The Fiji Cylcone: A sign of things to come for island countires? For much of the world?

brianlux
brianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 43,844
in A Moving Train
The cyclone that hit Fiji on Saturday killing 36 people may seem like small news to most of those of us who live in bigger countries or in places removed from such disasters. It's not small news, of course, for those who live in Fiji or for people like the good friend of mine who lived there for a number of years. And this kind of news is bringing concern to others living in island countries as well and eventually for the many millions who live in coastal town around the world. This is (as most have already surmised) is all tied in to climate change, the effects of which are beginning to show themselves in ever increasingly concerning ways. The cyclone that hit Fiji was the most damaging to ever hit that nation.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fiji-cyclone-disaster-is-a-sign-of-future-challenges/
"It's a sad and beautiful world"
-Roberto Benigni

Comments

  • rgambs
    rgambs Posts: 13,576
    We
    Are
    Screwed!

    My area will be good for longer than most, the Great Lakes will be one of the last habitable regions in North America.
    Monkey Driven, Call this Living?
  • g under p
    g under p Surfing The far side of THE Sombrero Galaxy Posts: 18,253
    rgambs said:

    We
    Are
    Screwed!

    My area will be good for longer than most, the Great Lakes will be one of the last habitable regions in North America.

    Unless the Great Lakes get hit by an Ice Age Arctic blast over several years. As for me with South Florida being my home, it only be a matter of time before we are hit with another Cat 5 storm of biblical proportions. I'm now only 2 miles from the ocean I'll be out of here before one can say Pearl Jam.

    It's not unusual not much of cyclone Winston was heard here, I just wonder how many folks even know where the Fiji Islands are.

    Peace
    *We CAN bomb the World to pieces, but we CAN'T bomb it into PEACE*...Michael Franti

    *MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
    .....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti

    *The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)


  • brianlux
    brianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 43,844
    I live at 2000 ft elevation in the Sierra Foothills so no chance of sea water here but I can picture Sacramento becoming a bay similar to the San Francisco Bay as the Delta waters continue to rise.
    "It's a sad and beautiful world"
    -Roberto Benigni

  • ldent42
    ldent42 NYC Posts: 7,859
    My block is on a hill, but I shit you not according to the new flooding maps thing one block north of me is in the "flooded" category. So I'll be underwater in the next decade or two.
    NYC 06/24/08-Auckland 11/27/09-Chch 11/29/09-Newark 05/18/10-Atlanta 09/22/12-Chicago 07/19/13-Brooklyn 10/18/13 & 10/19/13-Hartford 10/25/13-Baltimore 10/27/13-Auckland 1/17/14-GC 1/19/14-Melbourne 1/24/14-Sydney 1/26/14-Amsterdam 6/16/14 & 6/17/14-Milan 6/20/14-Berlin 6/26/14-Leeds 7/8/14-Milton Keynes 7/11/14-St. Louis 10/3/14-NYC 9/26/15
    LIVEFOOTSTEPS.ORG/USER/?USR=435
  • brianlux
    brianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 43,844
    ldent42 said:

    My block is on a hill, but I shit you not according to the new flooding maps thing one block north of me is in the "flooded" category. So I'll be underwater in the next decade or two.

    What on earth is going to become of the subways? Will they become submarineways?
    Crazy world, isn't it?
    "It's a sad and beautiful world"
    -Roberto Benigni

  • ldent42
    ldent42 NYC Posts: 7,859
    the tunnels are actually still fucked from Sandy. I'm not joking. They want to shut down the L train (it goes between Brooklyn & Manhattan) for 26 weeks to repair the damage to that tunnel and the hipsters are all losing their minds. This is coming up on 4 years after the fact.
    https://youtu.be/fqcn_TPu4qQ
    NYC 06/24/08-Auckland 11/27/09-Chch 11/29/09-Newark 05/18/10-Atlanta 09/22/12-Chicago 07/19/13-Brooklyn 10/18/13 & 10/19/13-Hartford 10/25/13-Baltimore 10/27/13-Auckland 1/17/14-GC 1/19/14-Melbourne 1/24/14-Sydney 1/26/14-Amsterdam 6/16/14 & 6/17/14-Milan 6/20/14-Berlin 6/26/14-Leeds 7/8/14-Milton Keynes 7/11/14-St. Louis 10/3/14-NYC 9/26/15
    LIVEFOOTSTEPS.ORG/USER/?USR=435
  • PJfanwillneverleave1
    PJfanwillneverleave1 Posts: 12,885
    edited February 2016
    At first I thought this thread Fiji Cyclone was a name of a new amusement park ride.
    (Sounds cool, (patent pending))
    This cyclone and hurricane stuff is normal.
    Islands and mountains will return to the sea one day. The process is beginning.
    Of course it's a sign of things coming - has nothing to do with man made doings.
    Earth is very lucky to survive in this inhospitable universe
    I get a kick out of coastal dwellers who consistently are bemused that a natural disaster keeps happening to them.
    It's not rocket science, just science - coastal regions incur the wrath of nature.
    Jeesh.
  • eddiec
    eddiec Posts: 3,978
    edited February 2016
    PJfanwillneverleave1 said:

    At first I thought this thread Fiji Cyclone was a name of a new amusement park ride.
    (Sounds cool, (patent pending))
    This cyclone and hurricane stuff is normal.
    Islands and mountains will return to the sea one day. The process is beginning.
    Of course it's a sign of things coming - has nothing to do with man made doings.
    Earth is very lucky to survive in this inhospitable universe
    I get a kick out of coastal dwellers who consistently are bemused that a natural disaster keeps happening to them.
    It's not rocket science, just science - coastal regions incur the wrath of nature.
    Jeesh.

    Yes. It's a process that takes hundreds of millions of years. Not decades.

    Post edited by eddiec on
  • PJfanwillneverleave1
    PJfanwillneverleave1 Posts: 12,885
    eddiec said:

    PJfanwillneverleave1 said:

    At first I thought this thread Fiji Cyclone was a name of a new amusement park ride.
    (Sounds cool, (patent pending))
    This cyclone and hurricane stuff is normal.
    Islands and mountains will return to the sea one day. The process is beginning.
    Of course it's a sign of things coming - has nothing to do with man made doings.
    Earth is very lucky to survive in this inhospitable universe
    I get a kick out of coastal dwellers who consistently are bemused that a natural disaster keeps happening to them.
    It's not rocket science, just science - coastal regions incur the wrath of nature.
    Jeesh.

    Yes. It's a process that takes hundreds of millions of years. Not decades.

    Like evolution.
    The middle process of millions of years has ended now.
    We are seeing the results.
  • eddiec
    eddiec Posts: 3,978
    Something that happens over 100's millions of years cannot be noticed by a a generation or even multiple generations. The changes are so small and slow that they are basically unrecognizable.

  • PJfanwillneverleave1
    PJfanwillneverleave1 Posts: 12,885
    Something that takes 100's of millions of years to produce eventually has to be seen.
  • rgambs
    rgambs Posts: 13,576
    PJfanwillneverleave1 said:

    At first I thought this thread Fiji Cyclone was a name of a new amusement park ride.
    (Sounds cool, (patent pending))
    This cyclone and hurricane stuff is normal.
    Islands and mountains will return to the sea one day. The process is beginning.
    Of course it's a sign of things coming - has nothing to do with man made doings.
    Earth is very lucky to survive in this inhospitable universe
    I get a kick out of coastal dwellers who consistently are bemused that a natural disaster keeps happening to them.
    It's not rocket science, just science - coastal regions incur the wrath of nature.
    Jeesh.

    Something like 97% of scientists disagree with that statement.
    Monkey Driven, Call this Living?
  • brianlux
    brianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 43,844
    This is interesting: a friend told me many years ago that there is no such thing as "a natural disaster". I have always agreed with that based on the notion that things that happen in nature aren't a "disaster", they are an "occurrence". But today that is not exactly true. As Gambs pointed out, 97% of published scientists agree that climate change is anthropogenic.

    Yes, cyclones and hurricanes are normal stuff but Cyclone Winston, a category 5 storm, is the largest on record. Normal stuff? No way.

    As for being bemused but something like this- I have a good friend who lived in Fiji for a number of years and she lost friends and a piece of her heart as a result of this storm. Bemused by that? Hmmm.

    image

    "It's a sad and beautiful world"
    -Roberto Benigni

  • hedonist
    hedonist Posts: 24,524
    I am not bemused by large earthquakes.

    I do, however, love where I live.

    Everything - life itself - comes with risk.

  • brianlux
    brianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 43,844
    hedonist said:

    I am not bemused by large earthquakes.

    I do, however, love where I live.

    Everything - life itself - comes with risk.

    Absolutely, Hedo, but what I'm suggesting is that it is unwise for us to tamper with nature and increase our risk. I'm also more than suggesting that flippantly dismissing (you did not do this) the pain and suffering that is at least a partial result of our tampering is reprehensible.
    "It's a sad and beautiful world"
    -Roberto Benigni

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