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Climate Change(d)?


The US Army Corps of Engineers is planning to barge 36 million gallons of freshwater daily into the lower Mississippi River near New Orleans as saltwater intrusion from the Gulf of Mexico continues to threaten drinking water supply, officials said Friday.

The move comes as water levels are plummeting for the second consecutive year after this summer’s blistering heat and low rainfall triggered extreme drought over parts of the central US.

As water levels drop, the threat of saltwater intrusion grows in Louisiana as ocean water pushes north into drinking water systems, unimpeded by the Mississippi’s normally mighty flow rate.
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Lessons learned going forward, don't build cities below sea level on a coast.


Louisiana's Low Point is Also Below Sea Level

The lowest point in Louisiana lies in the city of New Orleans with an elevation of -8 feet (-2 meters) below sea level. Significant portions of the city of New Orleans in Louisiana are below sea level due to subsidence.Jan 2, 2021
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steve_bank said:

The US Army Corps of Engineers is planning to barge 36 million gallons of freshwater daily into the lower Mississippi River near New Orleans as saltwater intrusion from the Gulf of Mexico continues to threaten drinking water supply, officials said Friday.

The move comes as water levels are plummeting for the second consecutive year after this summer’s blistering heat and low rainfall triggered extreme drought over parts of the central US.

As water levels drop, the threat of saltwater intrusion grows in Louisiana as ocean water pushes north into drinking water systems, unimpeded by the Mississippi’s normally mighty flow rate.
Click to expand...

Lessons learned going forward, don't build cities below sea level on a coast.


Louisiana's Low Point is Also Below Sea Level

The lowest point in Louisiana lies in the city of New Orleans with an elevation of -8 feet (-2 meters) below sea level. Significant portions of the city of New Orleans in Louisiana are below sea level due to subsidence.Jan 2, 2021
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
New Orleans exists because of the Mississippi and trade. It's elevation is also not the trouble here, it is the level of the Mississippi, which has been impacted by a lack of rain in like 60% of thr country.
 
steve_bank said:
Lessons learned going forward, don't build cities below sea level on a coast.
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Sure, but that's where the money is. Just ask the Dutch.

Essentially, trade has always required seaports, and seaports are best placed on low lying littoral areas, particularly estuaries where they have access to inland areas via the river - sea cliffs are not conducive to building port infrastructure.

If and when sea levels rise, you can either move your port up river, or build levees, and hope they're up to whatever the weather can throw at them.
 
Are insurance premiums adjusted year-by-year? How much advance notice must the insurer give before raising rates?

southernhybrid said:
... With these actions, California is trying not to become Florida, which has seen its premiums rapidly skyrocket as a result of recent legislation and rate hikes. Residents there pay $6,000 a year on average while Californians pay about $1,300. But industry groups say that Californians should be paying much more given their exposure to major disasters, plus their homes usually cost a lot more.
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Those are big numbers, and the difference is big. Surely insurers know exactly how much they took in last year in premiums, and how much they paid out last year. Are those numbers secret? If not, why are the premium amounts controversial?
 
Swammerdami said:
Are insurance premiums adjusted year-by-year? How much advance notice must the insurer give before raising rates?

southernhybrid said:
... With these actions, California is trying not to become Florida, which has seen its premiums rapidly skyrocket as a result of recent legislation and rate hikes. Residents there pay $6,000 a year on average while Californians pay about $1,300. But industry groups say that Californians should be paying much more given their exposure to major disasters, plus their homes usually cost a lot more.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Those are big numbers, and the difference is big. Surely insurers know exactly how much they took in last year in premiums, and how much they paid out last year. Are those numbers secret? If not, why are the premium amounts controversial?
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The rates in California sounds insanely low to me, compared to other high risk states that are being impacted by climate change. From reading the link, I think it's because the state has stricter regulations as well as agreements with government, compared to most states when it comes to increasing the rates. I"m sure the information is available regarding how much the companies have paid out, even if it's not in the article. I think about half of the companies that were insuring real estate have left the state. A similar thing happened in Florida, but they have increased their rates to the point where some companies feel they can cover the cost of the extensive damages that have been the result of several natural disasters. I do wonder if the time will come when it's close to impossible to insure one's home, due to the ravages of climate change influenced disasters. They are becoming far more common in in recent years. We had a tornado in my little city in January that did quite a bit of damage to homes and apartment buildings, luckily for us, it didn't damage anything on our side of town, but there are still homes that haven't been repaired. My rate is about 1300 per year for a nice, brick middle class home, nothing special, just a well built home from the 60s. We've only had about three natural disasters that damaged perhaps as many as about 50. homes in the 26 years I've been here, so it does sound as if the rates in California to need to be increased substantially, considering the risks of extensive damage there.

