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With rising sea levels, Bangkok struggles to stay afloat.
As Bangkok prepares to host climate-change talks, the sprawling city of more than 10 million is itself under siege from the environment, with dire forecasts warning it could be partially submerged in just over a decade.
[...] As temperatures rise, abnormal weather patterns—like more powerful cyclones, erratic rainfall, and intense droughts and floods—are predicted to worsen over time, adding pressure on governments tasked with bringing the 2015 Paris climate treaty to life.
Bangkok, built on once-marshy land about 1.5 metres (five feet) above sea level, is projected to be one of the world's hardest hit urban areas, alongside fellow Southeast Asian behemoths Jakarta and Manila.
"Nearly 40 percent" of Bangkok will be inundated by as early as 2030 due to extreme rainfall and changes in weather patterns, according to a World Bank report.
Currently, the capital "is sinking one to two centimetres a year and there is a risk of massive flooding in the near future," said Tara Buakamsri of Greenpeace.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Monday September 03 2018, @10:46PM (1 child)
Flood plains are nutrient rich and great for farming, precisely because they flood regularly. They also tend to be flat, which is convenient for construction, and verdant, which is a nice bonus for living. I'm sure some proportion of building on flood plains happened before people were aware of flood plains or the implications thereof and thus can be excused. Humans are also evolutionarily short-sighted; you can't blame an entire population for not having evolved a completely new brain within a few dozen generations.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday September 04 2018, @02:55AM
I used to live at the peak of a ridge in the middle of the desert. FEMA decreed my property a medium-risk flood zone. Meanwhile a ways downhill, FEMA delisted a dry riverbed, and it subsequently filled up with condos... along a stretch I've personally seen under 30 feet of water.
Apparently the human brain can devolve in less than one generation.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.