Bangkok faces underwater future

[lovuian]

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/2007-10-20-bangkok_N.htm

KHUN SAMUT CHIN, Thailand — At Bangkok's watery gates, Buddhist monks cling to a shrinking spit of land around their temple as they wage war against the relentlessly rising sea.

During the monsoons at high tide, waves hurdle the breakwater of concrete pillars and the inner rock wall around the temple on a promontory in the Gulf of Thailand. Jutting above the water line just ahead are remnants of a village that has already slipped beneath the sea.

Experts say these waters, aided by sinking land, threaten to submerge Thailand's sprawling capital of more than 10 million people within this century. Bangkok is one of 13 of the world's largest 20 cities at risk of being swamped as sea levels rise in coming decades, according to warnings at the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change held here.

"This is what the future will look like in many places around the world," says Lisa Schipper, an American researcher on global warming, while visiting the temple. "Here is a living study in environmental change."

The loss of Bangkok would destroy the country's economic engine and a major hub for regional tourism.
more...
10 million people mind boggling

[Ilsa]

1. This is scary stuff, and there are still deniers that sea level is

creeping up, causing problems for these areas.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071020/ap_on_re_as/sinking_cities_4

snip

They include Dhaka, Bangladesh; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Shanghai and Tianjin in China; Alexandria and Cairo in Egypt; Mumbai and Kolkata in India; Jakarta, Indonesia; Tokyo and Osaka-Kobe in Japan; Lagos, Nigeria; Karachi, Pakistan; Bangkok, Thailand, and New York and Los Angeles in the United States, according to studies by the United Nations and others.

More than one-tenth of the world's population, or 643 million people, live in low-lying areas at risk from climate change... snip

[lovuian]

2. yep and our list is New Orleans and Florida

I think Miami is underwater too

[enid602]

3. LA?

For the most part, Los Angeles' coastline is fairly hilly; I grew up about 2 1/2 blocks from the ocean there, at an elevation of over 500 feet. The beaches themselves are exceptionally wide and steep for the most part. It would take one hell of an ocean rise to submerge that town.

[donsu]

4. how many million live in/around Atlanta - who will be moving in order

to get a drink of water.

people around the planet will be moving looking for water and food

[Locrian]

5. wow

Thank god we have Blackwater to protect us.

(sarcasm)

[arrested_president]

6. I Need A List Of Countries In Danger

and, maps of future projections

[donsu]

7. every country is in danger

a big country like China has a large area drought, a large area of rain storms, hail, wind landslides and flooding

food supply is disrupted everywhere

[electricmonk]

9. Here's a couple with maps and illustrations

http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Sea_Level_Rise_Maps_Gallery

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/TenWays/story?id=3602227&

[Igel]

8. Probably. Unless they do some flood control.

Oddly, there's sea level rise. Then there's something perhaps 40x more important, according to the article.

"The still expanding megapolis rests about 3 1/2 to 5 feet above the nearby gulf, although some areas already lie below sea level. The gulf's waters have been rising by about a tenth of an inch a year, about the same as the world average, says Anond Snidvongs, a leading scientist in the field.

"But the city, built on clay rather than bedrock, has also been sinking at a far faster pace of up to 4 inches annually as its teeming population and factories pump some 2.5 million cubic tons of cheaply priced water, legally and illegally, out of its aquifers. This compacts the layers of clay and causes the land to sink."

Double the sea level rise ... hell, raise it 10-fold. And it's still the less important of the two factors.

[Strelnikov_]

10. Even with the toxic environment lately, this is why I still come here

One of the best news filters on the internet(s).

Never imagined that Bangkok was another New Orleans, a terminal metropolis.