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Weird
Weird that these kajillion dollar companies are building their hqs in the supposed flood zone. Almost like they don't take these reports seriously. Weird.
More like the people making
More like the people making those decisions will be dead in 30 or 40 years, so they don't care.
Weird
That the Commonwealth spent a gazillion dollars relocating the archives to UMass about 20 feet from the ocean.
Weird
Weird how a corporation focused on quarterly profit doesn't care about the conditions 40 years from now of land it's renting today.
Weird
It's almost like they figured (correctly) that the city and state will pay to solve this problem instead of having on the people/companies impacted pay for it.
BTW, that is the biggest issue with addressing sea level rise IMO - due to the undemocratic nature of the federal government where the sparsely populated central states get outsized influence, the coast states which will impacted will be short changed when it comes to things like seawalls, etc...
Weird that you're wrong
The city has had sea-rise mitigation as a requirement for buildings in potential flood zones for awhile now (thanks, Menino!): You can't just build on the waterfront without it anymore. For example, this is from the environmental-impact statement by GE for its new headquarters on Fort Point Channel, right near where it already floods during king tides:
The whole thing (like 35M).
Maybe I am misreading.
They are prepared for an event. They are not prepared for the new normal.
500-year flood
Isn't an "event" - it's a disaster. If the building can survive that (nothing on the first floor, mechanicals on upper floors), it can survive much less severe stuff. Ultimately, yeah, if things continue unabated and all the polar ice melts, it won't help, because the first usable floor will be surrounded by water, but that might be more than 40 years away.
They plan to have building
They plan to have building around for longer than the next 40 years right?
Weird
That you haven't bothered to find out how they are doing exactly that.
Ignorance IS the main hallmark of stupidity and denial, though. That part isn't weird.
Why are they getting permits?
How are they getting insurance?
Adaptive building is how
The likelihood that a building will just fall over is minimal. The question is: what's on the first few floors? What would be damaged that would take extensive repairs?
The answer to that should be "nothing of consequence" and "nothing that can't be moved".
It isn't just going to totally flood one day and that is it. It starts with Sandy-level surges, which will build as the sea level rises. If your building can be hosed out and brought back on line within a few days, you're good until the next storm. You can repeat this until the area is no longer dry at any time. Then you might even have a different way to get around.
Check out the ICA sometime - first floor is entry, bookstore, and cafe. Another good one is the new Partner's building at Assembly Square - parking and entry and corridors, and all the utilities are above the likely flood line.
Finally, it isn't just the seaport that has to worry. Neither the Charles River Dam nor the Earhart Dam on the Mystic will protect either river against a Sandy-size surge on a high tide. If you live in Malden, Medford, Winchester, Arlington, Somerville, Cambridge, Watertown, you should be aware of the possibilities that your home or your neighborhood will get flooded. Ditto if you live along the Neponset, Fore River, Back River ... all these could flood well inland. I've been pushing for multi-hundred unit apartments in floodplains in Medford to have their services above the first floor, if they aren't already proposing that.
More info here at Surging Seas
Weird
That the BRA and City of Boston allows these to be built. Then again the BRA and City doesn't listen to anyone when it comes time to build anything.
Veird
I am from Holland!
Is the MBA doing anything to
Is the MBA doing anything to protect their tunnels from rising sea levels?
You mean the MBTA?
The answer is yes, they are. Actually, the entire MassDOT has been working very hard on this. They are replacing the seawall at Sullivan. They have finished an extensive assessment of flood vulnerability using lidar and surge estimations and have started working on adaptations to protect those assets.
This isn't just the highways they are concerned about, but the entire system that lies within hazard zones.
Here's that assessment: https://www.massdot.state.ma.us/Portals/.../Pilot_...
And the short summary on the T: https://www.massdot.state.ma.us/Portals/49/Docs/Se...
Arctic ocean warming up?
The Arctic ocean is warming up, icebergs are growing scarcer and in some places the seals are finding the water too hot, according to a report to the Commerce Department yesterday from Consulafft, at Bergen, Norway.
Reports from fishermen, seal hunters and explorers all point to a radical change in climate conditions and hitherto unheard-of temperatures in the Arctic zone. Exploration expeditions report that scarcely any ice has been met as far north as 81 degrees 29 minutes. Soundings to a depth of 3,100 meters showed the gulf stream still very warm. Great masses of ice have been replaced by moraines of earth and stones, the report continued, while at many points well known glaciers have entirely disappeared.
Very few seals and no white fish are found in the eastern Arctic, while vast shoals of herring and smelts which have never before ventured so far north, are being encountered in the old seal fishing grounds. -- November 22, 1922 -- The Washington Post
Keep blathering
We know you are an idiot already, but your incessant denial of reality in favor of past-pull-date talking points just confirms that.\
Here's the reality:
Careful now
That jerking knee could give you a black eye someday.
Eh?
Yeah, I read the date on this. Not that I hadn't seen this "quoted" before by climate change deniers like fishy.
Doesn't have anything to do with current reality, and it is worth pointing out that current reality for the sake of those who don't know fake news and carefully cultivated memes from reality.
It's worth pointing out
That the newspaper article itself was indeed printed in the WaPo in October 1922. Of course, it was really only relevant to Spitzbergen, not the Arctic as a whole.
Global warming didn't start last year, nor did the theories explaining it. Warming began to be reported widely by the thirties. Guy Stewart Callendar thought the warming would be a good thing. Reports of localized warming going back to the twenties or thirties are not inconsistent with current understanding or trends.
Whoa
a 35 year chart!! How long has Earth been around?
What was going on in the early late 1800's-early 1900's. Were scientists concerned about the "climate change" that was occurring? Were they fearing another ice age?
here you go
That's all of written and unwritten human history. Stone age to Space age.
Even if Climate Change is wrong, why chance that future where we knock the climate out of the range that's been so good to our species? What's the worst thing that happens? We create greener, reliable, eco-friendly energy that is sustainable and not just burning shit until we can't burn anything?
We don't use whale oil anymore. We can do the same to crude oil.
Whoh
Somebody flunked science and wants the world to pay for it!
Hint: 35 years shows the inflection from past trajectories, denialist rube.
It makes me so mad that
It makes me so mad that Republicans have turned climate change (and facts at large for that matter) into a partisan issue. The ONLY climate scientists who deny that humans are causing climate change are the ones who are doing studies for the fossil fuel industry and cherry picking data (like you just did there). This is real and we're all screwed if nobody does anything about it, you ignorant asshole.
Future headlines will talk
Future headlines will talk about how dumb and lazy republicans were and how they ruined the planet because they were easily fooled by oil companies.
More on sea-level rise and Boston
Eye On Weather: Sea Level Rise Could Have Big Impact In Boston:
Hey SwirlyGrrl
Where can I find you on the interwebs beyond just the UHub comments section? Twitter? Blog? Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.