Sea levels are rising. Time to build …. floating cities?

WITH SEA LEVELS expected to rise at least 26 inches by the end of the century, due to human-driven climate change, to say that we have a problem is an understatement. By the middle of the next century, many of the world’s major cities will be flooded, and in some cases, entire island nations will be underwater. The people who live there will have to relocate. But to where?

With sea levels rising, is it time to contemplate floating cities?

On Wednesday, the United Nations Human Settlements Program, or UN Habitat, convened its first roundtable to discuss the possibility of floating cities as a solution to this problem. Held at its headquarters in New York City, on the banks of the East River, the location was fitting given that the room itself might be underwater within a century. The specific proposal that dozens of scientists, engineers, artists, and investors came to discuss was Oceanix City, which aspires to create a scalable platform for the seafaring civilizations of tomorrow.

Read the Wired story by Daniel Oberhaus - “Sea levels are rising. Time to build …. floating cities?”

Florida’s Poop Nightmare Has Come True

In the days and hours before Hurricane Irma slammed into Florida, its residents were treated to copious media speculation about nightmare scenarios. This monster storm, journalists said, could bring a 15-foot storm surge, blow roofs off of buildings, and cause tens of billions of dollars in damage. But perhaps no scenario seemed more dire than the one Quartz warned about the day before Irma made landfall: “Hurricane Irma will likely cover South Florida with a film of poop.”

Quartz’ apparent hyperbole turned out to be an understatement. Pollution reports submitted to Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection show that, due to power outages and flooding caused by Irma, human waste has been spilling into streets, residences, and waterways across the entire state. At the time of this article’s publication, at least 113 “Public Notices of Pollution” had been submitted to the DEP. Combined, those discharge reports showed more than 28 million gallons of treated and untreated sewage released in 22 counties.The total amount is surely much more; at least 43 of those reports listed either an “unknown” or “ongoing” amount of waste released and new reports continue to roll in—sometimes as many as a dozen per hour.

Read the New Republic story by Emily Atkin - “Florida’s Poop Nightmare Has Come True.”

Government must address emissions reduction in any moves to save Great Barrier Reef

As claims and counterclaims swirl about the health of the Great Barrier Reef, it can be difficult to know what to believe. A good starting point is listening to Terry Hughes, the director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, and listed last year by the journal Nature as one of the 10 people who matter most in science.

Professor Hughes, who regularly surveys the reef, last week stunned his Twitter followers by saying 49 per cent of shallow corals had died after two summers of bleaching.

This figure was given preliminary endorsement by Russell Reichelt, the chief executive of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. He noted there had also been an increase in cover in the south in recent years, but added: "It is difficult to say this without sounding like I don't think the problem is serious. I certainly do.”

If anything, serious is an understatement. The loss of half of the reef's shallow water corals is a global-scale catastrophe. It may have potentially serious ramifications in the years ahead for about 70,000 people who rely on the reef for their livelihoods.

Read the Editorial in today’s Melbourne Age - “Government must address emissions reduction in any moves to save Great Barrier Reef.”