I read that insurance companies in one of the high risk states paid out over 2 billion dollars last year, so while I"m not a fan of these companies, I do understand that they need to make enough money to cover all of their costs, be able to pay out claims etc. These companies aren't going to stay in places where they aren't making enough money to cover their expenses.
 
Jimmy Higgins said:
steve_bank said:

The US Army Corps of Engineers is planning to barge 36 million gallons of freshwater daily into the lower Mississippi River near New Orleans as saltwater intrusion from the Gulf of Mexico continues to threaten drinking water supply, officials said Friday.

The move comes as water levels are plummeting for the second consecutive year after this summer’s blistering heat and low rainfall triggered extreme drought over parts of the central US.

As water levels drop, the threat of saltwater intrusion grows in Louisiana as ocean water pushes north into drinking water systems, unimpeded by the Mississippi’s normally mighty flow rate.
Click to expand...

Lessons learned going forward, don't build cities below sea level on a coast.


Louisiana's Low Point is Also Below Sea Level

The lowest point in Louisiana lies in the city of New Orleans with an elevation of -8 feet (-2 meters) below sea level. Significant portions of the city of New Orleans in Louisiana are below sea level due to subsidence.Jan 2, 2021
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
New Orleans exists because of the Mississippi and trade. It's elevation is also not the trouble here, it is the level of the Mississippi, which has been impacted by a lack of rain in like 60% of thr country.
Click to expand...

Why don't they just buy houses in Beverly Hills, Hollywood, and Santa Monica?
 
Don't you just hate it when your subway system fills up with water.

NYC has been working on ways to close off subway tunnels after the last big flood. Like inflatable balloons.

From a recent show o cities and climate change NYC is working on passive solutions for tye city.

Tokyo has a huge underground cavern to capture water and high power pupps to pump it out.

www.cbsnews.com

How a man-made underground cavern helps low-lying Tokyo escape flood damage

The "underground Parthenon" has become a tourist magnet, but the modern engineering marvel is also the great protector of Japan's densely-packed capital.
www.cbsnews.com www.cbsnews.com

Manhattan has the ocean and rivers on each each side.

Much of Manhattan is about 16 feet above sea level, with Lower Manhattan ranging from 3 to 5 feet above sea level.Aug 23, 2013
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How wide is Manhattan at its narrowest point?
NYC by the Numbers
Manhattan, the smallest of the boroughs, measures 13.4 miles in length, 2.3 miles in width at its widest point, and just 0.8 miles at its narrowest point.
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Watched a show today on Pre-Columbian cultures in the Americas.

Evidence indicates there were several cases where over consumption of resources led to decline.

In particular the Mayans. They had a complex sophisticated culture. Over time a plain was deforested to support a massive building program. Deforestation led to infiltration of c;lay into swampy soil used for agriculture.

The difference today is the effects are global.
 
steve_bank said:
The difference today is the effects are global.
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That, and the fact that we don’t have to attribute it to gods. (Except evangelitard climate denyers).

We can actually watch ourselves shooting ourselves and our progeny in the foot and know that we’re doing it to ourselves, and know that we could have averted a lot of the undesirable effects.
 
Our politicians here and others elsewhere in the west don't seem to know history, even those with credentials from top schools.

Politics and news media are always short term.

Machiavellianism, the first goal is to get in power. The scond goal is to stay in power. The ends justify the means.

Hence our politicians in congress who die of old age in office or those with diminished mental capacity staring into space for minutes when giving a speech.
 
steve_bank said:
Watched a show today on Pre-Columbian cultures in the Americas.

Evidence indicates there were several cases where over consumption of resources led to decline.

In particular the Mayans. They had a complex sophisticated culture. Over time a plain was deforested to support a massive building program. Deforestation led to infiltration of c;lay into swampy soil used for agriculture.

The difference today is the effects are global.
Click to expand...
Yup. Survivor bias--a society that destroys itself leaves no cultural record of having done so. Thus the cultural history of every society is surviving any hardship. As technology has increased the size of the group that would get taken out is larger--the worst case predictions (high warming + high decomposition of methane hydrates) could take out enough of humanity that we couldn't support our tech base--and if we fall there's no stopping point before the early stone age.
 
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