Coping: With Rising Sea Levels

Before I roll back the covers on a data point or two, a word about one of the many people in my life I don’t think I have mentioned before.

I will refer only to his first name, since he is still out there on the cutting (or bleeding) edge of technology – in an area that we will get into for Peoplenomics.com readers, as soon as lawyers and yada, yada permits.

But let’s say Vince has made a very nice living for himself in Southern California buying and selling cell tower sites over the years.

We’ve only been friends since we were 14, or so. And yes, this is one of those ham radio buddies from back in the “old school” days.

Vince comes from a family of highly successful people who are visionary. (His dad was the developer of Ocean Shores, WA and Vince is also one of those people who “sees the future” and actually does something about it. I don’t think he’d mind my sharing that.)

So Vince and the Mrs. Live down the road from the Morongo Casino, which is 15 miles or so closer to L.A. than Palm Springs.

As a successful fellow would, Vince has had a succession of boats. One of which lives in a marine at Long Beach while the others have been up north – like Oak Harbor, WA and so on.

But the point – and this is huge: Vince has been around boats, shorelines, estuaries, docks, decks, and piers all of his life.

And we talk – as friends will.

I won’t get this precisely right, but the gist of our conversation this week went like this:

So you and Elaine have been thinking about moving, too?

I explained that we had been but have cooled on the idea since 90 is not unbearably hot and we can grow damn near anything here, the place is paid for, 200 miles from a shoreline, on a minuature mountain of 550 feet, and on and on.

Then I got to my questions for him.

“So, what are you guys looking for?”

Well, we are thinking about something up the coast a ways, far northern California, or southern Oregon. Something about 1,500 feet of elevation that we can look out over the ocean from…but high enough not to worry about tsunamis and earth shifting and…”

We went on for a while and proceeded to give me the layout of the geology – something he looks at all the time as a cell tower development. And, since he’s in that vertical, he has all the terrain maps and computer horsepower on Earth to look at coverage areas, where utilities are and so forth.

I asked why not further north – like up around Reedsport, or up around Tilamook…all really nice country.

Too low.”

We chatted about climate this and that for a while – is it real or not and then he got down to it…

You know the boat down at Long Beach? There;s something funny going on with sea level. Welve had the boat in the same slip for 10 years. And in the past couple of years, the water level has come up over an inch on average. I know because I have put a bunch of marks in.”

When he told me that, a bunch of pieces began to slide into place (which will be on Peoplenomics this weekend as The Wildest Conspiracy Theory EVER. But one small part of it is Vince’s experience in Long Beat at his marine.

There used to ALWAYS be a slight incline to the ramp down to the floating pier. But now, on an exceptional tide, it is now level to slightly DOWNHILL getting to the parking lot. I wouldn’t be surprised within 10 years or so if the parking lot doesn’t begin to get wet on extreme tides.”

That set off alarm bells all over the place.

Because off on the other coast, one of our readers (a yacht broker) has just made a similar observation. Well I’ll be damned.

Ultra long-term readers will remember we covered the story in 1998 or 1999 where a US Geological Survey report figured if all the glaciers in Greenland, and the above water ice were to melt, that the rise in sea level globally would be on the order of 295 FEET.

In one of our earlier Peoplenomics reports (and there must be over a thousand of them in the library on that site, and some day I should index them all) there was an article where we postulated about a 50-100 year future where due to rising sea levels, things like 90 percent of the world’s oil refinieries would be at, or going under, water levels.

Even worse, going on memory from our work back then, is the fact that so much of the world’s food supplies are withing 20 feet or sea level. Not to mention all the ports and on and on…

But this is something we have always held in the back of our minds in terms of planning. And since Vince has all the topo and cartography tools, I may lean on him one of these days if we can ever figure a better place than where we are.

When we read about “islands” sinking beneath the waves, it’s usually sand bars to begin with. And with no Chinese interests about to dredge them back up a ways, it becomes clear that shrinking Earth surface is ahead.

Is is because of Global Warming?

Well, that’s where we have to pause for this morning and get to the Peoplenomics report this weekend.

But as a little thought experiment, you might warm up a bowl of ice cubes that to exactly 31.9 degrees and then see how much energy it takes to push them across state-change to water. Then compare the energy input needed to warm a similar bowl of ice from -30 to water. You’ll get the idea.

Like I said, more Saturday for the people who make these sites possible.

Trading in Human Currency

I mentioned a concept I borrowed from my son (G II) when we were going over family prepping and fall-back plans recently in Wednesday’s PN report.

I thought I would share an interesting example of how to trade in human relations currency..it’s simple enough: Get people to like you.

And the most enjoyable way to do that is to have a ready sense of humor.

