"Don't dredge, just wait for sea level rise"

[lionking]

The government of Victoria, Australia recently decided to dredge Port Phillip Bay to allow for larger container vessels to get into port and maintain Melbourne's status as Australia's largest port.

There has been opposition to this, but the thread is not about the pros and cons. It's about several calls to talk radio today where the callers stated, with much gravity and conviction, that there was simply no point in dredging as global warming would lead to sea level rises which would mean that it would be unnecessary. These views were not challanged by the host or later callers.

After my head stopped hurting, I started to think about, and dispair about, the quality of public debate on global warming. And I should add that Melbourne is not a backwater (nearly 4 million people) and prides itself on its sophistication.

[Normal Dude]

The other day I had to explain to my roommates, 3rd/4th year college students, something along these lines.

[Schneibster]

Hmmm, dredge now or wait fifty to a hundred years for the sea level to rise. Let's see now...

You're right, lionking, the popular understanding of global warming is seriously deficient. I guess that might be partly due to the fact that there is a lot of FUD about what global warming actually predicts will happen.

[Soapy Sam]

I'd love to buy a house on the post glacial sea bed near Aberfoyle (lovely area, now some 20 miles above the tidal point of the river Forth) , name it "Seaview" and await the bemused inquiries.
Geologists jokes often mean a long wait for the punchline.

[lionking]

I'd love to buy a house on the post glacial sea bed near Aberfoyle (lovely area, now some 20 miles above the tidal point of the river Forth) , name it "Seaview" and await the bemused inquiries.
Geologists jokes often mean a long wait for the punchline.
Sadly I didn't get as far as Aberfoyle when in Scotland earlier this year. The closest we got was to Dunblane - no not because of the tragedy, but because my wife's grandfather came from there. But I am determined to get back to Scotland and spend more time.......There you go, derailing my own thread.:)

[dacium2007]

Sometimes when I watch TV and listen to radio I think surely they have picked out the dumbest people. But they don't. Has anyone been watching that show "are you smarter than a 5th grader". Some of the questions people get wrong are so rediculously easy its a joke, I think almost any school kid would know the answer. You compare the show to something like sale of a century 10 years ago, and you see how far general intellegence seems to be falling...

[fuelair]

Sometimes when I watch TV and listen to radio I think surely they have picked out the dumbest people. But they don't. Has anyone been watching that show "are you smarter than a 5th grader". Some of the questions people get wrong are so rediculously easy its a joke, I think almost any school kid would know the answer. You compare the show to something like sale of a century 10 years ago, and you see how far general intellegence seems to be falling...


The Howard Stern show has long been a serious indicator of that problem - the quiz contests they have certainly make the New York school system look bad!!!

[drkitten]

Sometimes when I watch TV and listen to radio I think surely they have picked out the dumbest people. But they don't. Has anyone been watching that show "are you smarter than a 5th grader". Some of the questions people get wrong are so rediculously easy its a joke, I think almost any school kid would know the answer.

Yes, but they also screen Are You Smarter contestants for stupidity as well.

[Safe-Keeper]

After my head stopped hurting, I started to think about, and dispair about, the quality of public debate on global warming.Every time I hear 'AGW is not real, it's a natural cycle!' I die a little bit inside, because I know that this misconception (that it's either a natural cycle or 100% human-caused, absolutely not both) has existed for the longest time and should've been killed a long time ago. It's like a Creationist spouting that Darwin renounced evolution on his death bed.

And, admittedly, there's irritating ignorance from 'my' group, too. It's increasingly frustrating when AGW supporters go around terrified that the Greenland ice is going to melt, not knowing that it won't happen in at least a thousand years according to even the most pessimistic scientists. Not to mention the media's use of fear as a tool to increase ratings (I know it always does and that this is more of a general problem, but it fits here nonetheless as it degrades the debate).

[Ziggurat]

I blame Kevin Costner.

[lionking]

Contrarian that I am, I didn't think that Water World was such a bad movie!

[Soapy Sam]

Better than "Field of Dreams", anyway.

[Cuddles]

I think it would be much easier if we just wait for the next ice age. The water level will drop and we can take all the time we like over moving the silt out the way so the harbour is all ready for the next round of warming.