Rising Sea Levels

I was reading the March issue of National Geographic and its article on the likely inundation by sea water of a huge area of the south Florida Coast.

Is anyone aware of a plan to avoid/trap/mitigate the possible effect on Victoria's waterfront?

Edited by Chef-eth, 08 May 2015 - 06:46 AM.

I don't think there's any realistic way to hold the water back. OK we could dam the entrance of the harbour but that does nothing for the rest of the city. 

Nuke Yellowstone, create a new ice age.

The Crystal Pool will be converted to a "natural salt water pool" at no expense to the city.

I knew electric cars were the wrong way to go, amphibian cars are the wave of the future.

The float home owners were right all along.

Buy real-estate a little inland. Hint hint...

King Tides on the rise.

Those rising levels of carbon dioxide are already having an impact on global temperature and is leading to higher rates of melting of the world’s glaciers and ice sheets. The melt-off from those fields of ice ends up in the ocean. 

NASA says the world’s oceans have risen more than 80 millimetres since 1980, nearly 200 millimetres since the beginning of the industrial age in the second half of the 19th Century.

We’re already seeing sandbags being put in place to protect against shoreline flooding in locales like Kits Beach and Stanley Park, but more permanent solutions are needed.

Some municipalities in Metro Vancouver, like Vancouver and North Vancouver, have been rather proactive, Donner said. A December 2014 report by the city of Vancouver assumes the ocean will rise 1 metre between the years 2000 and 2100.

A 2012 study by the provincial government estimates at least $9.4 billion will need to be spent to adapt infrastructure to deal just with heightened threats of flooding. 

http://vancouversun....e-threat-to-b-c

^ So basically the world's oceans are rising at the rate of about 1/10 of an inch each year. 

$10 billion to deal with heightened threats of flooding? That doesn't seem like much, considering the value of property being protected in the lower mainland, especially Richmond area is likely in the hundreds of billions. Especially if that is spread out over 20 or 50 years.

For a coastal city Victoria is just not that vulnerable to rising sea levels, at least not till levels rise quite a bit, which is decades into the future.  I wouldn't be buying the very lowest properties (e.g. some houses near the beach in Cadboro Bay, a few places along the Gorge) or places where a few tens of centimetres of sea level rise would cause a lot more erosion.

Satellite altimetry shows that sea levels have risen just over 3 mm per year for the last twenty years. At that rate we'll have just over a foot of sea level rise in a century.  That will be enough to cause problems in some areas of the world. That won't take out Richmond, but it would make it more vulnerable.

The concern would be if sea level rise accelerates over the coming decades.  There is some evidence of acceleration in the last few years but it is too soon to know if that is anything meaningful or just a fluctuation in the rate of increase.

For a coastal city Victoria is just not that vulnerable to rising sea levels, at least not till levels rise quite a bit, which is decades into the future.  I wouldn't be buying the very lowest properties (e.g. some houses near the beach in Cadboro Bay, a few places along the Gorge) or places where a few tens of centimetres of sea level rise would cause a lot more erosion.

For context, Al Gore and his team predicted sea levels would rise by 20 feet by the year 2100. 

Edited by spanky123, 08 January 2018 - 09:53 AM.

For context, Al Gore and his team predicted sea levels would rise by 20 feet by the year 2100. 

Al Gore is not a scientist predicting sea level rise. The actual scientists studying the issue do predict sea level rise higher than what you'd get from the current rate continuing, but not anywhere near six metres by 2100.

If you are talking Gore's movie he did talk about 20 feet of sea level rise. He did not give a definite time frame for that sea level rise. But I agree that part of the movie was misleading as this appeared to be presented as something that could happen relatively soon.

Long term (500-1000+ years from now) sea level rise of six metres is quite possible as past periods with high CO2 have had a lot less ice and higher sea levels

Al Gore is not a scientist predicting sea level rise. The actual scientists studying the issue do predict sea level rise higher than what you'd get from the current rate continuing, but not anywhere near six metres by 2100.

 

If you are talking Gore's movie he did talk about 20 feet of sea level rise. He did not give a definite time frame for that sea level rise. But I agree that part of the movie was misleading as this appeared to be presented as something that could happen relatively soon.

 

Long term (500-1000+ years from now) sea level rise of six metres is quite possible as past periods with high CO2 have had a lot less ice and higher sea levels

At the current rate it would take about 2,400 years for sea levels to rise 20 feet. I think that most people who watched the movie where thinking shorter term than that.

My earlier point was that people are becoming more skeptical because the dire predicts that were made, I accept in good faith, are not coming to pass. 

I don't think there's any realistic way to hold the water back. 

The Dutch would beg to differ.  

Edited by LeoVictoria, 08 January 2018 - 02:19 PM.

At the current rate it would take about 2,400 years for sea levels to rise 20 feet. I think that most people who watched the movie where thinking shorter term than that.

 

My earlier point was that people are becoming more skeptical because the dire predicts that were made, I accept in good faith, are not coming to pass. 

Intense lobbying by the fossil fuel industry has tried to cast doubt on the science.   Just as it happened with cigarettes and cancer, eventually that doubt will wear off as the effects of climate change pile up.   I do agree that a politician is not an ideal spokesperson for science.   One of the least trusted professions on the planet should not be used to try to explain something as nuanced as climate science.  

For a coastal city Victoria is just not that vulnerable to rising sea levels, at least not till levels rise quite a bit, which is decades into the future.  

If you notice the toilet taking longer to drain it could be the next King Tide...or a king-size something or other.

I love global warming. Think of it, crops growing like mad, non arable land made arable, jungles growing wild, warming rising oceans just teaming with life. Might be the best thing humans have ever done. The worst part might be all that extra bird poo on downtown street (according to noted climate expert lisa helps)

Part of the problem, Mayor Lisa Helps said, is that drier summers linked to global warming mean there’s less summer rain to help wash away the droppings.

 

“Really, this was the biggest concern we heard — and not only from our residents but from people visiting here,” Helps said during recent budget deliberations.

 

 

“This is a perfect example — an unfortunate one — of the impact of climate change on cities,” she said. “We’re going to have hotter, drier summers and there will be costs associated with that. Hence, the need to try to mitigate our impact on the climate so we can bring down some of the expenses.”

 

Edited by VicHockeyFan, 08 January 2018 - 05:35 PM.