Man the lifeboats - Bangkok underwater by end of century

[Lunchtime O'Booze]

hello sailor-will Pattaya become the Venice of Asia ?

Bangkok underwater by end of century

AT Bangkok's watery gates, Buddhist monks cling to a shrinking spit of land around their temple as they wage war against the relentlessly rising sea.

During monsoons at high tide, waves hurdle the breakwater of concrete pillars and the inner rock wall around the temple on a promontory in the Gulf of Thailand.

Jutting above the water line just ahead are remnants of a village that has already slipped beneath the sea.

Experts say these waters, aided by sinking land, threaten to submerge Thailand's sprawling capital of more than 10 million people within this century.

Bangkok is one of 13 of the world's largest 20 cities at risk of being swamped as sea levels rise in coming decades, according to warnings at the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change held here.

"This is what the future will look like in many places around the world,'' says Lisa Schipper, an American researcher on global warming, while visiting the temple in this village south of Bangkok.
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/s ... 05,00.html (http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22634009-5013605,00.html)

When I first heard about Bangkok slipping under the waves a few decades ago I was always amazed that it seemed to generate no interest among people. Even though the speed at which it is sinking has increased from 50mm to 100mm per year people still seem oblivious to the fact that the city is doomed.

As I read this post, Lunchtime, it had been up for two days garnering fewer than 150 views with no comments.

May I suggest you spice this up a bit by saying that all the pedophiles will be drown in the process. That seems to be the only issue these days to rivet people├втВмтДвs attention, not the loss of one of the world├втВмтДвs biggest cities.

Ho-hum.

In order to avoid to loose any income due to a damaged tourist industry, clever Isaan planning resulted in setting up of Pattaya 2.

[Lunchtime O'Booze]

"all the pedophiles will be drown in the process"

when all the young lads drown in Bangkok the pedos will move onto Cambodia.

......

when all the young lads drown in Bangkok the pedos will move onto Cambodia.

When Bangkok drowns all Cambodia will be under water!

I find it a bit difficult to get worked up about something that will happen a good 92 years from now.
Besides, the Thais will just pick up and move upriver, maybe to Ayutthaya again.
SE Asia is littered with old abandoned Capitol Cities. Nothing lasts forever.

SE Asia is littered with old abandoned Capitol Cities. Nothing lasts forever.Do I feel a "mai pen rai" coming on?

[krobbie]

... I'm screaming the house down. That is THE funniest post I have read for days and there's been some goodies. I mean LAUGH OUT LOUD hilarious.

krobbie :rolling:

[Smiles]

Time to buy up property surrounding Chiang Mai (in the foothills I mean). Ayuthaya will go the way of Atlantis as well, being on the Chao Praya, so I think we are seeing the first peeps of the resurrection of the Northern Kingdom.

I believe Mr Thaksin is from Chiang Mai.

Cheers ...

[alipatt-old]

I believe Mr Thaksin is from Chiang Mai.

Cheers ...

At last we now know who is behind global warming

[dave_tf-old]

In order to avoid to loose any income due to a damaged tourist industry, clever Isaan planning resulted in setting up of Pattaya 2.

I've been there...twice. My guy said, "Same Same Pattaya only no beach." Still one of the funniest jokes I've ever heard.

Ninety years maybe, but it's not like it's going to happen all at once. There's some bad news in the good news about the worst news, I guess.

[Wesley]

The sky is falling the sky is falling, left wing fundamentalist tree saving leftist unscientific scare maneuver. If we did all that Gore suggest it would cripple the world economy in a decade.Especially China who burns more coal than anyone.

Wesley

[krobbie]

Time to buy up property surrounding Chiang Mai (in the foothills I mean). Ayuthaya will go the way of Atlantis as well, being on the Chao Praya, so I think we are seeing the first peeps of the resurrection of the Northern Kingdom.

I believe Mr Thaksin is from Chiang Mai.

Cheers ...

He, his wife and children have probably purchased most of the available property with this in mind. After all, money was no object. I am sure he is just waiting in England hoping the waters rise for good and float away all his detractors. I can't understand why so many of the folk in the north and north-east still love him so. He really is a wiley rascal (that's the kindest I can be, all things considered).

And just why is it that so many of the higher ranking government and local body officials, already on plenty of baht, continue to pilfer steel and defraud their own people? I just don't get greed.

