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West Antarctica Begins to Destabilize with ‘Intense Unbalanced Melting’

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61–70 of 141 posts

Re: West Antarctica Begins to Destabilize with ‘Intense Unbalanced Melting’

#61

What's the best way to profit from rising sea levels? Investing in land that's higher up in our nearby coastal cities?

Given all of these market mechanisms & broad consensus about GW effects amongst a certain wealthy & market-moving slice of the population (coastal landowners) it is extremely odd that they continue to, eg, pump money into Miami real estate. And AFAICT there is no macro-hypothesis global warming hedge fund with any significant level of assets, so hey, money on the table.

Their revealed belief would seem to be that the effects will be mitigated one way or another.

Re: West Antarctica Begins to Destabilize with ‘Intense Unbalanced Melting’

#62
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coastal cities are unlikely to be flooded in our lifetimes. We're looking at about 1m [1] sea level rise in 100 years, or 50cm in our lifetime. That means coastal cities will face more severe storms, not ending up submerged. [2] "Pfeffer adds estimates of sea level rise due to thermal expansion and ice melting to calving approximations and concludes that SLR by the end of the century will range 0.8 to 2.0 m above pre…

Isn't Miami already having problems with flooding at high tide? It doesn't seem like it would take that big of a change from them to have flooding problems when it isn't high tide.

Miami Beach is already spending $400 million dollars to raise streets and build out a pumping infrastructure.

http://www.npr.org/2016/05/10/476071206/as-waters-rise-miami...

Re: West Antarctica Begins to Destabilize with ‘Intense Unbalanced Melting’

#63
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it then follow that the half between meridians +90° and -90° is "Northern Antarctica"?

I've never heard of Northern Antarctica. The questions was about West Antarctica, which makes total sense since the globe is laterally made up of a western and eastern hemisphere. But since Antarctica is in the southern hemisphere, talking about Northern Antarctica doesn't make much sense other than talking about any point away from the south pole. Maybe you are confused by the concept of a hemisphere?

I am merely objecting to referring to the "Western" part of a landmass that occupies a complete parallel line.

Talking about the laterality of a quasi-spherical object is tenuous, as well.

Re: West Antarctica Begins to Destabilize with ‘Intense Unbalanced Melting’

#64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am wondering if by the time we wake up it's too late for renewable energy. Given that the methane is literally exploding out of the ground in Siberia it already might be too late. I am afraid it might be a likely scenario that the hod outs especially in the US will go from denial to resignation.

Why are you afraid of the hod outs going from denial to resignation? At least if they are experiencing resignation they will be willing to admit there is a problem and do something about it (admittedly, it will be too late, but...)

The GP probably means resignation in the meaning of apathy, like "shit's going to hell anyway, so why bother trying to fix things".

Re: West Antarctica Begins to Destabilize with ‘Intense Unbalanced Melting’

#65
post #31
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This better be sarcasm

Trying to make a profit is the most effective way of helping people. I hope that it is NOT sarcasm.

It's this kind of delusional faith in 'free market' capitalism and its profit incentive that has led us to the climate disaster that we face.

Re: West Antarctica Begins to Destabilize with ‘Intense Unbalanced Melting’

#67

This is why big countries suck. They are slow to change and a wrong move is horribly damaging. Look at the US or China, no matter how I or all my countrymen live in Sweden it won't really matter if climate change deniers get in charge in the US for example. I just think it's so sad to see everything go to shit due to some greedy assholes that won't invest in solutions that are effective AND sustainable. I plan to bec…

I think big countries should be made to pay the smaller ones affected by climate change. We weren't the ones that caused it but will be made to suffer the most because of it(rising tides, effects on the ocean which we depend on for our food source, lack of rainfall). We are very much seeing the effects already!

Guyana is already trying to cash in in a comparable way: http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6318

Re: West Antarctica Begins to Destabilize with ‘Intense Unbalanced Melting’

#68

What's the best way to profit from rising sea levels? Investing in land that's higher up in our nearby coastal cities?

Real estate. Invest in an area that can withstand or recover quickly from a significant sea-level rise and extreme weather conditions[1].

[1]: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/20/science/9-cities-to-live-i...

Re: West Antarctica Begins to Destabilize with ‘Intense Unbalanced Melting’

#69
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, you'd have to bury it deep enough to prevent decomposition within a few hundred years. Holes that big are hard to do without heavy machinery which guzzle fossil fuels.

I wonder if you can sink the bamboo in the sea?

It's easy enough to secure big rocks to bamboo, but the same problem arises, how do you get tons and tons of bamboo and any required ballast out to deep water positions? Cargo ships! Which are some of the worst polluters on earth.

Re: West Antarctica Begins to Destabilize with ‘Intense Unbalanced Melting’

#70
post #50

What, exactly, is "West Antarctica"?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Antarctica

To save the click: "West Antarctica, or Lesser Antarctica, one of the two major regions of Antarctica, is the part of that continent that lies within the Western Hemisphere, and includes the Antarctic Peninsula. It is separated from East Antarctica by the Transantarctic Mountains and is covered by the West Antarctic Ice Sheet."
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