year in recent years, but the rise is expected to
           | increase slightly in coming years. The levels of the Great
           | Lakes fluctuate a few feet in cycles that are independent of
           | ocean levels.
           | 
           | https://wgntv.com/weather/weather-blog/will-rising-ocean-
           | lev...
        
             | jnmandal wrote:
             | Its not as silly as you might think. Levels in Lake Huron-
             | Michigan recently reached an all time high (I believe last
             | year). Some towns in Indiana were expecting to be
             | completely wiped out. Of course, this is not due to melting
             | glaciers but due to changing weather patterns.
             | 
             | For a region like ours though, its a similar problem. Water
             | levels here also could move a lot faster than sea levels,
             | however its not as steady or certain of a rise. Ultimately
             | there is also already a geoengineering megaproject which
             | has been built and is capable of flushing the lake into the
             | Gulf of Mexico: the Chicago "river" (more of a canal at
             | this point as its flow has been reversed).
        
       | jliptzin wrote:
       | I don't know how anyone could buy a property on the coast these
       | days, I know it's some of the most expensive real estate but you
       | could be looking at a total, 100% loss on that not too far into
       | the future, definitely in our lifetimes. When it gets to the
       | point where everyone starts to see that coastal areas are
       | sinking, real estate values will plummet and you won't be able to
       | sell even well before sea level rise makes the home
       | uninhabitable. Unless of course the trend magically stalls or
       | reverses.
        
         | asoneth wrote:
         | First, even if you lose the house you can recoup some of its
         | value through flood insurance. Since 1968 in the US you can get
         | flood insurance via the National Flood Insurance Program in
         | many at-risk areas. Given that the program has operated at an
         | ever-increasing loss since 2004 one could reasonably claim that
         | taxpayers are subsidizing risky coastal building at an ever-
         | increasing rate.
         | 
         | Second, even if you believe that the property will be a total
         | loss at some point in the future, it will still provide some
         | value as you use it until that point.
         | 
         | Third, it is entirely possible that the net costs above have
         | already been (at least somewhat) factored in to the price, and
         | that as high as the prices seem to you, they would be
         | substantially more expensive if climate change was not a
         | factor.
        
           | alexk307 wrote:
           | So you're saying it's worth it if you don't think about the
           | financial solvency of the US subsidized flood insurance while
           | you look away from the problem until your front porch is
           | underwater. Enjoy your vacation!
        
         | ur-whale wrote:
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsTKAqHwj0s
        
         | sbierwagen wrote:
         | There will also be unfortunate death spiral effects. Elevating
         | sewer lines, rebuilding roads and drilling new wells as the old
         | ones are infiltrated by seawater will cost money, leading to
         | increased taxes. High taxes will force out marginal residents.
         | As the tax base shrinks, per capita taxation will go up,
         | pushing out more people...
         | 
         | Your house could be a mile inland and fifty feet above
         | sealevel, but you could still have to abandon your home as a
         | direct result of sealevel rise.
         | 
         | The minute any coastal community stops grows, they're screwed.
         | Manhanttan and DC will (probably) be fine, but if you're living
         | in Nowheresville, South Carolina, then you had better sell your
         | house now, while you still can.
        
           | onlyrealcuzzo wrote:
           | This seems like hysteria.
           | 
           | There are plenty of places in South Carolina - even close to
           | the coast - that will be fine with a foot of sea level rise.
           | It's not like everything is effected evenly.
           | 
           | Some places will be devastated - others will be fine.
           | 
           | Also - it's not like you need to get out now. This is going
           | to happen slowly over 30 years. A lot of people who own will
           | be dead before it gets noticeably worse.
           | 
           | People have known this was a thing for a long time, and if it
           | has affected property values at all - it's been minimal. It's
           | not like there's going to be a flip of a switch and every
           | coastal property in South Carolina - poof - becomes
           | worthless.
           | 
           | You might have a Katrina event that tanks property values by
           | ~50% in highly effected areas. But for the most part - prices
           | will just decline slightly. Or, with the state of interest
           | rates - maybe just not accelerate as fast as other places.
        
         | aaomidi wrote:
         | Since these are going to be rich people, the rest of us are
         | going to cover their losses through our taxes.
         | 
         | We already technically do, individuals make decisions that we
         | know - today - that are wrong decisions, but we subsidize those
         | decisions.
         | 
         | E.g. Suburbs that are going bankrupt, but legally can't go
         | bankrupt. Heavy development in flood plains, etc.
        
         | mistrial9 wrote:
         | > you could be looking at a total, 100% loss
         | 
         | could you please refer to the line in the document that says
         | that?
        
           | mhh__ wrote:
           | Unless you have gills you might be in a spot of bother if
           | your house was underwater / constantly flooding.
        
