Of National Security Interest

I

imp

Senior Member
Received an article from my nephew today about a reporter's experience at Norfolk Naval Station, including interview statements by several U.S. Navy top brass officials. A brief synopsis:

75,000 sailors and civilians work there daily.
Sea levels at Norfolk are rising twice as fast as global average.
Roads are now often submerged and entry gates impassable.
Largest Navy base in the world, and it will eventually have to be moved, at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars.
The recurring flooding has already made it difficult to sell a house in parts of Norfolk.
It is posing a national security nightmare.
Military assets at risk include 555,000 facilities and 28 million acres of land.
Diego Garcia, a strategic U.S. naval base on an atoll in the Indian Ocean, has provided a footing since the Cold War from which Soviet influence was countered, as well as protecting shipping lanes out of the Middle East. Diego Garcia is certain to disappear.
The Pentagon is closely examining its 704 coastal installations with regard to which ones must be closed, relocated, or protected.
At some point it is believed that "climate denial" with change to "climate panic", which will require military use to conduct disaster relief and humanitarian-aid missions.

Whether you personally believe in climate change, big change is "in the works" imp
 

It should be of worldwide interest, we sane ones will have to get people somehow educated enough to grasp the situation, I don't know how we do it though.
 

Hey, does we sane ones include this old, questionably sane one? Ha! imp
 
Something else to consider that makes much sense. No reason for ocean rising more in Norfolk than other parts of the world.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/06/...k-virginia-60-of-the-rise-is-from-subsidence/

[h=1]Making sense of senseless sea level scares in Norfolk Virginia – 60% of the rise is from subsidence, the remainder from landfill settling[/h] Anthony Watts / June 1, 2014

One of the problems with so called “science writers” in the mainstream media today is that few of them have the wherewithal and training to do some basic sanity checking. Lori Montgomery of the Washington Post illustrates this lack of competence perfectly in a piece this weekend titled: In Norfolk, evidence of climate change is in the streets at high tide .
............................

A rather long article.

 
Ha! I thought about that, Bob! But if the land is sinking, then the sea level compared to it IS rising. Net effect the same. imp
 
I live down there for a spell. Not on the Norfolk side but on the other side of the bay and it was called Fort Monroe, built before the civil war. It is of stone and has a moat around it. It was active when I was there but I understand the military part is closed but really suspect that the historical part is still open and available.

Just off shore is where the Monitor and Merrimack had their shoot out. Inside the fortress part is a holding cell for Jefferson Davis after the war. Was there during a couple of hurricanes and that was the time when the bay would rise up enough to make it pretty wet. The worst would be the rain and winds though.

Get near there, go to the fort and see some history.

http://www.nps.gov/fomr/planyourvisit/hours.htm
 
....to make matters worse, Chesapeake Bay was formed by a meteor impact, with the basement rock being fractured to depths of 8 km. As such, sea water has been encroaching on the surrounding fresh water aquifers :

Chesapeake_Crater_boundaries_map.png

I enjoyed my time spent there at Ft Eustis, sorry to see the area in decline.
 
Our military is requesting that our government look more seriously at rising sea levels (20cm over the past 130 years and accelerating) because they expect it to impact on the kind of work they do around the world, particularly with respect to disaster relief and management of displaced people.
 
Linda, it gives me the feels also. But I remain optimistic, we have survived ice age, wars, famine, plagues, etc. we may be stubborn, arrogant, and predatory evolutionary children, but we are clever and hugely adaptable. The younger generations in particular have been raised with climate change as a fact rather than speculation. They will fight to preserve mother earth. There is hope.:love_heart:
 
Warrigal said:
Our military is requesting that our government look more seriously at rising sea levels (20cm over the past 130 years and accelerating) because they expect it to impact on the kind of work they do around the world, particularly with respect to disaster relief and management of displaced people.
Click to expand...

Warri, precisely what the article's author was pointing out. If a trend of rising sea levels statistically destined to be spread out over many decades, (or more), is actually underway, all aspects of the human existence will be impacted. imp
 
Shalimar said:
Linda, it gives me the feels also. But I remain optimistic, we have survived ice age, wars, famine, plagues, etc. we may be stubborn, arrogant, and predatory evolutionary children, but we are clever and hugely adaptable. The younger generations in particular have been raised with climate change as a fact rather than speculation. They will fight to preserve mother earth. There is hope.:love_heart:
Click to expand...
Thanks Shalimar, you are correct.
 
imp said:
Warri, precisely what the article's author was pointing out. If a trend of rising sea levels statistically destined to be spread out over many decades, (or more), is actually underway, all aspects of the human existence will be impacted. imp
Click to expand...
Yes, humans will survive somewhere but civilisations may fall.
 
When we have this "raising water" problem in Florida then people might,just might take notice but I doubt it.
 

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