American Cities and Climate Change: When is Enough, Enough?

[AviationGuy]

Originally Posted by Obadno

Please explain how lots of rain around Houston is because of climate change.

I promise you no climatologist would claim it is.

Although any particular storm has complex causes, warmer waters in the Gulf (very likely tied in a big way to climate change) can very well be a contributing factor, and potentially the main contributing factor for some storms.

[AviationGuy]

Originally Posted by Dariusb

Man I hear you. I was passing through on my way to Baton Rouge and it was like an ocean burst out of the sky. People strandd on the side of freeways. Other freeways like 69 were jammed with people fleeing other roads. I ended up having to go up 69 to 190 and took that into Baton Rouge. A normally 6 hour trip took twice that. I'm beat and this hotel room is like heaven right now. Global warming is most definitely real no matter how much naysayers including the president want to deny it.

Warmer oceans do have a cause and effect relationship with higher intensity rainfall events. Such events have complex causes, but warmer water can be a big contributing factor, depending on the relative strengths of the contributing factors.

One thing that continually amazes me is the number of people who think "global warming" must mean every place on earth, at any given time, is warmer than it was. So they think if they're having a cold spell, there can't possibly be any "global warming". They have no understanding of the concept of global averages, or the concept that warmer temperatures in some places (like the Arctic) are much more important than warmer temperatures in other places. Also, the feedback mechanism just compounds the problem. The warmer it is in the Arctic, for example, the more ice melts. The more ice melts, the less reflectivity there is from the surface, which speeds things up.

None of this matters to a president who loves to say that a snowstorm on the east coast "proves" there is no global warming (per some of his Tweets).

[Dariusb]

Originally Posted by AviationGuy

Warmer oceans do have a cause and effect relationship with higher intensity rainfall events. Such events have complex causes, but warmer water can be a big contributing factor, depending on the relative strengths of the contributing factors.

One thing that continually amazes me is the number of people who think "global warming" must mean every place on earth, at any given time, is warmer than it was. So they think if they're having a cold spell, there can't possibly be any "global warming". They have no understanding of the concept of global averages, or the concept that warmer temperatures in some places (like the Arctic) are much more important than warmer temperatures in other places. Also, the feedback mechanism just compounds the problem. The warmer it is in the Arctic, for example, the more ice melts. The more ice melts, the less reflectivity there is from the surface, which speeds things up.

None of this matters to a president who loves to say that a snowstorm on the east coast "proves" there is no global warming (per some of his Tweets).

I agree and now huge sections of the Amazon (one of the biggest oxygen producing areas) is going up in smoke and Antarctica/Arctic are melting at a faster than anticipated rate, people still aren't getting it and I wonder what the future holds especially for our coastal cities.

[AviationGuy]

Originally Posted by JManc

Houston is just floody and prone to erratic weather. We've had four major flooding incidents since 2015.

It's a combination of more extreme rainfall events, and extreme development with associated removal of natural ground cover. The two don't go together with a favorable outcome.

[Sun Belt]

Today's Houston was once 300 miles inland.

This Climate Change has got to stop right now, or else!

[bilbao58]

.

[Sun Belt]

Originally Posted by bilbao58

This is a joke, right?

No it's not a joke. The point of the post is that shorelines change, always have, always will and there's nothing we can do to preserve the shoreline of the year 2000 forever and ever and ever.

Now whether the shoreline was 100 miles away or 225, that's not the point. The ancient shoreline is what we call the continental shelf and that shoreline really wasn't that long ago -- it was a rapid, intense warm up that resulted in sea level rise in the order of hundreds of feet.

[jtown,man]

Originally Posted by Sun Belt

No it's not a joke. The point of the post is that shorelines change, always have, always will and there's nothing we can do to preserve the shoreline of the year 2000 forever and ever and ever.

