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Assuming the climate is screwed, where to live in the future?

  • 29-07-2019 3:42pm
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,501 ✭✭✭


    So let's be pesemistic and assume we have passed the point of no return and the world is destined to be wrecked in the next 50 years.

    I plan on being comfortably retired in 50 years, so where is likely to be the best place to be living in 50 years.

    Will Africa become a tropical paradise, will Ireland become a desert, will the snowy Alps be a warm lake view?


Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 40,061 ✭✭✭✭Harry Palmr


    You're already living there if you're in Ireland.

    The only likely thing that can feck us up and it's not terminal is the Gulf Stream failing which if it happens will turn us into Newfoundland or the west coast of Norway, which isn't the worst fate.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,275 ✭✭✭Your Face




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,241 ✭✭✭✭RMAOK


    Live on top of Everest - when all the ice melts at the North and South Pole, Everest will become highly sought after beach side property....


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,195 ✭✭✭✭jimgoose


    As said by another poster, Ireland will be as good as anywhere else if, as is starting to look rather likely, the World's climate goes all sorts of tits-up. The worsening wars over arable land and water as vast swathes of the rest of the World goes Mad Max will be good craic as well, mind. :D


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,264 ✭✭✭✭jester77


    Build your own ark and follow the gulf stream


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,801 ✭✭✭Dubl07


    Rather unknowable at the moment. The magnetic poles are moving, the icecaps are melting and seas are rising. I wouldn't move to a house on a beach or a cliff unless I was willing to write off the cost in 20-30 years. A big enough patch of land to grow crops. Somewhere over an aquifer that's partly lake, high up and remote with enough sun to run an array of solar panels and build a bunker into a stable mountain, away from geological faults and active volcanoes.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,376 ✭✭✭✭rossie1977


    Nowhere near low lying coast anyway because if ice-caps melt all that area which includes some of the most famous cities on Earth is totally f**ked and would include all of this islands main urban areas.

    I don't think Ireland in general would be good place to be, probably looking at something like this

    88b6f75c-01a1-4163-80bc-0c2b3024fcf0.jpg


  • Posts: 5,311 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    rossie1977 wrote: »
    Nowhere near low lying coast anyway because if ice-caps melt all that area which includes some of the most famous cities on Earth is totally f**ked and would include all of this islands main urban areas.

    I don't think Ireland in general would be good place to be, probably looking at something like this

    88b6f75c-01a1-4163-80bc-0c2b3024fcf0.jpg

    First dibs on the Wicklow hills.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,942 ✭✭✭topper75


    I don't understand this talk of the Gulf stream breaking down. It is the air heated near the equator. It spins up towards us because of the earth's rotation. That is why we get it and Newfoundland does not. Now global cooling might weaken it but we are unlikely to experience such with our 'greenhouse' gas output.

    If the earth's average temp rises, the Gulf stream may strengthen to the point where frost is hardly known here in these islands (a little beyond our lifetime anyway). None of this will be 'new' of course. The people who built the walls of the Céide fields would have enjoyed a 10-11 month growing season.

    Ireland, agriculturally at least, will really benefit from having a warm climate and abundance of inland waterways. We will be a veritable Nile valley.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,211 ✭✭✭✭ILoveYourVibes


    topper75 wrote: »
    I don't understand this talk of the Gulf stream breaking down. It is the air heated near the equator. It spins up towards us because of the earth's rotation. That is why we get it and Newfoundland does not. Now global cooling might weaken it but we are unlikely to experience such with our 'greenhouse' gas output.

    If the earth's average temp rises, the Gulf stream may strengthen to the point where frost is hardly known here in these islands (a little beyond our lifetime anyway). None of this will be 'new' of course. The people who built the walls of the Céide fields would have enjoyed a 10-11 month growing season.

    Ireland, agriculturally at least, will really benefit from having a warm climate and abundance of inland waterways. We will be a veritable Nile valley.
    Exactly chill lads.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,592 ✭✭✭✭kneemos


    Sea levels are rising one or two millimeters per year.
    People need to ignore all the scare tactic headlines that contain "might","may",and "could".


