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Denmark parliament approves giant artificial island off Copenhagen

bbc.co.uk

31–40 of 139 posts

Re: Denmark parliament approves giant artificial island off Copenhagen

#31

My knee jerk reaction to this was “Why build an island when the glaciers are melting and the global sea level is rising?” but then I looked into it and by 2100 the average rise will be about 0.3m. Just dredge up more mud and you should be good! https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/...

As the article states one of the functions of the island is actually to protect the rest of the land from rising sea levels because it will involve building advanced flooding protections. (Also as a side note, a 0.3m rise doesn't sound like much, but that is an enormous mass of water. IIRC a rise of that level would destroy more than a quarter of the land of most American coastal cities)

That 1-foot sea level rise destroying a quarter of American costal city land sounds wrong to me. I think you may be recalling wrong.

Re: Denmark parliament approves giant artificial island off Copenhagen

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As the article states one of the functions of the island is actually to protect the rest of the land from rising sea levels because it will involve building advanced flooding protections. (Also as a side note, a 0.3m rise doesn't sound like much, but that is an enormous mass of water. IIRC a rise of that level would destroy more than a quarter of the land of most American coastal cities)

That 1-foot sea level rise destroying a quarter of American costal city land sounds wrong to me. I think you may be recalling wrong.

It may be "putting at risk" - I can easily imagine that most seawalls aren't 1 foot above high water line but are designed with some safety in mind for storms and such, but now are at risk to smaller storms.

Re: Denmark parliament approves giant artificial island off Copenhagen

#33

This is some remarkably long-term planning: "If construction goes ahead as planned, the majority of the foundations for the island off Denmark's capital should be in place by 2035, with an aim to fully complete the project by 2070." I can't recall ever seeing the year 2070 or later in print, in the context of some definite project or plan. Are there other examples?

Not quite the same, as it’s already completed, but John Malkovich made a film with Robert Rodriguez that won’t be released until 2115.

100 Years is an upcoming experimental science fiction film written by John Malkovich and directed by Robert Rodriguez. Advertised in 2015 with the tagline "The Movie You Will Never See", it is due to be released on November 18, 2115. The 100-year span matches the time it takes for a bottle of Louis XIII Cognac to be properly aged before its release to consumers.

Pending release, the film is being kept in a high-tech safe behind bulletproof glass that will open automatically on November 18, 2115, the day of the film's premiere.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Years_(film)

Re: Denmark parliament approves giant artificial island off Copenhagen

#34

> A case against the development of Lynetteholm has been brought before the European Court of Justice by environmental groups. I’m always a little surprised that the most wild and natural parts of world (the flyover country) is populated by anti environmentalists (or rather, libertarians typically), and the most densely populated cities devoid of most green things tend to have clusters of environmentalists. Don’t the…

This case has nothing to do with urbanism but has to do with how the environmental impact of the project is measured.

Put simply, despite planning and projecting the entire project, the environmental impact is done piece by piece. This vastly understated the environmental impact in the harbor and Øresund. This approach is what is being challenged, since it obviously disregards big picture thinking.

Re: Denmark parliament approves giant artificial island off Copenhagen

#35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone born in the late 1990s might expect to retire around 2070. Given the population structure in wealthy countries, early retirement at 65 is no longer feasible for most people in the younger generations.

This is an oft-quoted phenomenon, but I think it's important to point out it need not be true. We've had chronically weak demand, in which case more retires should actually be good , raising wages and spurring productivity improvements. In the US, just need to keep healthcare costs under control.

Retirees are not known for generating large amounts of demand compared to younger people who work.

Re: Denmark parliament approves giant artificial island off Copenhagen

#36

> A case against the development of Lynetteholm has been brought before the European Court of Justice by environmental groups. I’m always a little surprised that the most wild and natural parts of world (the flyover country) is populated by anti environmentalists (or rather, libertarians typically), and the most densely populated cities devoid of most green things tend to have clusters of environmentalists. Don’t the…

This has not been my experience, the most environmentalist people I know were generally born in small towns... Most also spent at least some time working in some form of "outdoor entertainment" that included long periods of time spent in the complete wilderness. Canoe/Hiking trips and the like. This includes people who at least publicly admired people who stuck spikes in trees to damage logging equipment (acts that people on the other side classify as terrorism).

I get the impression that the least environmentalist people are also generally in small towns, but I can't say I've ended up associating with them as much. My impression is that they're generally this way because they're the people that environmental laws impact the most.

City people seem to typically fall into a middle ground, not rabid in either direction.

(Europe may be different, I'm Canadian, but broad generalities about environmentalists seem likely to carry over?)

Re: Denmark parliament approves giant artificial island off Copenhagen

#37

> A case against the development of Lynetteholm has been brought before the European Court of Justice by environmental groups. I’m always a little surprised that the most wild and natural parts of world (the flyover country) is populated by anti environmentalists (or rather, libertarians typically), and the most densely populated cities devoid of most green things tend to have clusters of environmentalists. Don’t the…

Most of those environmentalists, strong though their convictions may be, wouldn't give up almond milk lattes, organic fusion sushi, constant social media, fast reliable internet, and all the other trappings of cosmopolitan hipster life, at least not for more than a few days.

Re: Denmark parliament approves giant artificial island off Copenhagen

#38

> A case against the development of Lynetteholm has been brought before the European Court of Justice by environmental groups. I’m always a little surprised that the most wild and natural parts of world (the flyover country) is populated by anti environmentalists (or rather, libertarians typically), and the most densely populated cities devoid of most green things tend to have clusters of environmentalists. Don’t the…

I've heard some environmentalists make an argument for dense human cities. If you're going to have all those people and their infrastructure either way, compress it down and maybe you can leave more room for nature? They tend to be very anti suburbs along the same thinking.

Re: Denmark parliament approves giant artificial island off Copenhagen

#39
post #26

This is some remarkably long-term planning: "If construction goes ahead as planned, the majority of the foundations for the island off Denmark's capital should be in place by 2035, with an aim to fully complete the project by 2070." I can't recall ever seeing the year 2070 or later in print, in the context of some definite project or plan. Are there other examples?

Japan built an island for the Kansai airport. Construction started in 1987 and the airport opened in 1994. Japan have a host of "long term big engineering projects" they're always working on.

That's only 7 years?

Re: Denmark parliament approves giant artificial island off Copenhagen

#40

This is some remarkably long-term planning: "If construction goes ahead as planned, the majority of the foundations for the island off Denmark's capital should be in place by 2035, with an aim to fully complete the project by 2070." I can't recall ever seeing the year 2070 or later in print, in the context of some definite project or plan. Are there other examples?

The Dutch fairly routinely reclaimed land that could only be built on decades later (once it dried out sufficiently to be stable enough to build on).

One of the largest such projects was the Zuiderzee works, which closed a large inlet of the North Sea. Then (according to the table in the Wikipedia page), 1650 km^2 land was claimed from the sea (the land was large enough to add a new province to The Netherlands in 1986).

Even though (AFAIK) the timeline was not exactly laid out, it was clear from the outset that this project would take many decades.

The scale of the Zuiderzee works is really insane. Even building of the dyke that encloses the inlet was projected to cost a year of the national budget.

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

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