           | jliptzin wrote:
           | Is the report supposed to get into speculation on real estate
           | values?
        
           | jnmandal wrote:
           | You can't be seriously contesting that statement...
        
         | acover wrote:
         | From what I've read the dramatic drop your discussing is priced
         | in at about a 7% discount. You can easily see why a 100% loss
         | is unlikely - a fifty year leasehold sells for about 50% of a
         | freehold.
        
         | mhh__ wrote:
         | If a house is going to be sold to a rich idiot who should know
         | it won't last, then I'm mostly in favour of letter them be
         | stupid.
         | 
         | If it was a home for average people then it would be bad, but I
         | don't think risk-taking like that (for the rich) leading to a
         | transfer of money from the stupid to the not-stupid is such a
         | bad thing.
        
         | jcfrei wrote:
         | It's politically tough to do but you really need to ensure that
         | federal subsidies for flood insurance in coastal areas are
         | gradually reduced to zero. Some people will fight this tooth
         | and nail while denying the effects of climate change. But it's
         | a worthwhile fight.
        
       | Gravityloss wrote:
       | It's very hard to predict what will happen to sea level in the
       | next 30 years. Marine ice sheet instability is the crux of the
       | issue.
       | 
       | Here's a simulation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLdaAKIkpKA
       | 
       | Once the melting point moves beyond a "gate" where the ground
       | starts going downwards, then water will just go in there and the
       | melt will accelerate tremendously. We don't know if it's a decade
       | or a century, as it's not been witnessed in history.
        
       | anonporridge wrote:
       | 10-12 inches of US coastal sea level rise in the next 30 years is
       | a pretty startling predicted acceleration if true.
        
         | missedthecue wrote:
         | If this is true why will any bank give me a 40 year mortgage on
         | beachfront property today?
        
           | jamiek88 wrote:
           | Because the people issuing those mortgages will be long
           | retired by the time it comes home to roost and also they are
           | probably banking on a federal govt bailout.
        
             | mhh__ wrote:
             | Who cares about tomorrow when the bonus pays out today
        
             | dylan604 wrote:
             | If you mortgage a property and the property is destroyed,
             | you are still on the hook to repay the loan. If you have
             | insurance that will cover it, then great. If not, you still
             | owe the note. Sound like sound logic for the banker types.
        
               | missedthecue wrote:
               | Except that you don't buy insurance in 40 year contracts.
               | Once the water gets too close, it will become
               | uninsurable. It would be like selling insurance on a
               | house that is burning.
        
               | dylan604 wrote:
               | Nah, some insurance company will continue to take
               | people's money, but when it comes time to make a claim,
               | they will come back with this was not an act of god
               | event, but a malicious man made event. Claim denied!
        
               | cobookman wrote:
               | That's not the case in NON recourse states, such-as
               | California. https://www.legalmatch.com/law-
               | library/article/what-is-a-rec...
        
           | wnevets wrote:
           | which banks give out 40 year mortgages?
        
             | nopeYouAreWrong wrote:
             | all of them
        
               | wnevets wrote:
               | It's not an option from mine. A 40 year mortgage sounds
               | so much better than a 30.
        
           | sbierwagen wrote:
           | "As long as the music is playing, you've got to get up and
           | dance."
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Prince#Credit_crisis
           | 
           | Publicly traded banks have an obligation to their
           | shareholders to make money. Nobody wants to be the first to
           | abandon a profit center. A classic multipolar coordination
           | trap that, theoretically, governments are here to fix.
        
             | missedthecue wrote:
             | Why will my credit union do this? Why will state run banks
             | in other countries do it?
        
           | jliptzin wrote:
           | Because they package up your loan with a bunch of others and
           | sell it to another company within a year, no sweat off their
           | back. What does flood insurance cost?
        
             | missedthecue wrote:
             | Flood insurance is immaterial to the arguments here
             | considered. You buy it year by year, not in 40 year
             | contracts. They will stop selling to you once your house is
             | about to go underwater. Who would insure a house at the
             | bottom of the ocean?
        
               | BobbyJo wrote:
               | If your expected return from an insurance isn't negative,
               | don't expect it to exist next year.
        
               | missedthecue wrote:
               | If an insurance company is guaranteed to have an $800,000
               | claim filed on their policy within the next 12 months
               | because your house is already flooded, they won't sell
               | you the policy.
        
             | m0llusk wrote:
             | The increasing number and intensity of disasters is causing
             | many types of insurance, particularly flood and fire, to
             | become scarcely available. We are beyond basic cost
             | accounting at this point.
        
           | drclau wrote:
           | Because greed.
        
             | missedthecue wrote:
             | I don't buy this. There are plenty of things a bank will
             | not lend you money for. I can't get a 2 million mortgage
             | for instance. I can't get a mortgage to buy undeveloped
             | land. I can't get a loan to start a business. I can't get a
             | loan to buy a business. Why is this very specific
             | circumstance one where all risk parameters fly out the
             | window? Why aren't they recklessly greedy in the other
             | situations I list?
        