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,681 ✭✭✭Apiarist


    If worst comes to worst, most of the human population will die, making the problem of finding the space to live somewhat irrelevant. A bit warmer climate for us in the Northern Europe is not a problem. However, the climate change may kill almost all ocean life, just like in The Great Dying 252 million years ago, in which 95% of sea life and 70% of land animals died out.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,819 ✭✭✭✭Thelonious Monk


    Its all a hoax and the earths resources are infinite and its just the loony left trying to carbon tax us all if you are to believe journal comments and boardsies so dont worry about it OP


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,052 ✭✭✭✭TheValeyard


    First dibs on the Wicklow hills.

    You mean the Free City State of the Republic of Wicklow

    All eyes on Kursk. Slava Ukraini.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,211 ✭✭✭✭ILoveYourVibes


    You mean the Free City State of the Republic of Wicklow


    I'm loving this. We are banning cars and all going horse back!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,501 ✭✭✭BrokenArrows


    kneemos wrote: »
    Sea levels are rising one or two millimeters per year.
    People need to ignore all the scare tactic headlines that contain "might","may",and "could".

    And in 50 years that's possibly a 1 meter rise in sea. That's a lot of water.

    It's enough to have river banks in towns near the coast constantly break their banks.

    My house would definitely be uninhabitable.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,592 ✭✭✭✭kneemos


    And in 50 years that's possibly a 1 meter rise in sea. That's a lot of water.

    It's enough to have river banks in towns near the coast constantly break their banks.

    My house would definitely be uninhabitable.

    In fifty years it will be 0.1 metres.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,717 ✭✭✭YFlyer


    And in 50 years that's possibly a 1 meter rise in sea. That's a lot of water.

    It's enough to have river banks in towns near the coast constantly break their banks.

    My house would definitely be uninhabitable.

    mm not cm.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,501 ✭✭✭BrokenArrows


    victor8600 wrote: »
    If worst comes to worst, most of the human population will die, making the problem of finding the space to live somewhat irrelevant. A bit warmer climate for us in the Northern Europe is not a problem. However, the climate change may kill almost all ocean life, just like in The Great Dying 252 million years ago, in which 95% of sea life and 70% of land animals died out.

    Well the point would be to prevent me being one of the dead. Haha.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,501 ✭✭✭BrokenArrows


    kneemos wrote: »
    In fifty years it will be 0.1 metres.

    Don't ruin my exaggeration with your "accuracy". Haha.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 727 ✭✭✭InTheShadows


    Hearing this "point of no return" rubbish for years now. We'll more than likely be hearing about it in another 20 years .


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 12,653 ✭✭✭✭Plumbthedepths


    An Australian environmental scientist described Ireland as a 'Lifeboat nation'.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,799 ✭✭✭✭Akrasia


    Hearing this "point of no return" rubbish for years now. We'll more than likely be hearing about it in another 20 years .

    We’ve already passed the point of no return for a lot of climate impacts. It’s a damage limitation exercise now.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,802 ✭✭✭✭suicide_circus


    China is looking to build a new coal power station every 2 weeks for the next 12 years.

    https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2019/03/28/china-new-coal-plants-2030-climate/

    ditch those plastic straws folks!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,996 ✭✭✭✭gozunda


    rossie1977 wrote: »
    Nowhere near low lying coast anyway because if ice-caps melt all that area which includes some of the most famous cities on Earth is totally f**ked and would include all of this islands main urban areas.

    I don't think Ireland in general would be good place to be, probably looking at something like this
    88b6f75c-01a1-4163-80bc-0c2b3024fcf0.jpg

    I'll be grand so. Just have to dig the moat and stock it with alligators to keep the rest of ye feckers out ... :pac:


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 571 ✭✭✭kikilarue2


    rossie1977 wrote: »
    Nowhere near low lying coast anyway because if ice-caps melt all that area which includes some of the most famous cities on Earth is totally f**ked and would include all of this islands main urban areas.

    I don't think Ireland in general would be good place to be, probably looking at something like this

    88b6f75c-01a1-4163-80bc-0c2b3024fcf0.jpg

    Presumably if that scenario became likely we would build sea walls or something and not just let it happen?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 12,653 ✭✭✭✭Plumbthedepths


    ditch those plastic straws folks!


