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Rising groundwater caused by climate change could devastate coastal communities

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Re: Rising groundwater caused by climate change could devastate coastal communities

#31

Post by CameronNemo »

mikey_p wrote: post #12
cookingmyserver wrote: post #2

Is the ground water near a coast line brackish?

Yes, I know there are parts of Orange County that have water injection wells that pump water into the ground along the coast to keep fresh water in the aquifer to prevent it filling with brackish water. Some googling around shows it might be called the Talbert Seawater Intrusion Barrier.

I remember touring the sanitation plant when I was took an environmental science class in high school. They said they did fourth stage water treatment then injected the treated water into the aquifer. They are right near Talbert. It is going to be difficult to fight this tide.

Also if you are Mike Posey please blink once.

Re: Rising groundwater caused by climate change could devastate coastal communities

#32

Post by tmnstr85 »

Either side of the coin, it's still pretty wild to watch it happen. We live on a point in Baltimore harbor and had the perfect storm of both water being pushed up the harbor, big tides and sheets of rain. By the time the tide came in the second time, we started seeing water pushing up through the sump pumps in our basements. The pressure from the water table underneath our home was so great that water was pushing it's way through the floors. This was the first time we've ever seen this happen down here, this is an area with significant history. I would not be surprised if this became common place in the future.

Re: Rising groundwater caused by climate change could devastate coastal communities

#33

Post by trhway »

pelasaco wrote: post #26
_Microft wrote: post #5

Someone submitted this a few posts earlier: "The Amazon is turning into savannah – we have 5 years to save it", https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29540946 Two sides of the same coin but the groundwater problem seems easier to solve. Not because it is technically easier but because the incentives for (rich countries) seem to be a lot stronger. Preventing the own area from flooding is way less abstract than indirect…

Population control. There is no way that we can fit 9-10 billion people on earth and are still able to be sustainable.

I suppose you can just schedule a cron to submit in 10 years the same post with updated number to say 12B :)

Even with population control (suppose we found a way to do it and managed to avoid the large negative consequences of it which would be plenty) the uncontested growing consumption by the current population would do the planet anyway.

Speaking about solutions - until significant part of Sahara desert and the likes aren't covered by solar panels, i wouldn't believe that anybody (who matters) is taking the climate change seriously.

Re: Rising groundwater caused by climate change could devastate coastal communities

#34

Post by kspacewalk2 »

mitigating wrote: post #30
deltree7 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Capitalism and Free Market. On an individual basis, apart from zero-cost sustainable habits, if you are capable, become a master of science, attempting to solve energy, material, carbon and climate issue at a physics level. If you are a craftsman, observe all the day-to-day activities of humans, tinker/hack and attempt to solve the same workflows more sustainably. If you have a solution either through hacks or scienc…

Capitalism and the free market have already been in use and the single cause of the all environmental problems.

I'm gonna suggest that electricity is the single cause of the all environmental problems. Haven't pretty much all of environmental problems occurred since its unwise discovery? And, you know, electricity and man-made climate change are both about energy. So there you go.

Re: Rising groundwater caused by climate change could devastate coastal communities

#35

Post by ianhawes »

tmnstr85 wrote: post #32

Either side of the coin, it's still pretty wild to watch it happen. We live on a point in Baltimore harbor and had the perfect storm of both water being pushed up the harbor, big tides and sheets of rain. By the time the tide came in the second time, we started seeing water pushing up through the sump pumps in our basements. The pressure from the water table underneath our home was so great that water was pushing it'…

The entire Inner Harbor is within a floodplain, with the southernmost areas being within the 100yr FP. What you are describing is not unheard of, but simply not common.

Re: Rising groundwater caused by climate change could devastate coastal communities

#36

Post by IntrepidWorm »

davidw wrote: post #27
deltree7 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Capitalism and Free Market. On an individual basis, apart from zero-cost sustainable habits, if you are capable, become a master of science, attempting to solve energy, material, carbon and climate issue at a physics level. If you are a craftsman, observe all the day-to-day activities of humans, tinker/hack and attempt to solve the same workflows more sustainably. If you have a solution either through hacks or scienc…

Markets and capitalism are part of the solution, of course, but you absolutely do need policies to direct all that energy, at a high level. Absent "policies" and enforcement, the cheapest way for a factory to dispose of waste is to dump it in the river. Same thing applies to CO2: dumping it in the atmosphere is cheap right now because the policies to deal with that externality aren't quite there. An obvious example o…

Carbon tax gets proposed often, but it does not work on its own as a singular policy. Existing implementations of this see the money raised by the carbon tax diverted to equally environmentally costly ventures. There really is no easy way to incentivize a society driven by capital to be environmentally responsible because capitalism necessitates a near-sighted and self-centered approach to these things.