               | TigeriusKirk wrote:
               | I feel like you've asked a good question. I don't doubt
               | the conclusions of the report, and I don't think the
               | banks do either.
               | 
               | Why, then, would they make what the facts indicate are
               | bad loans?
               | 
               | Greed is a partial answer, sure. This is hardly the only
               | place where corporations trade risk in the distant future
               | for revenue today.
               | 
               | But my instinct is that the greater part of it is
               | inertia. They make the loans because they've always made
               | the loans and it will take a good deal of energy to
               | change that.
               | 
               | My guess is that it's an area where change will come as a
               | short, very sharp shock. One year all the banks will make
               | these loans and the next year none of them will.
        
           | reincarnate0x14 wrote:
           | Because the money train is still running ... until it stops.
           | As with most systemic problems the vested interests in the
           | status quo will prop something up as long as possible,
           | ignoring the underlying failures until all at once a domino
           | effect kicks off and years of collapse appear to hit all at
           | once.
           | 
           | I'd imagine it'll be around insurance underwriting for the
           | structures and the financial instruments attached to them.
        
           | colechristensen wrote:
           | By the time your home will be worthless you'll at least have
           | paid back the principal. Add in the uncertainty of so many
           | too big to fail bailouts of bad mortgages probably happening
           | and large scale engineering projects to save homes probably
           | happening and you've still got a decent bet by the bank.
        
           | lkxijlewlf wrote:
           | Why wouldn't they? You still owe the money even after your
           | house washes away into the ocean.
        
         | mathieubordere wrote:
         | "Failing to curb future emissions could cause an additional 1.5
         | - 5 feet (0.5 - 1.5 meters) of rise for a total of 3.5 - 7 feet
         | (1.1 - 2.1 meters) by the end of this century" is also pretty
         | disturbing.
        
           | pstuart wrote:
           | It should be. I'm worried that these predictions are actually
           | too conservative.
        
             | dbingham wrote:
             | They almost certainly are. Retroactive studies of climate
             | predictions made by the IPCC found that they were
             | _consistently_ much too conservative.
             | 
             | And there have been multiple climate related events in the
             | last few years that were worse than the worst case models.
             | (The heat wave in the US's pascific northwest last summer.)
             | Others that are occurring way ahead of schedule - for
             | instance, models predict the equatorial region having days
             | of deadly heat by 2080, it happened in 2020.
             | 
             | So, any time you see a climate prediction put forth by a
             | major institution, I would assume it's going to be too
             | conservative. That has been our pattern so far.
        
             | bryanrasmussen wrote:
             | In my experience with government publications, yes, any
             | publication of this sort will tend to be on the
             | conservative side.
        
               | mhh__ wrote:
               | Yeah, people think these types of things are blown up and
               | manipulated as if the scientists actually make a buck out
               | of it versus their usually very meagre salary and huge
               | workload,
               | 
               | Someone I know who used to work for a non-specific policy
               | related group of scientists investigating something
               | pretty important (pollution, the kind that gives your
               | kids fucked up lungs not something relatively abstract
               | like global warming) and that he was explicitly told (in
               | response to a warning their data looked bad for the
               | government) "That's awful, we must do something about it,
               | in the meantime please lower the figure"
        
               | dylan604 wrote:
               | From a different viewpoint, these scientists are just
               | trying to shut down companies and have employees lose
               | their jobs by making things too expensive because the
               | happen to pollute "a little". So intead of polluter pays,
               | consumer pays after the prices get raised to compensate
               | the expense of the polluter fines/taxes, the equipment
               | upgrade to reduce emissions, etc.
               | 
               | If the damn scientists would just shut up already,
               | everything would be fine! /s
        
               | mhh__ wrote:
               | If you tax the carbon then the market will adjust by
               | favouring more efficient products. If poor people can't
               | afford them then that's a different societal issue which
               | is not being caused by a relatively small tax.
        
         | kahrl wrote:
         | You can scream and scream and scream these facts at people for
         | half a century, and they'll still be "startled."
        
           | belter wrote:
           | Don't look up...
           | 
           | https://www.netflix.com/nl-en/title/81252357
        
             | belter wrote:
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | agumonkey wrote:
           | There's an undescribable absurdism of this era. People have
           | data, history, sociology, models, medias. You make
           | conferences, reports, warnings, yet the sad prophecy still
           | lands just as remembered.
           | 
           | It's like Hofstadter's law applied to catastrophe.
        
