Climate Change: Opportunities or Despair

[SteamyTea]

I was thinking, while driving home is very heavy rain, but with an outside air temperature, after dark, of nearly 15°C, about the opportunities that a changing climate may bring, and rather than despair about it, what we need to do to grasp these opportunities.

Now it is over a decade since I studies climate change at university, but the underlying science and predictions have not changed any (one reason I gave up studying it).

So rather than just think it will cost us all a lot of money, I think there are savings to be made i.e. less winter heating.

Now these can always be countered with 'opposites' i.e. more cooling.

But I am not so sure.  100 days of an average winter temperature 1 K above mean is going to save more than 10 days of summer temperatures 3 K above mean.

 

I also think that extra rainfall, in a short period of time, can be mitigated and turned to our personal advantage.  It may mean digging a few holes to add water storage to, but that is possibly cheaper than paying the water companies and local authorities to deal with the problem.

 

So does anyone else have ideas how to turn variable weather to out advantage, then we can try and put some numbers behind it and see what is what.

[JohnMo]

54 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

was thinking, while driving home is very heavy rain, but with an outside air temperature, after dark, of nearly 15°C, about the opportunities that a changing climate may bring,

I wish - 600 mile further north and it's currently 2 degs, had around 5 degs this afternoon.

[ProDave]

Cooling can easily be powered in summer by solar PV, which will be in abundance when cooling is needed.

 

Just about everything else can be adjusted for.  I look forward to winters when we don't get a week or more of -10.

 

The one I never hear discussion of how we are going to solve, or deal with, is rising sea level.  This has been talked about for a very long time.  I don't see any evidence yet that it is happening (being a boater I watch tides etc)  But if the predictions of a large rise in sea level do come true, how are we going to deal with the many coastal cities and towns that will find themselves below sea level?  Massive defences?  Abandon them and relocate?

[JohnMo]

7 minutes ago, ProDave said:

The one I never hear discussion of how we are going to solve, or deal with, is rising sea level

That's a blast from my past, when I was doing a degree, 30 years ago. Certainly a lot of countries will have major issues, not just with land loss, but mostly from ground water (drinking water) being contaminated with seawater. Back then the major concern of global warming was water or lack of suitable water. Talk of the next wars being over control of water.

 

That issue has been buried, in the very difficult basket, I assume.

[SteamyTea]

8 hours ago, ProDave said:

Cooling can easily be powered in summer by solar PV, which will be in abundance when cooling is needed.

This is an opportunity.  A/C units and PV together.

Roof, and maybe wall mounted PV can also help reduce building overheating.

 

8 hours ago, ProDave said:

The one I never hear discussion of how we are going to solve, or deal with, is rising sea level.

It is discussed a lot.  Down here the local authority has a map of coastal towns.  There is a line on it and anything between the line and the sea will not be protected.

There is a trial currently going on at Werrytown  to monitor and protect (maybe).  It was destroyed in 1962 by a storm.  While it looks old (ish), most of the buildings are mid 60's onwards.

9 hours ago, ProDave said:

I don't see any evidence yet that it is happening (being a boater I watch tides etc)

There is a geological reason why you are not seeing changes.  During the last ice age the UK was covered in ice down to Porth Nanven, this forced the land to go lower into the Earth's Crust.  The land is now rebounding, but not evenly.  Where I am is actually sinking at about 3mm a year, parts of NE Scotland is rising (due to no ice mass above it) at about 3mm a year.

Sea levels are rising at about 3mm a year.

So I see 5 to 6 mm rise every year, you see nothing.

Over the last 20 years, that is, 60mm.  Does not sound much, just over 2 inches, and is over shadowed by storm surges and large waves.

The problem, as @JohnMo points out, is underground and in the estuaries.  Here the overall chemistry of the ground water has become more saline, which affects the types of crops that can be grown (farmers pump groundwater from shallow boreholes ~10m deep.  This is not a recent discovery, the Dutch already have plans to allow the Polders to be flooded, not by the sea, but by the Rhine.  This preserves the fresh water supply.

Again, I think this is an opportunity.  Most of our low lying coast is protected and managed (think Norfolk Broads that are totally managed and have been for hundreds of years).  Towns that were once connected to the sea, because of land drainage, are no longer connected.  So by reducing the flood and drainage management over the next few decades, some of these old trading towns could become 'tidal' towns again, with the estuary being a feature.  If the surrounding land is going to be unsuitable for agriculture, then put wind turbines and PV on the fields.  The beauty of those technologies is that they are not necessarily permanent and can easily be moved (they are often on a 25 year planning restraint anyway).  Water source heat pumps are also an opportunity.  The sea is a lot warmer than a river in the winter.