Chjeers
krobbie

In order to avoid to loose any income due to a damaged tourist industry, clever Isaan planning resulted in setting up of Pattaya 2.

I've been there...twice. My guy said, "Same Same Pattaya only no beach." Still one of the funniest jokes I've ever heard.

Ninety years maybe, but it's not like it's going to happen all at once. There's some bad news in the good news about the worst news, I guess.

40 years ago Pattaya was just a small sleepy fishing village ...

Just be patient, please and wait until you can see large billboards: View Taley Island, near Banglamung. :idea:

40 years ago Pattaya was just a small sleepy fishing village ... I think that's rather a stretch. Forty years ago was ... let me see ... 1967 ... and what was happening in 1967? Oh yes, I remember - the Vietnam War. And during the Vietnam War Thailand was ... what? The R&R centre for American servicemen. I suspect the US fleet went to Pattaya even then. And what was happening then in Isaan? Why, wasn't Udon Thani a major US air base for the war effort? Pattaya ... Udon Thani ... forty years ago ... today. Same, same?? :idea:

Bangkok is today sinking at the rate of 100mm a year. 27 years ago when I first heard about the problem from Dutch hydraulic engineers that the Thai government hired to do a multi-year study of the problem, it was sinking at the rate of 50mm a year. The problem is getting worse by leaps and bounds.

Look, you don't even need a calculator for this: Bangkok is between one and one-and-a-half meters above sea level. Even if the rate of subsidence gets no worse, which is tantamount to wishful thinking, how many years does it take to reach one meter at 100mm per year?

Within 15 years Bangkok will be largely unlivable. Most scientists studying this say that in 20 years it will be a fait accompli.

Are any of you here when it rains? Even walkways to the skytrain over by the river have plywood sheets on top of layered sandbags in the dry season! Huh?

Hi Fattman,

I have noted your comment "its unlikely that Bangkok will be allowed to sink into the abyss". Pray tell who do you think will do this "not allowing"? Do you believe in miracles? Do you think Jesus will come and save you at the last minute? When are they going to start "not allowing" this to not start since it is already well under way? Do you believe as George Bush does that global warming is all "just a theory"?

27 years ago when the Dutch hydraulic engineers I spoke of were in Bangkok to do a multi-year study of the problem they said that it would be cheaper to move the city to a new location. At that time Bangkok, which is built on a mudflat, an inappropriate place to site a huge metropolis to begin with, was sinking at the rate of 50mm per year. Now, in 2007, with absolutely scientific precision we know with certainty that it is sinking at twice that rate which is 100mm a year. This is a multi-faceted problem. Water is drawn from the earth which is not bedrock and is compressed. Concomitant with that, the sea is rising, again for a multitude of reasons largely associated with the global warming that I spoke of. There are other problems which in an interest in keeping this short I will not go into. Most of them were covered in the article that Lunchtime posted the URL to. There are constant articles about the problem being published, but no one seems to care very much. And truth to tell, I am not very bothered by it all since after many years I am seriously thinking of leaving the Kingdom for greener pastures.

Maybe like you, most think this mysterious "they" will not let Bangkok slip under the waves.

Look, Fattman, you can feel free to "believe" anything you like if you are simply fed up with what the scientists are saying. That is all your private business.

Nero fiddled while Rome burned, and there's something to be said for that. May I suggest you take fiddle lessons?

Ref.: "Bangkok Under Water in 20 Years", Reuters, 2 May 2007, Gillian Griffith-Jones

[Lunchtime O'Booze]

it was only 2 years ago archaeologists found what appears to be the remains of a large city beneath the Dead Sea.

Catawamp need not worry about the pedos in Sunnee Plaza..they'll all be beneath the waves one day.

The world is awash in disappeared great civilizations replete with PEDOS!

The real absurdity is that people think their own civilizations, this one we struggle with now being the only one we have to contend with, perhaps the most failed of all, and at the very least the laughing stock of the ages, will go on forever.

Thanks for your nice reply, Fattman.

Yes, none of us has a crystal ball!

What our own age does have is a few good scientific instruments to uncover the process by which earlier civilizations met their doom. Jared Diamond may well be the world's leading authority in these matters and his works are well worth reading for anyone interested in the subject.