    An extra euro on the bale of briquettes will help too.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 582 ✭✭✭Hobosan


    A small patch of land called Siberia will be back in play.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,376 ✭✭✭✭rossie1977


    kikilarue2 wrote: »
    Presumably if that scenario became likely we would build sea walls or something and not just let it happen?

    I don't think sea walls would do much. Netherlands, Denmark which have massive flood defenses would be completely under water if ice-caps melted. Thames barrier in London would be useless as entire south of England would become part of the sea.

    If we look at numbers. The sea has risen about 6-8 inches last 100 years so practically nothing. If all the ice in the North Pole and Greenland melted the sea level would rise by 20 feet. However if all the ice in Antarctica melted you would be looking at a global sea rise of 200 feet.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 571 ✭✭✭kikilarue2


    rossie1977 wrote: »
    I don't think sea walls would do much. Netherlands, Denmark which have massive flood defenses would be completely under water if ice-caps melted. Thames barrier in London would be useless as entire south of England would become part of the sea.

    If we look at numbers. The sea has risen about 6-8 inches last 100 years so practically nothing. If all the ice in the North Pole and Greenland melted the sea level would rise by 20 feet. However if all the ice in Antarctica melted you would be looking at a global sea rise of 200 feet.

    How likely is that?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,376 ✭✭✭✭rossie1977


    Its more likely than the all the ice melting in Antarctica that's for sure.

    The sea ice melting at the North Pole isn't a real cause for concern. However the ice in Greenland is. You also factor in that a good portion of Greenland is below the Arctic Circle thus a much greater danger of melting.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 47,532 CMod ✭✭✭✭Black Swan


    kneemos wrote: »
    Sea levels are rising one or two millimeters per year
    Climate change is a very complex topic, and not all the necessary and sufficient conditions have available data bases that go back tens of thousands of years. Consequently, there is insufficient data complemented by theories (educated guesses) today. Furthermore, the rise in sea levels will not be the same at all latitudes of the globe. Earth rotation, and other factors will make for higher levels at some latitudes, and smaller increases at other latitudes. There are also theories that relate to the melting of the ice caps and the potential rise of plates from below, which may displace water and affect global sea levels. There are other factors which I have not touched upon which add to the complexity of predicting what parts of the globe will be most affected by climate change. There are also theories that suggest there is a threshold of melt, which when passed, will trigger massive changes in weather, sea levels, etc. Of course such changes are in geologic time, not the time we use to reach work on time.

    So while it's fun to "Assume the climate is screwed," we are just guessing the outcomes, so "where to live in the future" makes for fun sci fi.

    To just play along, methinks I'll live in a small cottage on a high bluff overlooking the ocean in County Galway.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 727 ✭✭✭InTheShadows


    Akrasia wrote: »
    We’ve already passed the point of no return for a lot of climate impacts. It’s a damage limitation exercise now.

    Good so now maybe they can shut up about it.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,787 ✭✭✭Feisar


    First they came for the socialists...



  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,398 ✭✭✭Franz Von Peppercorn II


    rossie1977 wrote: »
    Nowhere near low lying coast anyway because if ice-caps melt all that area which includes some of the most famous cities on Earth is totally f**ked and would include all of this islands main urban areas.

    I don't think Ireland in general would be good place to be, probably looking at something like this

    88b6f75c-01a1-4163-80bc-0c2b3024fcf0.jpg

    The melting of the polar ice caps (in Antarctica which is all that really matters) would take millennia. If at all.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,799 ✭✭✭✭Akrasia


    China is looking to build a new coal power station every 2 weeks for the next 12 years.

    https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2019/03/28/china-new-coal-plants-2030-climate/

    ditch those plastic straws folks!

    Except that China aren’t looking to build these power plants at all, China’s coal industry is lobbying for contracts. The article you linked to said this
    “The Chinese government has not adopted the industry proposal, but it is under consideration.”


