Re: [asa] Creation Care

*Or to put it more home. New York area:
1. Governor's Island underwater
2. Newark Airport underwater*

Ok, so let's say that this is so. Why is this sort of thing necessarily
"devastating" for society as a whole? Remember, we're talking over a 100 or
so year period here. This isn't going to happen suddenly, tomorrow, without
warning. There was no "Newark Airport" 100 years ago. 100 years from now,
even if there is no rise in sea level, we have no idea whether there will be
a need for Newark Airport in any event. Perhaps in 100 years, there will be
a new urban center in central New Jersey, with a space elevator composed of
carbon nanotubes. Who knows? Maybe planning for that sort of contingency
is on the whole better for society than spending whatever resources are
needed to keep Newark Airport dry. I don't know whether that's the case or
not, but I do think it's useful to put this kind of stark-sounding warning
into context. The assumption seems to be that people can't adapt to
environmental change and that any environmental change is bad. 10,000 years
ago, the Newark Basin was covered by 800-meter thick glaciers. At earlier
times, it was part of a coastal plain. Things change.

On 1/20/07, Rich Blinne <rich.blinne@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 1/20/07, Bill Hamilton <williamehamiltonjr@yahoo.com> wrote:
> >
> > --- David Opderbeck <dopderbeck@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > *Re: "dramatic"
> > > How about instead of "dramatic", I said "exceedingly anomalous
compared to
> > > natural variability"?*
> > >
> > > That sounds fair.
> > >
> > > *Of course this is a worst case scenario - but suppose sea level only
rose a
> > > small fraction of that - would a 10' rise in sea level have
devastating
> > > effects*?
> > >
> > There are some low lying island nations in the Pacific that would
consider a 10
> > ft rise devastating.
>
> Or to put it more home. New York area:
>
> 1. Governor's Island underwater
> 2. Newark Airport underwater
>
> Washington DC
>
> 1. Base of Washington Monument underwater
> 2. Base of Jefferson Monument underwater
> 3. National Botanic Gardens underwater
>
> New Orleans
>
> 1. Louis Armstrong Airport underwater
>

-- 
David W. Opderbeck
Web:  http://www.davidopderbeck.com
Blog:  http://www.davidopderbeck.com/throughaglass.html
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