Seeing Climate Change Firsthand

[Saigon]

In Senegal recently I spent a day ptohographing a pelican breeding area for a story I was writing on birdwatching.

For centuries pelicans have returned to a gigantic stretch of land facing the Atlantic ocean on one side, and a lagoon on the other. The area is called Lange De Berberie, or the Tongue of the Berbers.

Except that rising sea levels are eroding the land, and forcing the pelicans elsewhere.

Travelling by boat, we stopped at a small island. Houses stood abandoned and crumbling. Pine trees poked out of the waves. Footpaths veered into the sand.

The previous year, the village had been abandoned entirely, and the familes resettled further south and inland. In all, perhaps a mile of coastland has simply disappeared.

The entire city of St Louis, the oldest French city in Africa, is under threat. Nowhere more than 2 or 3 metres above sea level, waves are already reaching the houses during storms or on spring tides.

Although the rise in sea levels is very slow, it is also constant. The land is very low and sandy, and the waves very powerful along this stretch of coast.

The bigger picture is that St Louis is one city in a very vulnerable area. But almost every major city in Africa is located on the coast. Accra, Dakar, Cape Town, Alexandria and Tunis are all vulnerable too, protected only by dunes and the occasional headland or outcrops of rocks.

Here are a couple of pics...

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[S.J.]

Can't the pelicans find somewhere else to screw?

 

[Saigon]

Can't the pelicans find somewhere else to screw?

It seems most are moving down the coast.

Rising sea levels have breached the land between ocean and lagoon, changing the course of the outflowing river, but this has meant a new sand bank has appeared a few miles to the south, and there are now pelicans there.

The city of St Louis is not fairing so well....it's not easy to resettle a half million people, and no one seems to have a clue what to do about the rising sea levels.

 

[S.J.]

Can't the pelicans find somewhere else to screw?

It seems most are moving down the coast.

Rising sea levels have breached the land between ocean and lagoon, changing the course of the outflowing river, but this has meant a new sand bank has appeared a few miles to the south, and there are now pelicans there.

The city of St Louis is not fairing so well....it's not easy to resettle a half million people, and no one seems to have a clue what to do about the rising sea levels.

Well, if they can't figure out that they need to move to higher ground, then the problem will solve itself.

 

[Saigon]

S.J -

Without being alarmist at all, I don't think there is any question that climate change will wipe out dozens of species. Changing ocean acidity alone could do that, as could the collapse of glaciers.

With rising sea levels I guess most species will adapt by just moving inland, but there are problems for animals that live in brackish water, as they may face increased salinity. Other animals may thrive, of course.

But I suspect a lot of us haven't given much though to issues like mangrove or sandhills disappearing, and what happens to the wildlife that lives in them.

 

[S.J.]

S.J -

Without being alarmist at all, I don't think there is any question that climate change will wipe out dozens of species. Changing ocean acidity alone could do that, as could the collapse of glaciers.

With rising sea levels I guess most species will adapt by just moving inland, but there are problems for animals that live in brackish water, as they may face increased salinity. Other animals may thrive, of course.

But I suspect a lot of us haven't given much though to issues like mangrove or sandhills disappearing, and what happens to the wildlife that lives in them.

And your solution is...?

 

[Saigon]

A news story on this....

Newser) – It's called the "Venice of Africa": Saint-Louis, Senegal, is situated between the Atlantic Ocean and the Senegal River, and the water has long been central to its economy. But now, like its Italian namesake, it's facing disaster from rising water levels. Some two-thirds of the city's population of 250,000 faces a flooding risk, AFP reports; a river channel 13 feet across in 2003 is now more than a mile wide. "If things keep going the way they are, the whole city of Saint-Louis will have to be moved," says the city's mayor.

A UN rep labeled Saint-Louis the African city "most threatened by rising sea levels" in 2008. Already, parts of the city are gone, and more heavy rain is due within weeks. Thanks to erosion, "the village of Doun Baba Dieye has completely disappeared and villages to the south are progressively more threatened.

Africa's 'Venice' in Peril - Two-thirds of Saint-Louis residents face flood risk

 

[Saigon]

And your solution is...?

I don't have one.

Of course the country probably could invest in a Holland-like series of canals and dykes around St Louis, but Senegal can't afford that.

The point here is less one of solutions than or awareness. When we understand that cities around the world, particularly those built in the 17th century, are being flooded as we speak, then it is easier to consider what might need to be done to protect cities closer to home.

