Jakarta Is Sinking So Fast, It Could End Up Underwater

I have provided this information in detail in the past and those who have challenged me to do so haven't even bothered to check it or respond. The information is freely available in all sort of resources. The bits you need are the surface area of the earth and the surface area of the oceans, the volume of land based ice required to melt to fill the appropriate surface area to whatever level you require (in my case 1 metre), the amount of energy required to do the phase change of 1 kg of solid H2O to liquid H2O (which is approx equivalent raising 1 Kg of liquid H2O from 0 degrees Celsius to 84-85 degrees Celsius) and viola you have your results. This give an approximation to the energy required and even if you were 20% out in any of your figures, the amount is of such a magnitude that those errors are fundamentally insignificant for the planetary effects that such an amount of energy would do.

That amount of energy on the lower bounds would have caused all life to become extinct before we would see the oceans rise by any significant amount.

Many years ago, I gave these calculations to a senior climate scientist and he noted at the time that the results were interesting and he would get back to me after he had analysed those figures. That was what 15 or more years ago and I have never heard anything back since those discussions.

I have provided such figures in detail to various climate scientists asking for their analysis and basically no response. Not even to the extent of saying that the calculations were flawed.

So when ever any fool climate scientist or their supporters promulgate any scenario that says we should expect any significant ocean level rises inside of 100 years (significant being anything above 0.5 metre - especially those who promulgate 1 to 10 metres) due to human activity then the onus is on them to demonstrate where the energy processes are occurring. They have not done so to date and based on their dogma, I suspect that they cannot.

The problem with all of this politically correct dogma is that they (the climate scientists en bulk) are not doing any science.

I have said it in the past - there are no stupid questions. It seems to be today that funding is the driver to follow the crowd and to not do actual science.

We need to know what is happening in our climate. This is irrespective of any ideological standpoint you may hold. If you challenge the anthropogenic climate change (ACC) dogma then you are anathema. Even if you believe in climate change, if you do not follow the party line then you are an infidel that needs to be destroyed. Jihad not only occurs in extreme Islam but is alive and well in Climate Science as well.

This whole matter is simple enough for a fifth grader to solve, let alone an adult who should be able to do this in 20 minutes (including looking up the information).

Scepticism has its place and we need a few more sceptics when it comes to the lack of rigour that is being used by those who promulgate such scenarios. If you want to follow a fool where he leads without at least a cursory look at the base of what they are saying then you are free to do so. When someone says that you need to look at what they are saying, you don't need to listen, you can just follow blindly.

end rant.

See the starting point below. It will take you five minutes to do the calculations. Then you make up your mind if "politically correct" is an appropriate label.

Shripadk, mean sea level is actually irrelevant as far as these calculation are concerned. Really irrelevant. The climate scientists throw around their 1 to 10 metre or more scenarios and so all we need concern ourselves with is the gross minimum volume of ice required to melt.

Since the planet is an oblate sphere with a non-uniform land distribution and we have a large moon orbiting the planet, any prediction of what we would expect to see as an ocean level rise will depend critically on where on the planet you are stationed as well as the effects of tides.

In addition, any rises of the magnitudes predicted will require more ice to be melted not less as there will be inundation effects that will, in effect, increase the amount of surface area attributed to the oceans.

Hence, all calculations are a minimum not a maximum. If you want to seriously model tidal and inundation effects, then the amount of energy will greater and hence more unexplained by these very climate scientists.

If they cannot give an explanation of the energy requirements for a minimum then they will most certainly be unable to explain for any situation requiring tidal and inundation effects to be accounted for.

So mean ocean level is irrelevant.

Yep. And scent candles are causing global warming, thus must be discussed in any article about global warming.

"Nobody here believes in the greater good" - this, and an apparent basic lack of education.

Remember that time in western history that we learned of the benefits of washing hands for disease control? I have witnessed people in Jakarta regularly urinating into little drainage ditches just a few meters away from people who were washing their dishes. You could assume they do this because there are not better places to wash dishes (but if you've ever camped you know you can "clean" all the surface with dirt/sand and then use a small amount of less contaminated water to finish the job). You wouldn't assume the guy peeing had no other options, as there are plenty of corners of garages and sheds available. So that's one big problem.

From my admittedly limited experiences in Indonesia, I would characterize the people as positive, reasonably industrious, and friendly. When managed and directed, they can build massive structures. Jakarta has so many high rise buildings you would be shocked. But the parts that are not managed are kind of left unfinished or are poorly finished. Fittings in buildings are irregular or worse, and spaces just a hand's reach beyond one's property boundary are left full of trash or even excrement as if it didn't exist. This I cannot understand. Perhaps it's something to do with a lack of pride (which can be a positive attribute when compared to societies too full of pride, but which can also be detrimental at this low extreme).

Some other fascinating examples of strange (and collectively detrimental) behaviors... there was a stretch of major freeway that had a minimum occupancy requirement during rush hours. As I understood, you were not allowed to drive on that stretch at that time with just a single occupant. And during those times, there were (presumably poorer) people who would stand dangerously close to traffic, casually waiting for someone to stop and pick them up. They would be driven to the other end of the zone, paid a small tip, and then deposited back onto the road. Then they would somehow cross the road and ride back the other direction. Some women would do this with their small children in tow. This suggests the level of poverty and (potentially) the lack of opportunity for some people, but it also demonstrates how plans designed to improve situations can be hijacked for individual gain. And traffic was so horrendous that you really can't blame the city for trying that occupancy approach.

I was at a talk given by an engineer who was doing volunteer work to help communities be aware of floods as they were developing. It was fascinating - basically analyzing Twitter activity to determine very localized details of flooding. But during his time there, he observed layers of flood walls built that should have prevented many floods. He also observed that along these stone walls, locals had cut openings through them to facilitate easy foot passage. In case it's not clear from my description, they had cut openings in flood walls so it would be easier for them to walk. Predictably, during flash floods, the water would be a meter higher on one side and just POURING through the man-made openings here and there. Eventually it would equalize, leaving the entire area flooded. boggle

Finally, driving in the higher end shopping areas, it was not too uncommon to see $140,000 Mercedes AMG G wagons and the occasional Rolls Royce driving around. My driver explained that some of these people were government employees, and that it was well-known that government employees would receive extra payments and lavish gifts for providing beneficial opportunities to wealthy individuals or businesses. Fortunately that sort of thing doesn't happen in our developed countries.

There is no clean end to this wall of text.