November 19, 2018

King Tides In Vancouver

King Tide locations of concern in Vancouver

In a preview of what may become a normal high tide, as sea levels rise, check out the King Tides that are upcoming.

The city is preparing, once again, for the possibility of Locarno Beach overflowing into homes across Marine Drive. Good old sandbags.

And you can help.  Snap shoreline photos at our highest tides & help the City validate flood data. Upload HERE.

King Tide sandbags at Locarno Beach

King Tide sandbags at Locarno Beach

2018’s King Tides are highest on:

  • Nov 23, 6:08 am
  • Nov 24, 6:54 am
  • Nov 25, 7:43 am
  • Nov 26, 8:34 am
  • Nov 27, 9:26 am
  • Nov 28,10:18 am
  • Nov 29 11:10 am
  • Nov 30 11:59 am

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  1. Who is working on a permanent solution, say raising the sidewalk visible besides the sandbags or the walkway closer to the beach by 40-100 cm ie a small dyke ?

    Do we realize that even if human life ceased to exist tomorrow the sea levels would still rise ? Or do we honestly believe that by shutting down the (allegedly evil) tarsands, kill all them oil pipelines or promote more biking we’d stop the oceans from rising ?

    1. Yes we realize that if every human life ceased to exist tomorrow the sea levels would still rise. The science is very clear on this. We’ve put so much greenhouse gas into the atmosphere already that the course has been set. Yet the sooner we and the other biggest polluters stop burning fossil fuels the quicker earth can recover.

      Thomas, your denial will not make climate change disappear. It only makes you look extremely foolish.

  2. There’s also Richmond, Ladner, south Burnaby, Coquitlam flats, downtown Poco and others, and a vast acreage of low-lying Fraser Valley agricultural land.

    This is not a Vancouver-centric issue. In fact, I’d say Vancouver’s geography works largely in its favour with many slopes at the perimeter to learn to live on. Sea level rise will be slow enough to adapt to, with the exception of Richmond which will essentially have to be vacated or floated in about a century as the dikes reach their weight and height limits, and seawater infiltrates from below far more than it is today. But the storm surges from ever increasing numbers of more intense storms and more torrential seasonal rainfall punctuated by more severe seasonal drought will affect everyone very quickly, especially those living in low-lying areas and others suffering with chronic respiratory diseases, like asthma.

    The planning must start soon and accompany far more serious efforts to curb GHG emissions. So, yes, the oil sands and our addiction to the almighty car and inefficient buildings need to wound down, and the political parties held to account for increasing emissions through building more fossil fuel capacity without adequate CO2 mitigation, and for their inaction.

    The limitation of warming to 2C average will still afford a great deal of drastic change to the climate. Remember that the difference between today and the depths of the last ice age was only 5C. Going in the other direction by that much will surely affect the entirety of human civilization and ecosystems.

    Those who minimize or dismiss single-digit temperatures do not care to understand averages between peaks and troughs. Using the economy to excuse inaction or build more infrastructure based only on fossil fuel extraction only discounts the costs of their cumulative effects, and therein denies reality. The temperature peaks are becoming a huge problem already (e.g. record drought and forest fires ….), and we’re still below 1C average temperature increase. What will 2C look like? 3C? Decreasing emissions today will knock the tops off future peaks, though warming will continue to a plateau perhaps in late next century. That is, if we do not cross over the big tipping points, such as the sudden release of huge amounts of methane from frozen permafrost and undersea clathrates. We are dangerously close to that particular tipping point now.

  3. We can imagine in slow motion the fate of sea level cities as land supply lines are flooded and ships docks are inundated. We can expect the slow collapse of the global trading system all across the planet due to disruptions to land transportation systems, energy distribution networks and missing intermodal connections. A fractured world of missing parts and pieces with environmental refugees on the march. Future World Vancouver will bear little resemblance to the fantasy land of today.

    So, if we dare to plan the future for others then we must do so knowing this trajectory and all that it implies. It could be that in the future we will see the end to planning altogether, the collapse of the tax base, a loss of civic services and infrastructure, a mad scramble for survival in an apocalyptic landscape. It could be that it is already happening in ever such slow motion than we can pretend all sorts of things.

    Doesn’t this vision of environmental catastrophe really mean the end of ‘coastal global urbanism’, the retreat of populations back into the landscape of their respective origins? Will we get to this place in our history because either we could not stop ourselves, or because the biosphere could no longer function?

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