 

[skookerasbil]

nobody cares

 

[S.J.]

nobody cares

 

[CrusaderFrank]

And your solution is...?

I don't have one.

Of course the country probably could invest in a Holland-like series of canals and dykes around St Louis, but Senegal can't afford that.

The point here is less one of solutions than or awareness. When we understand that cities around the world, particularly those built in the 17th century, are being flooded as we speak, then it is easier to consider what might need to be done to protect cities closer to home.

So somehow the birds managed to survive the overall 8 degree warming these past 14,000 years, enough to deglaciate North American and Canada and the Medieval Warming, but now they're gonna die.

Uh huh

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Rise of sea levels is 'the greatest lie ever told' - Telegraph

"When running the International Commission on Sea Level Change, he launched a special project on the Maldives, whose leaders have for 20 years been calling for vast sums of international aid to stave off disaster. Six times he and his expert team visited the islands, to confirm that the sea has not risen for half a century. Before announcing his findings, he offered to show the inhabitants a film explaining why they had nothing to worry about. The government refused to let it be shown...

When I spoke to Dr Mörner last week, he expressed his continuing dismay at how the IPCC has fed the scare on this crucial issue. When asked to act as an "expert reviewer" on the IPCC's last two reports, he was "astonished to find that not one of their 22 contributing authors on sea levels was a sea level specialist: not one". Yet the results of all this "deliberate ignorance" and reliance on rigged computer models have become the most powerful single driver of the entire warmist hysteria."

AGWCult is a long series of lies

 

[bripat9643]

I live in Jacksonville Florida and boardwalk is still over 200 yards from the surf, just like it was 10 years ago. Is sea level rising only in Senegal?

 

[editec]

You don't have to travel to Africa to see the changes.

I and many here in Maine who pay attention to the flora and fauna have noted changes in plant life and animal life in the last couple decades.

Right now the changes seem benign/

 

[CrusaderFrank]

I live in Jacksonville Florida and boardwalk is still over 200 yards from the surf, just like it was 10 years ago. Is sea level rising only in Senegal?

Global Warming is funny like that, it only appears in computer models

 

[jon_berzerk]

i live in jacksonville florida and boardwalk is still over 200 yards from the surf, just like it was 10 years ago. Is sea level rising only in senegal?

global warming is funny like that, it only appears in computer models

--lol

 

[CrusaderFrank]

You don't have to travel to Africa to see the changes.

I and many here in Maine who pay attention to the flora and fauna have noted changes in plant life and animal life in the last couple decades.

Right now the changes seem benign/

Let me guess, you heat you home in the winter and turn the AC on in the summer. Right?

 

[theHawk]

And your solution is...?

I don't have one.

Of course the country probably could invest in a Holland-like series of canals and dykes around St Louis, but Senegal can't afford that.

The point here is less one of solutions than or awareness. When we understand that cities around the world, particularly those built in the 17th century, are being flooded as we speak, then it is easier to consider what might need to be done to protect cities closer to home.

Your point is that climate and landscapes change over time on planet Earth?

Thanks for the 2nd grade geology lesson.

 

[jon_berzerk]

You don't have to travel to Africa to see the changes.

I and many here in Maine who pay attention to the flora and fauna have noted changes in plant life and animal life in the last couple decades.

Right now the changes seem benign/

Let me guess, you heat you home in the winter and turn the AC on in the summer. Right?

around here that is called managing the climate

so in that sense we have already fixed the threat of global warming/cooling

instead of worrying about some bird that may have to move further down

a sand bar to lay an egg

the "warmists" if they really cared they would work towards getting the third world

up and running on the fossil fuels to supply energy to those huts

to run some ac

 

[Saigon]

I live in Jacksonville Florida and boardwalk is still over 200 yards from the surf, just like it was 10 years ago. Is sea level rising only in Senegal?

Not at all - you are simply not up to speed.

Here is the report from Mayport:

Mayport, Florida

The mean sea level trend is 2.40 mm/year with a 95% confidence interval of +/- 0.31 mm/year based on monthly mean sea level data from 1928 to 2006 which is equivalent to a change of 0.79 feet in 100 years.

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Sea Level Trends

So it's not actually "just as it was 10 years ago" is it?


The rate of increases varies from place to place, depending on local conditions. Obviously. Where you live the rate of increase is moderate, but obviously it is greater elsewhere. In Louisiana it is almot 10 mm per year. Check the link.