Take the focus on quarterlies- a company may be doomed long term by the decisions made in the present, but as long as they reflect positively in the quarterlies the people making the decisions stand to gain significantly more than they will eventually lose when the company collapses. Its this mindset that we have to fight if we hope to effect any real limit to climate change.

There's no real incentive when climate change occurs on the scale of decades, and anybody with the power to change it thinks (and is thus affected) on the scale of years.

Re: Rising groundwater caused by climate change could devastate coastal communities

#37

Post by dgfitz »

nawgz wrote: post #29
deltree7 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Capitalism and Free Market. On an individual basis, apart from zero-cost sustainable habits, if you are capable, become a master of science, attempting to solve energy, material, carbon and climate issue at a physics level. If you are a craftsman, observe all the day-to-day activities of humans, tinker/hack and attempt to solve the same workflows more sustainably. If you have a solution either through hacks or scienc…

Yes, Capitalism will surely solve the problem that Capitalism wrought, and using tools like Regulation and Policy is sure to hamper Capitalism and not help consumers or the environment at all! How sad it is that the comment suggesting we try to not continue overpopulating the globe is downvoted while this propaganda piece isn't.

We're not overpopulating it anymore. That "solution" presents its own problems.

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-53409521

Re: Rising groundwater caused by climate change could devastate coastal communities

#38

Post by IntrepidWorm »

nawgz wrote: post #29
deltree7 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Capitalism and Free Market. On an individual basis, apart from zero-cost sustainable habits, if you are capable, become a master of science, attempting to solve energy, material, carbon and climate issue at a physics level. If you are a craftsman, observe all the day-to-day activities of humans, tinker/hack and attempt to solve the same workflows more sustainably. If you have a solution either through hacks or scienc…

Yes, Capitalism will surely solve the problem that Capitalism wrought, and using tools like Regulation and Policy is sure to hamper Capitalism and not help consumers or the environment at all! How sad it is that the comment suggesting we try to not continue overpopulating the globe is downvoted while this propaganda piece isn't.

Probably because population control threads so often devolve into eugenics.

Re: Rising groundwater caused by climate change could devastate coastal communities

#39

Post by NationalPark »

deltree7 wrote: post #20
_Microft wrote: post #5

Someone submitted this a few posts earlier: "The Amazon is turning into savannah – we have 5 years to save it", https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29540946 Two sides of the same coin but the groundwater problem seems easier to solve. Not because it is technically easier but because the incentives for (rich countries) seem to be a lot stronger. Preventing the own area from flooding is way less abstract than indirect…

Capitalism and Free Market. On an individual basis, apart from zero-cost sustainable habits, if you are capable, become a master of science, attempting to solve energy, material, carbon and climate issue at a physics level. If you are a craftsman, observe all the day-to-day activities of humans, tinker/hack and attempt to solve the same workflows more sustainably. If you have a solution either through hacks or scienc…

How does this solve the problem of externalities that exists today? And what do you do if no genius ever comes along with such a "silver bullet" solution to invite venture funding? Keep waiting and hope they are born before the externalities catch up and it's too late?

Re: Rising groundwater caused by climate change could devastate coastal communities

#40

Post by q1w2 »

iskander wrote: post #24
phicoh wrote: post #19

There is one thing I don't understand about the article. The rise in groundwater level should follow the average increase in sea level. It is not like a big wave would suddenly affect the groundwater level. Assuming houses last for 50 years and during the next 50 years the sealevel can increase by around 50cm, it should be easy to check if buildings near the coast are high enough that they can accept this change in s…

I haven't read the article yet but one thing that makes more complicated in the US is the widespread use of septic tanks. The leach field will flood before the actual surface.

Most septic tanks are not in coastal properties. The water table isn't going to change for a property unless you're right on the water or living on wide low lying march/delta type areas.
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