Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The mechanics of the Nepali flash flood

economist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 91 posts

Re: The mechanics of the Nepali flash flood

#41

Post by IncreasePosts »

glimshe wrote: post #6

I haven't yet been able to properly internalize the horror of this scene. Maybe because we're exposed to so many images from disaster and action movies/videogames, I got somewhat desensitized to the "graphics", so to speak. It's like my brain is denial. At the same time, I know this is real and a tragedy in an unimaginable scale. Every "little walking figure" is a full human being with dreams, fears and a rich life s…

You might want to take an intense media break. I went to 4chan to find more videos of the event, something it's rather good for, and even those guys were largely shocked and flabbergasted at the scale of the carnage and destruction

Re: The mechanics of the Nepali flash flood

#42

Post by stackskipton »

ferguess_k wrote: post #14
kulahan wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both figuratively and literally, this experience was the tip of the iceberg. Terrifying. People might think I'm crazy, but I'm choosing my retirement location 100% based on resistance to climate change. Local water, too much humidity for massive fires, too cold for insane heatwaves... you get it.

Which places have you found? I'm in Canada and figured most of the places are going to suffer more rain falling in the next decades.

Great Lakes area is probably well positioned.

Re: The mechanics of the Nepali flash flood

#43

Post by debo_ »

ferguess_k wrote: post #14
kulahan wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both figuratively and literally, this experience was the tip of the iceberg. Terrifying. People might think I'm crazy, but I'm choosing my retirement location 100% based on resistance to climate change. Local water, too much humidity for massive fires, too cold for insane heatwaves... you get it.

Which places have you found? I'm in Canada and figured most of the places are going to suffer more rain falling in the next decades.

I have spoken to quite a few real estate agents in Sudbury who mentioned folks are buying property there as a hedge against climate change.

Re: The mechanics of the Nepali flash flood

#44

Post by wahern »

HDBaseT wrote: post #34
1attice wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true, and, relatedly, is the feeling I have about all of climate change. By the numbers, it won't be close. Of course, this little preview is itself anthropogenic. This horrific disaster is the thinnest tendril of the monster we have unleashed.

This event has nothing to do with climate change and is pure fear mongering. This is the same adage used by the Governments with the "think about the children" campaigns, its a distraction. A cop out.

I sympathize with the reaction to the hyperbole, but it's not a binary thing. Better to think in terms of marginal increases in occurrence rate, or in a single case marginal increase in progression of an impending event (glaciers were all gonna be gone in a few thousand years anyhow).

Still plenty of room to debate numbers.

Re: The mechanics of the Nepali flash flood

#45

Post by 8note »

SoftTalker wrote: post #28
abrowne wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wildfire smoke will be the big question there. It's started to be bad for a week or two a year in Minneapolis, and is only worse the closer you are to the boreal forest.

Wildfires only a problem until the overgrowth is burned off. When there's not enough to sustain a large spreading fire, they will stop happening.

canada's forest is growing, not shrinking. the overgrowth will keep growing year over year

Re: The mechanics of the Nepali flash flood

#46

Post by electricEmu »

SoftTalker wrote: post #28
abrowne wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wildfire smoke will be the big question there. It's started to be bad for a week or two a year in Minneapolis, and is only worse the closer you are to the boreal forest.

Wildfires only a problem until the overgrowth is burned off. When there's not enough to sustain a large spreading fire, they will stop happening.

Climate change is defined by both wet and dry extremes.

Excess rainfall creates an explosion of brush that during the now annual drought turns to tinder.

Re: The mechanics of the Nepali flash flood

#47

Post by kulahan »

HDBaseT wrote: post #34
1attice wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true, and, relatedly, is the feeling I have about all of climate change. By the numbers, it won't be close. Of course, this little preview is itself anthropogenic. This horrific disaster is the thinnest tendril of the monster we have unleashed.

This event has nothing to do with climate change and is pure fear mongering. This is the same adage used by the Governments with the "think about the children" campaigns, its a distraction. A cop out.

Yeah, the event primarily marked by receding glaciers probably has nothing to do with this glacier that weakened to the point of destroying a village.

This glacier probably melted many times in the past, especially in such a sudden and violent manner.

I'm sure this is in no way anomalous, nor is it something that could predictably result at some point from a warming planet.

Re: The mechanics of the Nepali flash flood

#48

Post by __MatrixMan__ »

SoftTalker wrote: post #28
abrowne wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wildfire smoke will be the big question there. It's started to be bad for a week or two a year in Minneapolis, and is only worse the closer you are to the boreal forest.

Wildfires only a problem until the overgrowth is burned off. When there's not enough to sustain a large spreading fire, they will stop happening.

Then come the floods because the roots were holding all the soil in place and the soil was managing water movement. What used to be an all year trickle becomes an occasional deatructive deluge.

Re: The mechanics of the Nepali flash flood

#50

Post by hodgesrm »

kulahan wrote: post #11
1attice wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true, and, relatedly, is the feeling I have about all of climate change. By the numbers, it won't be close. Of course, this little preview is itself anthropogenic. This horrific disaster is the thinnest tendril of the monster we have unleashed.

Both figuratively and literally, this experience was the tip of the iceberg. Terrifying. People might think I'm crazy, but I'm choosing my retirement location 100% based on resistance to climate change. Local water, too much humidity for massive fires, too cold for insane heatwaves... you get it.

Pro tip for people moving north; don't buy land in the valleys around Mt. Rainier. This type of flood (also known as a lahar) has occurred there many times. The mudflows reached the harbor of Tacoma in the past. [0] I expect we'll see at least one new one in our lifetime, as the glaciers have been greatly affected by rising temperatures.

[0] https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/mt-rainier-lahar-hazard-ma...

Post reply on HN