             | lukifer wrote:
             | I'm always reminded of Kubrick's comments on the risk of
             | nuclear weapons:
             | 
             | "People react primarily to direct experience and not to
             | abstractions; it is very rare to find anyone who can become
             | emotionally involved with an abstraction. The longer the
             | bomb is around without anything happening, the better the
             | job that people do in psychologically denying its
             | existence. It has become as abstract as the fact that we
             | are all going to die someday, which we usually do an
             | excellent job of denying." [0]
             | 
             | That last bit invokes some of the research behind Terror
             | Management Theory: first and foremost, we are wired to
             | avoid risks to our survival. But that drive is mediated by
             | subjective qualia: avoiding mortal fear. The best way to do
             | that is to prevent circumstances of immediate danger: don't
             | poke the bear, don't play near the edge of a cliff. But
             | when it comes to dangers of limited individual agency
             | (systemic risk, black swans), it makes complete sense that
             | evolution would select for "try not to think about it".
             | 
             | [0] https://www.themarginalian.org/2013/11/27/jeremy-
             | bernstein-s...
        
               | agumonkey wrote:
               | Maybe the scope limit of our deep brains is only a
               | "thing" in large groups. Being short sighted is nothing
               | if you're alone, you trip, you choke, you get whacked by
               | a rock. In a semi organized society, the sudden too-late-
               | bound reflex triggers an avalanche of failure.
        
             | ajsnigrutin wrote:
             | And people like Leonardo DiCaprio fly their private jet to
             | a conference, to tell Johnny average not to drive his car
             | to work but instead use a bike. The same issues are
             | apearing in many other future catastrophies, where a few
             | big actors cause most of the damage, and the governments
             | want to "do something", and then ban straws and make fuel a
             | bit more expensive for average people, while not touching
             | the main polluters.
        
               | Melatonic wrote:
               | I thought Leo was mostly calling out huge companies and
               | industry for polluting? They are after all the majority
               | of polluters by far compared to any individuals - rich or
               | poor.
               | 
               | Then again just by living in most western societies on an
               | individual level, even if we do try our best, we are
               | essentially guaranteed to have a massively higher
               | footprint than someone living in most third world
               | countries.
        
               | ajsnigrutin wrote:
               | I was talking in general, rich people polluting a lot,
               | telling poor people, not to do things, that they do every
               | day.
               | 
               | Even "the terminator" has a "climate initiative" -
               | https://www.schwarzeneggerclimateinitiative.com/
               | 
               | Of course people forget he brough hummers to
               | civilians,... And being a rich guy, caring for the
               | environment, he could be driving a tesla (or something
               | smaller, to use even less energy), but nope... he drives
               | a monostrosity of a SUV (GMC Yukon - https://www.dailymai
               | l.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-10440521/Arnol... )
        
               | throwawaymanbot wrote:
        
             | Vadoff wrote:
             | It's not like people don't know, it's more like there's not
             | much we can do about it (other than voting).
             | 
             | It's up to governments to come up with and enforce laws
             | that prevent corporations from releasing millions of metric
             | tons of greenhouse gasses. Without strict laws in place,
             | there's too little incentive from being moral or being
             | long-term oriented, also your competition who don't will
             | run you out of business with the extra profits.
             | 
             | There's also very few consumers willing to
             | investigate/research the pollution generated from all
             | companies related to making/delivering the products they
             | buy. So being "greener" isn't really much of an advantage.
        
               | agumonkey wrote:
               | Nah, Covid showed that even with epidemic projections
               | people would still under react at first, causing the
               | exponential rise, then over reacting too late.
               | 
               | Our data don't take mob psychology enough in account, the
               | curve is not really a quantitative map it's a psychology
               | fractal. It means 'even with this curve in front of you,
               | you will still follow the pattern causing it to happen'
        
             | ur-whale wrote:
             | > There's an undescribable absurdism of this era.
             | 
             | One observation I've made time and again throughout my
             | life: a large chunk people live their life using a very
             | simple, greedy algorithm (not as in greed, but greedy in
             | the sense algo theory): deal with problems when they
             | appear, and don't think about them until they do.
             | 
             | This is why people build houses in the path of lava
             | erupting from a volcano: it's never an issue until it
             | becomes one.
             | 
             | The smaller portion of folks who do plan ahead (because
             | they are capable of it) and anticipate problems before they
             | occur is the portion that gets ahead.
             | 
             | I don't think this is something that is specific to this
             | era.
        
               | agumonkey wrote:
               | Sure, it's happened since the dawn of humanity. What is
               | different is that we have tools and structures that are
               | leagues ahead of any previous era. Stats, math,
               | communication, everything is up to 11, and yet it doesn't
               | affect much of the social response.
        
