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Bob Bingham Blog page.

A series of opinion pieces on, mostly climate change and related subjects to do with New Zealand.

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Sea level rise may not be all of Florida’s problems.

9/4/2015

3 Comments

 
Florida has so many problems related to climate change it is hardly surprising the Governor is denying that anything is happening. I think that we are all fairly well aware that with a one metre rise in sea level massive amounts of Florida’s coast and infrastructure will be permanently flooded.
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These little spots of blue are where, with a one metre sea level rise, salt water has percolated into the land.
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  If anyone thinks that the solution is to erect a sea wall to keep the salt water out they need to look at the limestone rock that Florida sits on.
This is what the calcium rock that Florida is made of looks like. Water can flow through it easily.

Florida is all about water and with 60” ( 1.5 metres) a year there is a lot of fresh water.

This illustration shows how fresh water from rain fills voids in the rock to form a lens to keep the salt water at bay.

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This illustration shows how rainwater percolates into the porous rock and forms a lens of freshwater with some pressure to keep the salt water out. The second illustration shows how rising sea levels can overcome the freshwater making it salty and unsuitable for drinking, watering crops and will kill trees.

In the case of Florida I can see no reason why the rain should stop but there was no advance warning for the Californian droughts, except that they have had them before. And certainly no advance warning that the jet stream would stick and cause droughts in California and the South West and also heavy floods or snow in the Northeast and warm weather in Alaska.


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All these graphs show the deep meandering jet stream and how they affect the weather in the regions. If the jet stream moved a little bit further to the East then a drought would ensue.

Florida has a fairly constant rainfall of fifty to sixty inches, with or without a hurricane but if it stopped and did not replenish the water lens then sea water would flood the underground water supplies and it would never be the same again.



3 Comments
Bob Bristow
9/4/2015 04:34:40 pm

I've been reading about fresh water emergencies, stress and shortages a lot lately, with emergencies in Taiwan, Brazil, California, severe stress in many other countries. With glaciers disappearing in Canada and elsewhere drought will most likely become a lot more prevalent as the century progresses.

Desalination and water extraction will need to be adopted by more and more sea bound countries and hope that they avoid using fossil fueled plants. Interesting articles in The Conversation and Bloomberg recently.

http://theconversation.com/why-ocean-energy-needs-a-cyberinfrastructure-to-thrive-37087

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-08/california-sees-salvation-in-seawater-as-drought-drags-on



Reply
https://www.bestessays-uk.org/case-study link
21/1/2020 03:17:37 pm

It is so scary when the sea rises this way, it really is. I mean, I live near the sea, and I just cannot fathom the idea of a tsunami. I do not want my entire belongings to go and get destroyed. I am always alarmed whenever the sea rises, and I just wish that it never happens again. I hope that I can live my life in a peaceful manner. I do not want to go and be scared anymore.

Reply
Bob Bingham
10/4/2015 08:09:15 am

There has been a change in the wind pattern in NZ which has given us more Westerlies and fewer Easterlies. We live and farm on the East coast and therefore are suffering more from drought. The West coast gets plenty of rain and so I think that the answer is to put dams high up in the mountains on the West coast and syphon water to the rivers in the East. The atmosphere is holding more moisture but the wind patterns are changing and of course it is getting warmer.

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    Bob Bingham 

    Occasional blog posts on topical news items concerning the climate.  Please click the RSS feed to receive updates.

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