Now whether the shoreline was 100 miles away or 225, that's not the point. The ancient shoreline is what we call the continental shelf and that shoreline really wasn't that long ago -- it was a rapid, intense warm up that resulted in sea level rise in the order of hundreds of feet.

It seems some people think the world was created() as it currently is and it must always remain that way.

Hell, even in East Arkansas we used to be under the ocean...

[Sun Belt]

Originally Posted by jtown,man

It seems some people think the world was created() as it currently is and it must always remain that way.

Hell, even in East Arkansas we used to be under the ocean...

Just 20,000 years ago, most of the entire state of Utah was under water. The Great Salt Lake used to be incredibly massive.

But, Climate Change dried it all up.

--I'm going to go block traffic in SLC and demand for them to restore these wetlands, now!

E] One good thing about Climate Change is that Area 51 is now on a dry lake bed. Had the Climate not Changed, where would we store the recovered UFOs and dead Alien bodies?

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by bilbao58

This is a joke, right?

Where Houston is today was much further inland, but also much of the northern latitudes were under miles of ice

[Gantz]

Originally Posted by Obadno

Where Houston is today was much further inland, but also much of the northern latitudes were under miles of ice

For ~99% of the time over the past 2 million years, New York was under 2 miles of ice.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by Gantz

For ~99% of the time over the past 2 million years, New York was under 2 miles of ice.

Yes we are in the inter-glacial of a very old ice age.

[jtown,man]

Originally Posted by SpawnOfVulcan

As a geographer, with a focus in urban and regional planning, I wonder why people choose to remain in large, disaster-prone metro areas. I'm talking about extreme natural disasters that occur nearly every year. These extreme weather events, that are exacerbated by impervious surfaces in urban areas are obviously going to continue to occur!

What gives?

Certainly demographics play into certain populations' abilities to move out of hazardous areas, but (aside from denial of the existance of climate change) why do certain demographic groups choose to remain in such susceptible areas?

I, of course, live in a state that is highly proned to natural disasters. However, I love Alabama, I love Birmingham, and I love the Tennessee Valley. None of us can truly escape all natural disasters, but when you see the catastrophic flooding like we're seeing with Imelda, I wonder what coastal residents think when the rebuild time after time.

Is Houston just an exceptional city?

Is Miami Beach just too beautiful?

Is Charleston too precious to sacrifice?

Is New Orleans too important of a port to allow the Mississippi to run its natural course?

What do you mean "demographics play into certain populations' abilities to move out of hazardous areas"?

But we know the answer to your question:

Money
Family
Jobs
Inertia
Connections
Beauty of area
etc. etc. etc.

Norfolk floods a lot. But like 98% of the time it isn't flooded. So as with anything in life, you deal with the short stints of bullshit to enjoy the other side of the coin. For most people, for most times, life is fine in these areas. My dad's entire family lives in Miami. They seem fine. No one usually cares about crap that rarely happens(even if that "rarely happens" event is happening more).

[Kenmore]

all those cities are doomed in my lifetime and no one gives a fuk because the boomer owner class will be dead anyways

[Centropolis]

i frequently ship time-sensitive environmental samples and i can’t tell you how many times they don’t make it to the lab on time in houston either due to traffic, weather, or just the system breaking down. i have thousands of dollars worth of samples right now, i guess stuck at dallas, ruined due to flooding in houston. its become a serious problem.

[Centropolis]

houston was an honorable attempt insofar as an interesting collection of people.

[the urban politician]

Chicago is subject to severe weather outbreaks year after year as well too.

It's called January

[mrnyc]

not that we shouldn't keep trying to do something about it as best we can, but is there really anything different in the weather in these more disaster prone areas or is the reporting better and there is much content needed nowadays?

[Centropolis]

you need good pylons for the first story in a flood zone like we have along the mississippi, not a premade 2x4 type wall panel. it would be cheaper to build new probably?

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

it would be cheaper to build new probably?

I doubt that, considering you've got the rest of the house for free. (Roof, walls, interior, etc.)