           | jmnicolas wrote:
           | We're just bombarded with fear every day, even more so since
           | COVID. More often than not it's BS (example in the 70's they
           | feared that we would freeze to death by year 2000).
           | 
           | At one point the brain (at least mine) just lets go and tries
           | to focus on something less draining.
           | 
           | We (humans) are just slightly evolved monkeys. We can
           | rationalize all we want, our decisions are taken based on
           | emotions.
           | 
           | We have built a much more complex world than we can really
           | handle.
        
           | gameswithgo wrote:
           | Well we have only tried for about 40 years so far, maybe in
           | 10 people will take it seriously?
        
             | willis936 wrote:
             | We've only really tried for 0 years.
             | 
             | Exxon knew about climate change in 1957 [0].
             | 
             | People beat the drum hard from 1977 to 1990. What's
             | happened? Regulatory capture has only gotten worse. There
             | is nothing to be optimistic about here.
             | 
             | 0. https://sci.bban.top/pdf/10.1029/tr038i005p00643.pdf?dow
             | nloa...
        
               | jimbob45 wrote:
               | Nothing? We're well on the way to making gas-powered
               | vehicles obsolete and nuclear power widespread.
               | 
               | I think some level of saying "the sky is falling" is okay
               | but you're only going to be able to inspire voters with
               | progress - negativity doesn't win elections.
        
               | willis936 wrote:
               | The negativity is needed because too many people think
               | the sky is not falling. The can has been sufficiently
               | kicked and the problem has become a fact of life. There
               | hasn't been mass mobilizations for climate policy in 30
               | years. The oil barons won.
               | 
               | People need to be fucking angry.
        
               | hunterb123 wrote:
               | Yet people still rail against an EV company because
               | "tweets" and continue to suck on big auto that held us
               | back on purpose because their factories were built for
               | ICE engines, and ya'know, cheated on emission tests.
               | 
               | But no, getting angry and emotional is not the answer.
               | We're reducing our emissions, mostly thanks to natural
               | gas (fracking) displacing coal, but part due to
               | alternatives like wind and solar. Some states like Texas
               | run on wind for the full day at times, only tapping into
               | non-renewables during peak loads.
               | 
               | We've made great progress and some people need to calm
               | down or they look crazy (some are), diminishing their
               | cause.
               | 
               | Some people seem to treat "green" as a religion. The sin
               | you're born with is your carbon footprint. You can do
               | everything and it's still not enough. You have to
               | flagellate yourself, you need to convert everyone else to
               | live your lifestyle, you need to give this and that up.
               | You need to live without electricity, without
               | transportation, without meat, etc. Some positions are
               | counter productive to the cause or are simply useless
               | (banning straws instead of sanctioning foreign
               | countries/companies for dumping plastic waste that they
               | buy from us)
               | 
               | Be a conservationist, not an environmentalist. Clean the
               | Earth, make it better, but stop with the doomsday
               | speeches and flagellation.
        
               | kahrl wrote:
               | Source? Nuclear power is highly unpopular and hanging on
               | by a thread in the United States. Our reactors are in
               | disrepair and do not make a profit without subsidies.
        
               | dylan604 wrote:
               | Nuclear power is shrinking with no new plants being built
               | and old ones being decommisioned. So spreading is
               | definitely not the word I would have used either.
        
               | LinuxBender wrote:
               | Micro nuclear reactors are being built not far from me. I
               | expect nuclear to grow substantially in the US at least
               | in the midwest. My state is already green with many
               | windmills, solar farms, hydro plants. The only thing they
               | have not explored very far yet is geothermal and there is
               | plenty of opportunities for that here too.
        
               | mhh__ wrote:
               | Nuclear power is unpopular but sometimes leaders need to
               | lead by doing the unpopular thing, every now and again we
               | get good ones.
               | 
               | For all their flaws (and there are _many_ , don't trust a
               | Tory) our government in the UK has done a good-ish job
               | with environmental policy. Not great, but not like the
               | early Trump admin going full retard over fossil fuels,
               | science etc.
               | 
               | We even did a carbon tax and it seems to work.
        
               | Sharlin wrote:
               | > Not great, but not like the early Trump admin going
               | full retard over fossil fuels, science etc.
               | 
               | It's really concerning if "good-ish" now means "being
               | better than the Trump admin at least"
        
               | this15testing wrote:
               | the drop in emissions we need to not pass 1.5C of warming
               | is not within the time frame of construction/operation of
               | full nuclear power (for the entire world, not just the
               | US).
               | 
               | Electric cars exist to (temporarily?) save the auto
               | industry. The decrease we get in purely tailpipe
               | emissions does not offset the supporting infrastructure,
               | their construction, and the sprawl that they demand.
               | 
               | Even Exxon is not putting 1.5C targets (where even then a
               | lot of _real people_ die) in their  "sustainability"
               | reports anymore. Everything needs to stop at 2030 at the
               | latest, and I personally have no hope that that is
               | possible.
        
