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Opinion: A Government that ignores sea level ignores security and our economy.
A few years ago I did my first book review. I don't do book reviews, I design stuff, but I wanted to read this book, so I used my book review to spin my radical “political agenda” of promoting science. With a Canada in climate denial, I used my blog to draw attention to Canada's dangerous path towards denying scientific theory.
Canada has the longest coastline in the world thus I hypothesize Canada will lose the most* coastline in the world. It's a lower-risk pre-proposition. Since I read John Englander's book several studies have concluded that original sea level increase estimates were too conservative. The science of climate has always sided on the conservative end of mathematical projections. Due to the complex nature of climate, we see that unseen tipping points can change the climate rules quickly. Should science find a better way to communicate the risks of things that are impossible to predict? What?
Recently it was announced that 3 meters of sea level rise in ~60 years, was possible, just from the West Antarctic. This doesn't include tipping points nature has in store. If we look at Canada's geography, we see that some of our coast communities will be gone. These changes would impact all coastal infrastructure, as well.
John Englander cited that ~80% of major global cities will be impacted by sea level. All major trade ports will require trillions in upgrades to remain solvent versus sinking. These are non-value added upgrades. Recently a Florida oceanfront mega-mansion sold for over $120,000,000. I hope that wasn't a long-term investment, or maybe just smart hedge fund managers?
Sea level is also a "strange beast" with its nonlinear impacts. Due to the natural maths of our glacial-crust-rebounding-Coriolis-effecting-storm-surge-boosting-extreme-whacky-wind-attenuated Earth, it's a spinning mess of complex physics. In short, this means sea level will impact different locations differently; sea level behaves differently depending where on our planet a city is located. Yes, it's weird. What will happen with the Bay of Fundy?
As Canada returns to the world stage of Climate security, let's remind Ralph Goodale that sea level rise may become a "safety issue".
* - I'm guessing. I make lots of guesses.