So, what's the plan for when the sea levels rise?

Let's say average sea level goes up by 6". What's the plan? Anyone got an app that shows how much dry land goes under if the ocean rises by 6"?

Suppose they go up by 12". What's the plan then? How much arable land do we lose? How will this impact agriculture?

If they rise by 18", what do we do? I don't see anyone budgeting for, let alone building, new dikes near the coastal cities; heck, we can barely maintain the ones we already have. Are we prepared to relocate huge chunks of the human population to higher ground?

The Greenland ice sheet alone has enough stored water to bump sea levels by more than 70 feet, according to some recent estimates. I don't see any clear indication that humanity, as a whole or in parts, has come to grips with this problem, at least not in the form of a solution.

And then we'll start talking about an exciting new pilot program which will be used by other people somewhere else to cut greenhouse gases, and GM will run some more ads on the tee-vee about their fuel cell cars which will be available, oh, about 2030 or so.

And George Will will harumph (he's good at that) and Pigboy will denounce it all as a Communist conspiracy, and Michael Savage will demand that all "scientists" be rounded up and sent to Guantanamo, and James Inhofe will deny that the climate has ever changed.

And then we'll change the channel.

That's what we'll do.

I can tell you that much right now. :P

Where else are the blue states going to go?

Your looking at feet, and in that case, every major city in the world will have to be abandoned, and damn near every low lying area near the coasts as well.

That's a significant change in geography. We'd better start planning now, is what I'm saying. Cos you can bet the wealthy republicans are asking themselves, "What would Lex Luthor do?"

some nice oceanfront property here in Phoenix....
And that would not make me happy. I like the desert the way it is. But as long as the GOP ignores evidence of global warming the situation won't change.

Realistically, we can deal with 3-4 feet of rise without losing wide areas of farmland. or any major cities. Coastal towns in flat areas will have to trade-in their beaches for berms, and temporary flooding from storms will become more common, but most of the real damage will come to the natural world when the estuaries and coastal wetlands are wiped out. Some areas like coastal Louisiana will vanish, but "productive" land will be largely unaffected.

The real problem comes about if the Greenland Ice Sheet melts. That will increase the sea level by 23 feet, swamping just about every major coastal city in the world. Florida will vanish, as will big chunks of Europe and parts of the south.

If you're curious, here's a series of maps that show the coast under various sea level changes. If the Greenland sheet goes, the rise will be 7-8 meters. The 100 meter map there would only happen if every ice sheet and glacier on the planet melted, and so far nobody is predicting that as even a remote possibility.

http://resumbrae.com/archive/warming/east.html

...looks bad for me at anything over 150 ft rise or so. Of course, society might have had other problems by that point than the inconvenience to me or mine.

There is no plan for rising sea levels.
There is no plan for the end of fossil fuels.
There is no plan for coping with extreme hurricane seasons.
There is no plan for extreme droughts, on all continents simultaneously.
There is no plan for overpopulation.
There is no plan for a pandemic of tropical diseases, like malaria.

Our current crop of fearless leaders doesn't even believe that there's a problem, so we can forget about them coming up with a solution.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/warming/waterworld/



Please note the problem of Sea level raising is tied in with the East Antarctic Ice Sheets (About 70% of the World Fresh Water., the West Antarctic ice Sheet (About 10% of the world's Fresh water)and the Greenland Ice Sheet (About 10% of the world Fresh Water).

The big question is NOT the huge East Antarctic ice Sheet for its is viewed as stable being BOTH anchored ABOVE sea level AND Completely within the Antarctic Circle. Given these two facts, under global warming the East Antarctic Ice Sheet is expected to EXPAND do to the increase temperatures bring even more moisture in the form of snow to the East Antarctic Ice Sheets (Thus highly unlikely to melt, and may have existed for eons before all the other ice sheets on the plant).

The two concerns are the much smaller West Antarctic Ice Sheet and the Greenland Ice sheet. The Greenland Ice Sheet extends BELOW the Arctic Circle so is exposed to more sunlight than the Antarctic Ice Sheets. IT is VERY susceptible to sudden caving (Which is believe to be a possible causation of the Mini-Ace age of 1300-1800) AND gradual melting over the next 100 years.

While the Greenland Ice Sheet may melt away and raise sea levels about 20 feet (i.e. 7 meters) over a 100 year period. the big concern is the West Antarctic Ice Sheet which contains slightly more water then the Greenland ICe Sheet BUT IS ANCHORED BELOW SEA LEVEL (So it is affected DIRECTLY by World wide ocean temperatures). The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is believe to be capable of collapsing quickly so that the world sea levels raise 6-7 meters (About 20 feet) overnight. This is believe to have happened just before the last Ice age.

For more on the Mad House Century (the 100 years just prior to the last Ice Age) see:
http://www.imaja.com/change/environment/can/journal/madhousecentury.html
http://www.earthisland.org/eijournal/summer98/wr_sum98d.htm

No doubt that's what some have in mind... :crazy:

What the hell you talkin about? We're gonna party until until we drop. No biggie. Science will fix it. Just don't you worry your pretty little head. Go out and buy some stuff. Or do something for us. Cheap.

Thank You
The Rich (and the wanna-be's)

I'm always thinking ahead! It's a gift No I won't share my raft

rising unemployment, rising taxes, etc.; rising water levels are the last concern of our existing WH administration and its benevolence for science. New Orleans is good example of the concern bushco has for rising water levels. The fundies can begin building another ark, but I'm heading for the hills and the high ground.

Rockville Maryland, currently more than 100 miles inland.

Is that because most of our land is high above sea level?

There are some folks with prime beachfront property in SoCal who'd better be looking into hipwaders and waterwings...

Monsanto will descend from the sky with bounty and St. Drexler will live again in his calculator and Dow will bestow his blessings upon us and...

Sea level in FL here :hi:

to the ocean and the gulf. I live on 'high' ground in No Cent FL.