And example from real life:

There I was at checkout up at the eye doc’s place on Monday and there were some clouds moving in and the lady who was helping me said “I sure hope the rain holds off…”

Well, come to find out, she and her husband have a house and on the side of the house is a deck, and from the deck down to the ground there is some lattice-work.

Earlier this year, they had some torrential rains…and it washed out the hillside, right up to the lattice-work on the side of the deck.

She then explained how she and the Mister had rented a skid steer loader and had put in a retaining wall, several feet out, and they had almost finished back filling, but they didn’t have straw or plants in yet, to hold the soil behind the wall which was only a couple of feet high.

I spied the opportunity to have some fun.

Well, here’s whave I want you and your husband to do, just as soon as you can…qnd this is very important:

Get over to Lowes and get a dozen of so of the pre-started tomato plans and put them in, on that new strip between the lattice and the new retaining wall.”

At first, she thought about it. Then she looked up and gave me this quizzical look.

You mean you don’t know why it is so important to plant you some ‘mater’s there?” I asked with my most Serious George look on.

She shook her head slowly.
Why it’s so you and your husband will always remember yo have LATTICE AND TOMATOES!”

Her laughter (*at having fallen victim to one of my shaggy dog stories) could be heard in half the building.

Didn’t cost but a bit of attention to her plight and as a result, I can guarantee you that I will never have a billing or be kept waiting in line for long.

People trade in a currency other than life and we can print up all we want, any time, on demand.

And unlike the crap with ink on it, this currency never goes out of style and it’s portable to wherever you happen to be going.

Treat others First Class and you’ll generally get the same treatment in return.

Write when you get rich,

George@ure.net

25 thoughts on “Coping: With Rising Sea Levels”

  1. I have been reading articles for some years now about the GS buoys actually showing an alarming rise in the ocean’s floor. Magma or undersea volcanoes? This fits nicely into the expanding earth theory.
    Food for thought!

  2. Given Vince’s historical knowledge and access to information I’m assuming the gradual water rise at the boat dock can’t be attributed to a downward motion of the dry land in a quake prone area? Just wondering since you didn’t say it.

    • You know in High school we used to go to “Sunken City” in San Pedro , which is the next town north of Long Beach. ” Sunken City “was an area where the ground is cracking and peeling off into the ocean sending the former streets and houses built on that land down with it. Palos Verdes has similar areas as well such as Portuguese Bend. So YES, the ground is getting lower I think its folding and faulting. Notwithstanding the docks in my community on the left coast where I now reside that were built in the 40’s-50’s are routinely at the waters edge during a High High Tide Condition. Built to code they would be 3 feet above the high tide line. I’m sure they were back when they were first built. a Magma Bulge in the Ocean floor would also contribute to displacement of water and a higher observed water level. Sea level rise is most likely a result of a confluence of factors, not just one.

  3. “Well, we are thinking about something up the coast a ways, far northern California, or southern Oregon. Something about 1,500 feet of elevation that we can look out over the ocean from…but high enough not to worry about tsunamis and earth shifting and…”

    Ahhh, Somewhere in Jefferson!

  4. Sea level rise due to Greenland melting is estimated to be 6 m (20 ft). Total loss of Antarctica ice is estimated to be 100m (+300 ft)

  5. we live on a water planet, so any warming will have to be to the oceans. and the oceans are big. really big. and water requires a lot of heat to warm. I mean a really reallly lot of heat.

    air doesn’t warm oceans very well at all. it’s about the different density between the two and how it related to heat capacity. look it up.

    if you want to warm the oceans, you have to look to the sun, particularly UV, and/or cloud cover.

    CO2 is not the problem.

    • correct. look to the sun as the driver of global warming. when solar activity decreased, propagandists called it a “pause” in global warming.

      Blaming CO2 is nonsense, but could make a convenient guise under which to tax the global population
      … you know, since there’s a (manufactured) “consensus” on anthropomorphic global climate change due to CO2 emissions

  6. Is the water rising or the land subsiding? Ground water depletion and water management practices that substantially reduce or eliminate silt influx to coastal areas can contribute to the observed ‘rise’. Think of a sponge contracting as you suck the water out of it.
    Also, glacial rebound could be a factor from the last ice age. True, southern California was not under a glacier, but points north were. Like a tube of toothpaste with a weight on one end, the other end ‘swells’. Remove the weight (ice sheet) and the area previously under it rises while the area away from it sinks as it returns to equilibrium. This is still happening in the British islands and Scandinavia where the change in local sea level has been noticeable over historic times.

    • Excellent points.

      The area around the great lakes is rebounding from glacial retreat as well. This was discoverd by adding stationary GPS trasmitters on the ground. Doing so and measuring the distance change over years time, we learned that the ground is rising relative to other part of the land mass. Geologists connected the dots between the GPS data and the history of glaciation on the continent (ice sheets have expanded & retreated throughout earth’s history).

