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What would happen where you live if all the ice melted?


Fragile Bird

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Commodore,

I don't believe it will be an "apocalypse" but climate change is happening, it is always happening as "climate" by definition is not static. We need fo be prepared.

of course, prepared always means confiscation of wealth and restrictions on behavior

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of course, prepared always means confiscation of wealth and restrictions on behavior

The whole concept of society is that we have restrictions on behavior; if we didn't we'd live in Hobbesian world where people are free to do whatever they want, including murder, rape, and steal if they so choose.

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There are two irrefutable facts to keep in mind here: massive amounts of the polar ice caps have melted, and the melting has happened much faster than expected.

I'm one of the older people on the Board, so I won't see the worst of it. Anyone younger than 40 will likely be seriously affected, in some way. Like dealing with refugees. And food issues, when so much rich bottom land now used for farming is gone. Not to mention changes in weather.

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It's tricky to figure out what would happen to Utah if the ice caps melted. We wouldn't have any sea flooding, because all of the state is well above sea level - the lowest point in Utah by elevation is 2,000 feet above sea level now, and the average elevation of Salt Lake City is 4300 feet above sea level.



But we'd almost certainly be affected by the weather changes, particularly the higher temperatures necessary to melt the ice caps as well as the change in rainfall patterns from the sea getting closer to us. I wouldn't be surprised if the area turned into some kind of subtropical savannah, rather than the semi-arid steppe it is right now.



of course, prepared always means confiscation of wealth and restrictions on behavior


In the US, what it will likely mean is greater subsidies for flood and disaster insurance (trying to fight them has been almost impossible - lots of connected developers in places like Florida), followed by massive public works to keep the sea out. I wouldn't be surprised if New York City created some new land to place an above-sea level barrier between the city and the sea, in addition to flood-gates.


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Living in Cambridge I don't feel I need to look at a website to see what would happen, according to Google Earth where I live is about 9m above the current sea level - given that half of Cambridgeshire is below sea level anyway that almost counts as high ground around here.

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I live in a landlocked country, with reasonably high mountains between my hometown and nearest seas.

If the estimation in the video is correct, rising sea levels should not affect me much.

You wouldn't get flooded; that doesn't mean you wouldn't be affected. Any idea what losing every port city in the world would do to the global economy? And there's the refugee issue.

I wish they put some more city names on there because I can't figure out which parts of Europe will be flooded and which won't. Luxembourg seems fine, I think and so does the south of Poland. maybe Silesia will get to be its own country after all!

This might be more helpful.

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is there even a prediction in there? looked like a thought experiment to me.

if it is a prediction, new orleans hereby demands new federal levees sufficient to withstand 65 meter storm surge.

Which sort of raises the question of what the point of the video is and how it relates to what the effects of global warming might actually be.

'hey, it would be like, super awful if this thing that no one has ever even remotely suggested were to come to pass, so like "OMG CLIMATE CHANGE".

The whole thing is silly.

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You wouldn't get flooded; that doesn't mean you wouldn't be affected. Any idea what losing every port city in the world would do to the global economy? And there's the refugee issue.

This might be more helpful.

Like that site. At +40 meter sea level rise, I'm living on the shoreline of a peninsula jutting out into the strait between San Francisco Bay and the new San Joaquin Sea. At +50 meters, I'm swimming.

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Here's another map rocksniffer showed me. I asked him to show up in this thread and talk about the subject, since he presented a paper on the topic ten years ago at a conference in Japan.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/09/rising-seas/if-ice-melted-map?rptregcta=reg_free_np&rptregcampaign=2015012_invitation_ro_all#

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You wouldn't get flooded; that doesn't mean you wouldn't be affected. Any idea what losing every port city in the world would do to the global economy? And there's the refugee issue.

Sure, there would be consequences but nothing like you're describing.

Refugees? Yeah, if it happened very quickly which is not how this would work if it would ever even happen.

Sea level would not rise 10m overnight, it would be slow and would take a long time.

Ports could be moved during that time and most people would relocate.

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