People hate facing reality anywhere, in their own lives as well as in the world around them. I have become convinced that most are in fact their own worst victims although they would hotly deny this since it is far more convenient and soothing to one's own ego to find someone else to blame.

When the Dutch did their detailed study of the problem years ago they came to the conclusion that there was no viable solution to this problem in Bangkok. The situation that the Dutch have in their own homeland is an entirely different kettle of fish and one which they have solved to a large degree.

It has been observed, quite rightly I think, that every past civilization for which we have good scientific information now, participated in its own demise. It would be as if one cut his own wrists and then just sat back and watched himself bleed to death.

Cheers!

[TrongpaiExpat]

I live within 500 meters of the river and while my soi does flood, its not serious and it hasn't changed much in the 12 years I've lived at this location. I previously lived about 50 meters from the river, and the local authority there raised the street levels recently, but annual floods still hit the homes on the riverside. I know that the authorities (in my area) ..........

OK, so why not change that location field in your profile to Bangkok from the Uranus you now have. I heard that joke in Jr. High and did not think it was funny then. :geek:

[TrongpaiExpat]

I think its up to me what I put in my profile...but as it is rather corny I have amended it as per your request sir.

Back when I was in Jr. High I told Paul Severs the same thing and he replied with a right hook to my nose. We both ended up in detention.

I liked "Uranus"!
Put it back!

I am sure that the city is sinking; so is Venice (a different kettle of fish); so are London and other cities.
The Dutch are masters at fighting these problems; they've enlarged their nation by reclaiming land from the sea, and generally done a pretty good job of holding the water back from their water-logged and (mostly) below sea level country.
I'm no expert, but I can't see the Thais abandoning Bangkok in the forseeable future (15-20 years). As the central plains of Thailand are huge, have a very high water table, are are prone to annual flooding, where would the 'new' Bangkok be?
They may not have the resources or knowledge that the Dutch have, but they're pretty good a figuring out temporary hotch potch solutions. Of course in the long term, our civilization will go the way of all others, but I suspect that may not happen just yet. This is of course a personal opinion as no one can foresee the future - Keystone please don't take it personally :drunken:


Bangkok’s future is significantly different from Venice, Amsterdam, or London. i.e. size, building weight, groundings, they commonly share the fear of rising sea levels.

At first: Bangkok is built on old marsh swamps which cannot hold the heave weight built up on the soil. Therefore house-/ground-owners in Bangkok need to feed annually the “sinking fond” in order to raise some money for further investments into the cities future.

But there are still "old" planning permissions in drawers how are just been found - after payment of substantial amounts of tea money, allowing to add more weight on the crippled soil. "Old" permission are not rigidly regulated, nor are new ones with the right stamp on documents.... regulated. The city is still growing and construction is big business…

At second, the amount of ground (drinking-) water in order to supply the cities needs is too much. There is not enough usable fresh water to refill the ground level. The drying grounds cracks. This causes many problems especially in Thong Lor due to the heavy building load of Sathon, Silom, Nana, Phrom Phong areas.

Sometimes the road cracked and holes are opening where busses disappear, I have seen this in 2004 with my own eyes while coming back from a friends house. We have been talking ecatly this topic the same afternoon since he asked for advise due to massive construction problems of his house; the concrete ground platform was partly in the air already, the house was about 8 grade out of his flat level which was very annoying.

At third: Sea level is slowly rising Incoming waters will ruin ground waters. Floddings cannot run away that easily any more.

[Lunchtime O'Booze]

we didn't get detention..just severely caned -especially by a demented English master who took running leaps to get a good angle as he whacked you over the hand. I still have a bent knuckle from a beating but I found it quite addictive even though he was a brute.

Nothing like the handsome PE teacher who joined the boys in the showers and gave playful smacks on the backside..some of us encouraged him. I hope the poor devil never got busted for it.

all harmless fun..I mean I turned out quite normal.

Yes, ttom, your analysis and comments about the problem of Bangkok sinking are absolutely correct according to every scrap of information I have seen since I first heard about the problem in 1980.

And yes, Lunchtime, the "pedos" I had as teachers when I was a young boy were my favourites too, and I hope none of them ever got busted either! Truth to tell I had a hard time suppressing my erection when I was 10 years old and the handsome "pedo" PE teacher joined us in the shower room! Oh... as I said before, those were dreamy days!