               | vkou wrote:
               | > We're well on the way to making gas-powered vehicles
               | obsolete
               | 
               | One out of every 250 vehicles on the road is electric.
               | 
               | > nuclear power widespread.
               | 
               | We're not. What we're doing is burning natural gas for
               | power generation widespread. We're _slightly_ eased up
               | off the accelerator.
        
               | jonathankoren wrote:
               | Hitting the brakes, after the car went over the cliff.
               | 
               | We broke the planet. About the only we can do is to try
               | to mitigate the damage. However, I don't have a lot of
               | hope for that.
               | 
               | I'll be fine. My kids _might_ be fine. My grandchildren
               | are screwed.
        
               | Sharlin wrote:
               | Not even hitting the brakes. We're over the cliff and
               | people are still arguing over whether we should ease on
               | the accelerator a bit and if so, how much.
        
               | twofornone wrote:
               | No one _knew_ about climate change in 1957. It was a
               | theoretical possibility that required decades of
               | research, development, and infrastructure to prove. You
               | 're talking about literal terraforming - no one was sure
               | that such a thing was actually possible. And even today
               | we are still discovering novel mechanisms which obscure,
               | regulate, or amplify temperature fluctuations. The case
               | against 195X oil companies is overstated - though it
               | makes for a convenient scapegoat.
        
               | runnerup wrote:
               | In response to: _> "No one knew about climate change in
               | 1957."_
               | 
               | Climate change due to industrial emissions of CO2 has
               | been known and published in mainstream news articles
               | since at least 110 years ago.[0][1]
               | 
               | It's been known and discussed in public by professional
               | scientists for over 140 years[2].
               | 
               | The great inaugural Nobel Prize winner, Arrhenius, wrote
               | a paper on the topic in 1896[3] which cited Fourier's
               | publication from 1827[4].
               | 
               | More generally, global greenhouse effect of CO2 has been
               | known for at least 185 years[4], _a decade before the
               | last founding father of the United States died._
               | 
               | ----------
               | 
               | 0: The Rodney and Otamatea Times (Aug 1912)
               | https://www.livescience.com/63334-coal-affecting-climate-
               | cen...
               | 
               | 1: Popular Mechanics (Mar 1912): https://books.google.com
               | /books?id=Tt4DAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA341&lpg=...
               | 
               | 2: Nature (1882):
               | https://www.nature.com/articles/027127c0
               | 
               | 3: Journal of Science (Apr 1896)
               | https://doi.org/10.1080/14786449608620846
               | 
               | 4: M emoire sur les Temp eratures du Globe Terrestre et
               | des Espaces Plan etaires, M emoires d l'Acad emie Royale
               | des Sciences de l'Institute de France VII 570-604 (1827):
               | https://geosci.uchicago.edu/~rtp1/papers/Fourier1827Trans
               | .pd... (English Translation)
        
               | twofornone wrote:
               | [0] >the effect may be considerable in a few centuries
               | 
               | [1] >and whether there any important ways in which it
               | [CO2] is being removed from the atmosphere
               | 
               | [2] Even more interesting, the doomsday predictions are
               | more than a hundred years old as well:
               | 
               | >THERE was a letter in NATURE some time since, calling
               | attention to the pollution of the atmosphere by the
               | burning of coal; and it was calculated that in the year
               | 1900, all animal life would cease, from the amount of
               | carbonic dioxide
               | 
               | Hindsight is 20/20. Yes, now, after decades of study and
               | billions of dollars in measurement and modeling
               | infrastructure, this particular theory appears to be
               | panning out. But to pretend that we knew with any
               | certainty 100 or even 60 years ago that this was a likely
               | outcome drastically oversimplifies the complex and
               | chaotic global climate system. It is effectively
               | revisionist history and even more importantly _the
               | warming necessary to confirm such theories did not really
               | take off until the last few decades_ , ignoring that 60
               | years ago we did not have the spatial coverage to measure
               | it with sufficient density and precision to verify a
               | phenomenon on the scale of _global_ climate change.
               | 
               | And on top of all that, we are measuring a chaotic,
               | periodic, _oscillating_ system, and it is impractical to
               | draw any conclusions about differences in future trends
               | about without at an absolute minimum decades of quality
               | sampling.
               | 
               | So, again, people who claim that the petroleum industry
               | knew about climate change and irresponsibly and continued
               | to put the future of the planet in peril in the name of
               | profits are dramatically underestimating the scope and
               | scale of the theory and the degree of infrastructure and
               | analysis necessary to prove it with any certainty.
        
               | mistrial9 wrote:
               | my own particular PDF copy of Big Oil research showing
               | climate change from carbon burning, is dated in the
               | 1970s. It is a clear research result at the time. They
               | even predict a two percent rise in temps, around now..
               | there is no question at all. I read it from time to time.
        
