Comments on: The dangerous sea

By: Macro

Macro — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 04:05:52 +0000

I thought that might be the case Bryan. More fool them. I sincerely hope that you are wrong on that count.
On sea-level vs drought, I don’t claim that sea level rise isn’t for millions – if not billions – a forthcoming hell. Indeed, I agree wholeheartedly with you on that one. (I looked at a place in the Coromandel on the waterfront last weekend – magnificent situation – and thought – NO!)
But just as a surfeit of water in the wrong place is one form of catastrophe we can do without, so is a scarcity, and – just like sea level rise – it’s something we can do little about. For many the future of intensifying drought is just as foreboding.

By: Dappledwater

Dappledwater — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:07:41 +0000

Excellent article Bryan. I hope you get published more often, as the message needs to get through and we seem to be running out of time.

As Macro has said, drought is my main concern at the moment. We haven’t had any decent rain in the Far North for 5 months now, and given that these dry conditions, are expected in the future due to global warming, it’s a big worry.

Of course, this current drought will probably be broken by massive flooding, but if “dry” becomes the norm it going to cause major problems.

By: Billy T.

Billy T. — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 08:38:11 +0000

There’s a video going around that is quite dramatic – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PVOHydA6eA – who knows what the Spanish town planning is like if it allows development that close to the sea.

I imagine there could be some good jobs for civil engineers in decades to come, building dykes and barrages across harbour mouths…

By: Bryan Walker

Bryan Walker — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:18:09 +0000

Macro, the paper’s concerns about ‘balance’ seem to make it almost certain this will be my last one in this forum. Actually I’ve had a much longer run than I might have expected, so maybe predictability is also part of the thinking. But the ghost of the columns will haunt the letters to the editor from time to time.

Yes, certainly drought too. It’s just that there’s something so inexorable and irrecoverable about sea level rise which gets to me. I won’t defend its primacy rationally.

By: Macro

Macro — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:35:00 +0000

I know the previous articles were just as good as this Bryan. I hope that it is not the last. The public have a right to hear the truth, and you tell it so well.
I concur with you that sea level rise is the scary monster in the AGW bag of tricks. But then don’t forget the intensification of drought. Especially in those regions where it is already a catastrophe. We in the north are experiencing a minor lack of water at the present time. There is an advert for a bank on tv at the moment in which it says – “in a perfect world the sun shines every day” – yeah right! Tell that to a farmer.
I haven’t as yet written to the newspapers. I don’t buy them as a rule so would feel a bit of a cheat writing to them. My perception of the average journalist in NZ is that they mostly write on topics that they have insufficiently researched, and have little understanding about. They are happy to follow the populist idea at any one moment. Indeed some are too willing to offer their opinion on a subject on which I am more than able to form my own (eg Duncan Garner, the Espiners, et al) and they see that as reporting!