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 52 ✭✭JoeCasey


    In a virtual reality simulation 3 miles under the surface.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,825 ✭✭✭LirW


    You mean the Free City State of the Republic of Wicklow

    I guarantee you the majority of the population around here doesn't have the brainpower to run any sort of functional state.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 129 ✭✭Ecce No Homo


    There would be massive immigration to Ireland due to our relative impunity. Boards members' heads would explode.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,942 ✭✭✭topper75


    kneemos wrote: »
    In fifty years it will be 0.1 metres.

    So less of a walk down the beach then.

    Sorry - what is the problem here again?


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,942 ✭✭✭topper75


    Now to be fair, Antartica was ice-free once before. You'd have to go back 34m years though.

    I'd say we are good for while. Just one generation ago, in 1983, the temps hit almost minus 90 CELSIUS. It is a record low for planet Earth. I'll be honest and admit that I cannot even conceive such cold.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,077 ✭✭✭Oasis1974


    If I had to move Spain would be my choice the summer's in Ireland would make baby Jesus cry....


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,398 ✭✭✭Franz Von Peppercorn II


    There would be massive immigration to Ireland due to our relative impunity. Boards members' heads would explode.

    I think everybody’s heads would explode if a few billion people turned up.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,235 ✭✭✭✭Cee-Jay-Cee


    rossie1977 wrote: »
    I don't think sea walls would do much. Netherlands, Denmark which have massive flood defenses would be completely under water if ice-caps melted. Thames barrier in London would be useless as entire south of England would become part of the sea.

    If we look at numbers. The sea has risen about 6-8 inches last 100 years so practically nothing. If all the ice in the North Pole and Greenland melted the sea level would rise by 20 feet. However if all the ice in Antarctica melted you would be looking at a global sea rise of 200 feet.

    I’d still be ok. My house is 200m above sea level. Bring it on!!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,306 ✭✭✭✭Drumpot


    Black Swan wrote: »
    Climate change is a very complex topic, and not all the necessary and sufficient conditions have available data bases that go back tens of thousands of years. Consequently, there is insufficient data complemented by theories (educated guesses) today. Furthermore, the rise in sea levels will not be the same at all latitudes of the globe. Earth rotation, and other factors will make for higher levels at some latitudes, and smaller increases at other latitudes. There are also theories that relate to the melting of the ice caps and the potential rise of plates from below, which may displace water and affect global sea levels. There are other factors which I have not touched upon which add to the complexity of predicting what parts of the globe will be most affected by climate change. There are also theories that suggest there is a threshold of melt, which when passed, will trigger massive changes in weather, sea levels, etc. Of course such changes are in geologic time, not the time we use to reach work on time.

    So while it's fun to "Assume the climate is screwed," we are just guessing the outcomes, so "where to live in the future" makes for fun sci fi.

    To just play along, methinks I'll live in a small cottage on a high bluff overlooking the ocean in County Galway.

    Roughly translated to “we don’t really know for sure exactly how our behavior is going to change the climate or ultimately the effects it may cause on the species and planet”. But what we know is that we are changing our environment with how we use our resources which makes our future less predictable. A
    Glacier just melted supposedly adding half a mm to the worlds oceans. When major catastrophic events happen we are seldom prepared , so thinking about maybe having a house or property a decent jump above sea level is a prudent consideration for me. I’m not in a position to do anything about it but it would be a consideration if or when I move again.

    It’s psychotic how we, as a species , bury our heads and take a “sure it will be grand” approach to climate change. I won’t pretend to be somebody who puts much effort into the cause, I try to just get by like everybody else and I take a “well I can’t make much difference, so f**k it” approach”. I own that ignorance but most don’t. I can still stand back and see that whether it’s wars or this sort of thing we are a really stupid self absorbed species willing to gamble the future away so we can enjoy our comforts. We don’t need any data or evidence to clear that one up, that’s just an irrefutable fact.


  • Site Banned Posts: 13 Reality King


    There would be massive immigration to Ireland due to our relative impunity. Boards members' heads would explode.

    That's why we invest in a great big fcuk off navy and sink every boat full of migrants trying to get here.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,313 ✭✭✭✭branie2


    Underground


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