               | willis936 wrote:
               | What you're saying is directly contradictory to the 1957
               | article authored by Humble Oil scientists. It's linked
               | above.
               | 
               | Also, your points are echoes of (wildly successful)
               | fossil fuel disinformation campaigns.
               | 
               | https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/resrep00046.7.pdf
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | jandrese wrote:
         | At some point in our lifetime we are going to have to
         | effectively abandon cities like Miami, and our politicians will
         | still be in denial about climate change.
        
           | distrill wrote:
           | FWIW, I'm not sure if any main stream politicians are arguing
           | today that there is no climate change. I could be wrong, but
           | most of what I hear is a question of how much is human
           | caused/accelerated, rather than whether it's happening at
           | all.
           | 
           | There are some obvious exceptions like people pandering with
           | "record low today, how about that global warming libs", but
           | as far as I can tell this isn't the official position of any
           | political office.
        
             | cryptoz wrote:
             | "FWIW", the last president declared that climate change was
             | a hoax invented by China to make the US weaker. I don't
             | know about "official position of any political office" but
             | "climate change is a hoax" (or similar) is a common
             | position on one half of the US political divide.
        
               | distrill wrote:
               | Yes, that's an example of the obvious pandering that I
               | left room for.
        
               | dylan604 wrote:
               | I'm still a big fan of making all elected officials wear
               | NASCAR inspired suits with the patches of all of their
               | corporate sponsors so we know who's actually talking when
               | the elected person's mouth moves.
        
               | mmmpop wrote:
               | You can say his name, it's not like we're going to cause
               | him to appear if we say his name 3 times.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | mhh__ wrote:
               | You do tend to get Downvoted when you say it.
               | 
               | Depending on the thread I think it's either people
               | annoyed that they're seeing his name at all, and people
               | who don't like seeing their guy getting criticized, but
               | either way the result is the same. HN does generally
               | swing much righter than the rest of the internet, too.
        
               | mmmpop wrote:
               | Haha I got downvoted just for that, incredible the petty
               | children on here.
        
               | ska wrote:
               | Perhaps the down votes were just because you called
               | someone out for a perfectly fine phrasing? Referring to
               | him differently wouldn't add any value.
        
             | mmmpop wrote:
             | >> most of what I hear is a question of how much is human
             | caused/accelerated, rather than whether it's happening at
             | all.
             | 
             | I feel like that's last decade's news.
             | 
             | Many people I hear now are just fed up of the hypocrites
             | and would as soon watch it all melt/burn/explode rather
             | than let smug folk like Kerry be the "Climate Czar" while
             | tooling around the globe on his Airstream.
             | 
             | Greta has a point when she starts raving about the climate
             | change conferences where each of the attendees all flew in
             | on their private jets. It's pretty shameful.
        
               | [deleted]
        
             | mikestew wrote:
             | _but most of what I hear is a question of how much is human
             | caused /accelerated_
             | 
             | That's just another form of denialism. "Climate change is a
             | hoax, I don't have to change my behavior." is little
             | different from "Climate change is real, but I'm not
             | convinced it human-caused, so I don't have to change my
             | behavior."
        
               | asoneth wrote:
               | I suspect the next stage will be to admit that it's real
               | and was caused by humans, but argue that it's too
               | late/expensive to do anything about it. (And therefore I
               | don't have to change my behavior.)
        
             | jandrese wrote:
             | https://www.americanprogress.org/article/climate-
             | deniers-117...
             | 
             | Climate Change denial is alive and well in the US. In some
             | areas it is considered a political liability to acknowledge
             | climate change.
        
           | candiddevmike wrote:
           | And everyone who doesn't live near a coastal city is going to
           | pay for the relocation of everyone who continues to live
           | there despite recurring flooding and a bleak future outlook.
        
             | dylan604 wrote:
             | Sounds like a perfect time to invest in coastal properties
             | then /s
        
           | lkxijlewlf wrote:
           | It isn't that they're in denial. They know full well what is
           | happening. It is just that they are selfish. They're going to
           | get theirs while there is still something to get in the hopes
           | that they'll be able to weather this disaster until they are
           | no more.
        
           | Tuna-Fish wrote:
           | It's entirely possible to wall off the sea and pump river
           | water over it to keep cities dry. The Dutch have been doing
           | it for centuries. All that is required is quite a bit of
           | money and political will.
           | 
           | I don't see Miami ever being abandoned, even if they have to
           | float it.
        
             | zipswitch wrote:
             | It's not just will and money that are needed. You need
             | competence, actual ability, as well. Otherwise you're just
             | playing at being King Canute while someones get rich.
        