  7. George, did I miss this. For ever so long you have been denying global warming. One world government or some such conspiracy. Now, suddenly you are awakening to how fast this is happening. When did I miss your awakening? Or is there some other conspiracy to have taken its place?

  8. Oh, it will not be published? Oh dear. So your internal paranoia is now having you censor contrary opinions. I am so sorry to hear that.

  9. George, when did you suddenly start to believe in global warming. I assumed you were keeping to your assumption that this gloabl warming thing was part of a one world government conspiracy. But now? MOving to hier ground in this lifetime? Wow!

    • Sea level rise may or may not be related to global warming. There are many other possibilities, including as said, the rising of ocean floors. It is important to understand what’s going on though.

    • He’s not really saying that he believes in global warming; indeed, quite the opposite. Water, aka H2O, expands when it freezes, and contracts when it becomes a liquid; this is quite unusual in most chemical states. This is also quite unusual in terms of chemical properties for most carbon-free (I hesitate to use the term inorganic these days) substances.

      Therefore, something else necessarily is at work, if this reporting is true. I would tend to look at volcanic action and earthquakes, of which there has been a huge global increase recently, starting with the Banda Aceh 9.1 in 2004. Magma releases underground have been known to create new islands worldwide, especially those ocurring in underwater seabeds in these heavily volcanic areas. Some of these islands may not have surfaced yet. Perforce, this would displace water.

  10. I know that marina but also look at how much weaker the earth’s mag field is now compared to 10 years ago. Other than So. Africa, the Eastern Pacific field is very weak. You should know, look at runway numbers now as to mag headings in the years gone by. Not the same.

  11. There is a big difference between being sociable in public, and having friends that you actually dine and socialize with and whom you would call, and they would show up, if you or your spouse were to keel over dead tomorrow.

    When my father died, there were never less than four people in the house with my mother from the time she finished breakfast until she retired at night. This went on for a week. She laid down for a nap one day, and was elated to wake and find 9 people in the living room having a chat.

    There were 162 attending his funeral.

    We lived with my mother for three years, and she averaged 22 visitors a month coming by for a sit down chat.

  12. My Coastal Event Memories Series of 5 novellas tells the stories of small groups of survivors after an extermination event resulting from a massive solar eruption. The event triggers a huge amount of earth expansion caused worldwide volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and over a 300-foot sea level rise.

    The net discussions on your and other sites in 2010 and 11 were the triggers for my research into the expand earth concepts and writing this series. These novellas are available as Kindle eBooks.

    A.G. Kimbrough

  13. There was a news item the past week referring to the earth’s mantle presently shifting in slow waves. This could cause earth crustal elevation and depression in meters, over time. Hmmm…

  14. I don’t have your sense of humor, but I certainly believe in treating all people as well as possible, for the same reasons you do. Besides, it feels good to do so.

    I generally listen to their stories and suggest an engineering solution, since I’m rather good at that. Unfortunately, not all people want a solution, and that just leaves me perplexed.

    I’m looking forward to the weekend report, though I’m high and dry for now, well over 6000’MSL. Best of luck with the eyes!

  15. I’ve been noticing on the USGS map that there have been a continual series of minor quakes along most listed fault lines. Wondered if there is indeed a rise in overall sea levels that it would also increase the pressure exerted against the faults, thereby facilitating a more constant movement. Just a thought.

    Wonder, though, about the limitations of that presentation on a flat surface. Handy for seeing large areas, but you do lose some of the context. And are there really no faults through either polar region ? Or is that a different site ?

    And George, whatever they want to call it, ice melts when heat increases, and it seems ice everywhere is melting. Don’t let them bully you into accepting a name you’re not comfortable with. ;~)

    • “And George, whatever they want to call it, ice melts when heat increases, and it seems ice everywhere is melting”

      ice everywhere is not melting. many places on earth have seen record low temperatures and ice increases. ice at the earth’s poles isn’t unusually low in recent years, either. check the data.

  16. “Treat others First Class and you’ll generally get the same treatment in return.”

    Truer words have never been spoken. One generally reaps the harvest of the seeds he/she/it has sown.

  17. Changing ice to water and vice versa is called a ‘phase transformation’. And if I remember my Rateau tables from my thermodynamics classes the amount of energy to change a pound of ice at 32 degrees Fahrenheit to water at 32 degrees Fahrenheit is about the same as that needed to heat that pound of water from 32 to 212 degrees. Phase transformations involve impressive amounts of energy without any temperature change. Then you have thermal inertia effects, volume to surface area ratios, thermal insolation, etc. Ice caps take longer than most think to melt even under ideal circumstances.
    James Johnson, ex-nuke

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