Defending Against Rising Sea Levels || July 14, 2026
As sea levels rise, the infrastructure that protects shorelines and prevents coastal flooding will become essential, especially for low-lying countries with more coastal exposure.
Global temps are on the rise, so the ice is melting quicker, and stronger storms are ravaging coastlines. Any country with large population centers near water should be concerned. So, places like China must adapt through coastal infrastructure, similar to what you can see behind me here in Italy.
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Comments (39)
Well, then there’s nuclear 🤷🏻♂️
How do you explain this to people that refuse to accept global warming?
Haha, because scientists will write anything their funders tell them to. Next to covid scam, its the scam of the century. Only brainwashed udjits believe club of rome think tanks " climate change"
Just move to Switzerland and problem solved.
Please, Climate Change?? Give me a break. It is the biggest scam in history. Trillions spent for nothing, except to make incompetents like Al Gore, multi millionaires.
I'd love to see your data on the claim that solar and wind don't have the supply chain, raw materials to provide what we need to support our growing energy needs. I don't think that's true at all. I work in this industry. In many cases, there's huge abundance and new innovations, especially in solar, that are gonna make things even more abundant, so can you provide your data for those claims?
So why is solar and wind ene4gy so heavily subsidized by govts??? If its so cheap, abundant cant it stand on its own 2 feet without massive subsidies???? And green hydrogen is pure BS
Can we move to something like Valar Atomics' Ward 250 modular TRISO reactors or do we run out of materials there as well, Peter?
The oceans have risen more than 125 metres over the last 10000 years. The only change is the rate of increase is slowing.
It is nice to hear someone speak cogently, succinctly, and unapologetically sane about the situation of "global warming." Without baseload power, society will break down quickly. With over 8 billion people on the planet, that is not a good thing.
6% of human population with 5 meters of sea level. That # seems low. Please someone fact check that.
Fact check???? Theyre all rigged to the same end.
I just finished an Ezra Klein podcast with his guest Bill McKibben. His view of climate and how things could play out seems to me to be opposed in large part to what you are saying here. I caveat that with the obvious fact I'm just Joe Schmo with a very shallow understanding of these topics while both you and McKibben have quite deep understanding. I'd be interested in a discussion between you, though.
I agree that supply chains are one of the biggest challenges. But saying they will never exist goes beyond what the evidence supports. History shows that supply chains expand in response to sustained demand and price signals. We've seen this with semiconductors, LNG, solar panels, batteries, and EV production—often with delays and bottlenecks, but they did scale. The real question isn't whether it's possible, but how fast it can happen. Building mines, refineries, transmission grids, and manufacturing capacity takes years, even decades, and there will almost certainly be periods of shortages and higher prices. However, most critical materials—copper, nickel, aluminum, steel, lithium, cobalt, and rare earths—can also be recycled, reducing the need for continuous primary extraction over time. The energy transition is likely to be slower, more expensive, and more complex than many expect. But that is very different from saying it is physically or economically impossible because the supply chains can never be built.
So basically the 10 meter line is when areas like the Florida beachfront areas (including Mar-a-Lago) and Louisiana's New Orleans (which has an even lower sea level than Florida) sinks under the Atlantic ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.
Whats the expiration date on China's fake islands in the South China Sea?
How come you are in Italy a lot? What’s going on over there?
Alternative to burning coal as a fuel. Use it to make petroleum products https://www.frontieras.com/
L8
It is almost difficult to come to terms with the fact that the baby boomers and generation X chose to just let climate change happen, they just did not have any love in their hearts for their fellow man or the next generation, just a bunch of selfish greedy pricks. When the great generation learned of the hole in the ozone, they called in Japan, the Soviet Union and Western Europe and they hashed out an agreement to fix it in just a couple months
That's BS. Gen X did a lot of climate activism and led policy changes. What you think Greta Thunberg was the first?
Thank you for your fabulous podcasts. Short, pithy, to the point and wonderfully insightful.
I do enjoy the factual presentations by PZ but sometimes have to filter out the liberal and anti Trump bias, overall I love his podcasts.
What podcast? I want it!
During the last ice age glaciers covered almost one-third of Earth's land mass, with the result being that the oceans were about 400 feet (122 meters) lower than today. During the last global "warm spell," about 125,000 years ago, the seas were about 18 feet (5.5. meters) higher than they are now. https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/coastline-eastern-us-changesslowly#:~:text=During%20the%20last%20ice%20age%20glaciers%20covered%20almost%20one%2Dthird,higher%20than%20they%20are%20now.
Good stuff! The catch is in the title Slowly. The current changes are happening at factor 5-10x those ‘balanced’ coastline changes. Doesn’t matter to the planet. Just humans. At this population level. There is going to be less of us, at least for a period, it seems.
Inconvenient facts: the planet has never been greener (modern history) plants scrub CO2 out of the atmosphere faster then nature and man can create it. Man’s contribution is insignificant compared to natures. CO2 has been about 1/3 of 1 percent since the beginning of the end of the LAST ICE AGE (10000 years ago) aka ice age gets colder then gets warmer. Gets warmer ice melts. Plants would thrive with CO2 OVER 10% while all mammals would be dead at 6%.
Another inconvenient fact for the board. As the human activities spike the CO2 atmospheric levels the amount of “100 year” flooding events are increasing to decadal or less cycles. The storms are becoming more powerful and the relentless damage they cause will be harder to overcome and rebuild. The material costs and emotional toll will be too great to overcome with such frequency of these major storms. Communities living along the flood paths will go away. If you want to ignore the climate change and do nothing to help these vulnerable communities by not reinforcing the coastal areas shorelines then I get your point-at least enjoy the greener planet 🌎 Blue was so last century.
If you want to know why sea level is the least of your worries get 6 feet of string and 6 washers.
can you explain? I like learning something new everyday and this could do that.
It's not just warming. It's the acidification of the oceans.
My biggest concern too. I think you can engineer flooding solutions in many/ most places, but most reefs are already dead and mass extinction of marine life is catastrophic.
"..... a problem for a different decade"..... NOT....
5 meters is basically 80% of Florida, hence property insurance costing 3x the national average
No the insurance issue in Florida is not due to the topographical elevation. It is due to piss poor State regulation, building codes and standards.. ie allowing developers to build in swamps and cutting corners on construction standards. The general overall grift and corruption found in that state is like no other! If you want to see housing construction in Florida that made a good faith attempt to address these issues google Badcock Ranch, of course they are only 10 meters (33')above current sea levels...
Netherlands is also a good example, they have been engineering their way out of becoming Atlantis for while now. What about counties that have rivers terminating at coast to a sea? What happens there if levels rise for a meter or so?
Shorter river.
Iran updates
Using Minecraft blocks to hold back currents is actually pretty cool