             | FuriouslyAdrift wrote:
             | Anything south of Orlando is basically drained swamp. The
             | bedrock is eroding due to over development (which causes
             | the land to sink) and salt water has encroached on the
             | fresh water aquifer. Miami spent half a billion $ a few
             | years ago on a pump project that is already being
             | overwhelmed.
             | 
             | I would be stunned if Miami survives as anything but a
             | billionaires island 20 years from now.
        
             | cool_dude85 wrote:
             | Miami is built on limestone. The water comes right out of
             | the ground.
        
           | ur-whale wrote:
           | Aside from all the misery this will cause, it'll be
           | interesting to see what happens to property rights once you
           | coastal parcel gets submerged.
           | 
           | Will you still own it?
           | 
           | Will you be able to build some sort of platform above sea
           | level with a house on it given that the submerged land was
           | once yours?
           | 
           | Will it eventually give rise to a "living on the sea"
           | movement?
        
           | _3u10 wrote:
           | Yeah, I don't know of any technology capable of holding back
           | nearly a foot of water. Hopefully they figure it out before
           | it's too late for Miami.
        
             | ortusdux wrote:
             | The technology exists, but it wouldn't help Miami. The city
             | is built on porous limestone, so even encircling it with a
             | 50' wall wouldn't do anything.
        
               | zie wrote:
               | Maybe Miami will be the new Venice :)
        
         | throwawaymanbot wrote:
        
       | brandnamehq wrote:
        
       | aidenn0 wrote:
       | Anyone know if there is a database for converting GPS elevation
       | to local peak- or mean-high-tide elevation? I live in a coastal
       | city and would be interested to know which areas are SOL...
        
         | LesZedCB wrote:
         | https://coast.noaa.gov/slr/
        
           | aidenn0 wrote:
           | Neat link!
           | 
           | Looked not nearly as bad as I would have thought, until I saw
           | the disclaimer that it doesn't take erosion into
           | consideration. Considering that the lagoons will become bays
           | and that the soil is sandy here, I suspect erosion around
           | them could be considerable.
        
       | gumby wrote:
       | I've given up on any hope of meaningful emissions reduction and
       | have f switched my work to climate repair, specifically methane
       | removal.
       | 
       | It seems that we will have to bite the bullet and seriously work
       | on repair, despite heavy opposition. And because of hysteresis,
       | even when we get the climate back preindustrial levels, clean up
       | the oceans, etc humans will have to continue to actively curate
       | the climate, likely forever.
       | 
       | And it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
        
         | jnmandal wrote:
         | What are you doing to facilitate methane removal?
        
           | davzie wrote:
           | Eating less beans.
        
       | mistrial9 wrote:
       | I was fortunate to receive an invite to a semi-private video
       | conference call, of international commercial Port authorities,
       | some professionals from shipping, and their close employees. I
       | felt the discussion was frank for such a call between
       | competitors, which is often quite guarded. Each nation and
       | company must clear with their local chain of command, but, the
       | economic value of the shipping is not lost on anyone.
       | 
       | The take-away for me, and reinforced by some urban planning I
       | know of, is that centers of commerce, and major urban centers,
       | will deal with this in a timely manner. The further you are from
       | that description, you may well have troubles.
       | 
       | Also some academic specialty research has noted that the
       | underground infrastructure of sewers, water pipes and
       | electrical/communications, will be affected by small changes in
       | mean water height. Salinization of fresh water sources will be
       | affected. The roads and houses, in many cases, less than you
       | might imagine at first.
       | 
       | US Citizen here, California coastal dweller
        
         | bostonsre wrote:
         | Yea, I have a feeling well off communities will be ok as well.
         | I live in one such community in the sf bay where residents
         | already paid for and construction is well under way for a
         | higher sea wall:
         | 
         | https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2021/san-francisco-bay-...
        
         | Melatonic wrote:
         | At least California is getting a lot less than the other coast
         | - I was worried it would be the entire country fairly
         | equally.....
         | 
         | There is an artist out there making maps of what major cities
         | will look like after coastal flooding - the one of Los Angeles
         | is particularly interesting. Lot of new islands pop up
        
       | smm11 wrote:
       | Nobody who can do "anything" about this cares. They'll be gone.
       | 
       | The only amazing thing here is that those people continue to get
       | elected.
        
       | Jedd wrote:
       | Barely related, I'm about a quarter the way through Neal
       | Stephenson's latest book [0], which beautifully / distressingly
       | describes a relatively near future where this has already
       | happened.
       | 
       | Also, while I appreciate this is a publication with an intended
       | readership of US citizens:
       | 
       | "Sea level along the U.S. coastline is projected to rise ..."
       | 
       | Presumably this means sea level along _everyone 's_ coastline is
       | projected to rise this amount.
       | 
       | [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Termination_Shock_(novel)
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | svnpenn wrote:
         | > this has already happened.
         | 
         | Where what has already happened?
        
           | s1artibartfast wrote:
           | based on context, "what" is sea level rise.
        
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