The Chennai Floods Are a Devastating Preview of Unnatural Disasters to Come

Slate ^ | December 4, 2015 | Eric Holthaus

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Right now, Chennai-India's fourth-largest city with a metro area the size of Chicago-is paralyzed. Flooding from record rainfall-the heaviest in more than a hundred years-has cut off more than 3 million people from basic services for days. At least 270 people have died, and what's happening should provide a cautionary tale to the world: Chennai is a new type of "natural" disaster, a preview of the Anthropocene, the idea that humans have become a geological-scale force of nature.

November was Chennai's rainiest calendar month in history: An unimaginable 47 inches fell. Then, this week, things got worse. Wednesday's rains brought an additional 11 inches-34 times the normal amount. More rain is expected in the coming days, linked to an enhanced northeast monsoon boosted by a record-strong El Nino in the Pacific Ocean and the record-warm Indian Ocean.

Flooding is nothing new in Chennai-major floods have occurred there in 1903, 1943, 1978, 1985, 2002, and 2005-but it's very likely that enhanced evaporation linked to climate change has contributed to this week's tragedy, making heavy rains more likely. The country's lead meteorologist as well as its prime minister, Narendra Modi, have both endorsed this linkage.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Floods are caused by more than rainfall totals.

More likely there are exacerbating factors like these:

"Antiquated drainage system"

"Uncontrolled, unplanned development"

"Destruction of vegetation ecosystems

***********

Re: 2005 Mumbai flood:

The Mithi River - Mumbai's Open Drain

The Mithi River runs through densely populated and industrial areas of Mumbai and carries the overflow discharges of Powai and Vihar lakes to the Arabian Sea at Mahim Creek. It's about 18 km long and has a catchment area of 7,295 hectares. The river is supposed to serve as a natural drainage channel that carries excess water during monsoons.

The poor state of the Mithi river (also known as Mahim River) in 2005 was blamed by many for excerbating the flood disaster. The river had long been heavily polluted, at times looking more like an open drain than a river. It was then, and still is today, used as a dumping ground for sewage, industrial waste and all types of garbage from those living along its banks.

Mangrove Flood Defences

The river's capacity for dealing with larger amounts of water caused by the monsoon rain had also been dealt a blow by the destruction of many of the mangrove ecosystems alongside the river. Mangroves normally served as a buffer between land and water. Without them, the river's banks were unable to withstand pressure from increased water flow. It is estimated that Mumbai lost about 40% of its mangroves between 1995 and 2005. Some have been destroyed by the dumping of sewage and garbage, but many of them were claimed for building land, such as the Bandra Kurla Complex."

[goldstategop]

Its the fault of us climate change deniers floods exist on earth.

If only we would stop breathing, Nature wouldn’t wreak vengeance upon us.

Liberals lead the Human Extinction movement. Climate change is simply a pretext to forcing humanity off the planet altogether.

Because we blight it by our very presence upon it.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

And all the fault of America.

These warmists are dangerous nuts.

[John Valentine]

Salon. What do you expect?

[dirtboy]

Flooding from record rainfall-the heaviest in more than a hundred years-has cut off more than 3 million people from basic services for days. At least 270 people have died, and what's happening should provide a cautionary tale to the world: Chennai is a new type of "natural" disaster, a preview of the Anthropocene, the idea that humans have become a geological-scale force of nature.

So what caused those heavier rains over a hundred years ago? Morons.

[Smokin' Joe]

...a preview of the Anthropocene, the idea that humans have become a geological-scale force of nature.

ROTFLMAO!

(And I'm a geologist!)

What unbridled hubris!

We have drilled a few holes a little ways into the planet.

We have huffed and puffed, and the planet has managed to absorb that and render it harmless.

We dug and drilled and blasted, and rearranged the skim of dirt on the very surface a little and somehow we're now a Geological-scale force of nature?

If mankind is such a geological-scale force of nature, then why are any affected by the flooding?

When all is said and done we will make our geological contributions--as sediment.

[Woodman]

I’ve been to Chennai. It is built on a coastal plane and has basically been going through an unregulated building spree for the last decade or more. The infrastructure is horrible on a good day. The local and National politicians will do anything they can to blame something other than their ineptitude. FWIW India doubled their military assistance to 4000 soldiers. The is for a city of over 6 million people. Does that sound like an adequate response to the situation?

[Ben Ficklin]

"If only we could stop breathing"

You are entitled to make such statements, but it makes you look like an ignorant old fool, and re-enforces the Free Republic stereotype.

OTOH, if you want to build and operate a new power plant, and emit 100,000 tons per year of CO2, you will be regulated.

The best available control technology for such a situation is natural gas, which is why the majority of new electrical generating capacity in the US is natural gas fired, with wind being a distant second and coal a distant third, unless you live in Texas.

Wind and Solar now leading Texas in Power Growth

[Cincinatus' Wife]

England (2014) How Somerset Levels river flooded after it was not dredged for decades

"This historic photograph reveals how a lack of dredging has halved the width of a key river on the Somerset Levels.

The picture taken in the 1960s shows a wide expanse of water passing through Burrowbridge with plenty of room for water levels to rise.

But a matching image taken shortly before the recent floods reveals how silt and debris have gradually built up and extended towards the centre of the river.

The overflow holes in the sides of the bridge which were once above the water line now sit redundantly in the side of the banks, surrounded by grass and mud.

Critics blame the Environment Agency - which took over responsibility for river maintenance around 20 years ago - for failing to dredge regularly. ....

[theBuckwheat]

In 1993, the Midwestern US had a period of tremendous daily rainfall that resulted in a 500 year flood of the Missouri River. In 1995, that river flooded again and we were told it was a “300 year” flood.

This was before the Global Climate Warming Change hype, so nobody scolded us about the floods in that context.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Flood_of_1993

[theBuckwheat]

When a river is not dredged but has its flow constrained, it tends to carry silt that is deposited on the river bottom, slowly raising it. So river beds tend to rise over time making it gradually easier to flood.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

From your LINK: "Wind and Solar now leading Texas in Power Growth"

Most new electricity generation in Texas will come from wind power, and next year solar power growth is expected to exceed natural gas-fired power plants in terms of new capacity added to the grid, according to a new report Tuesday from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas..."

Texas has been battling the EPA and Obama non-stop in Federal Court (they're closing coal powered plants in TX) while trying to comply with the EPA dictates of increased "clean" energy.

Still, Texas has managed to have growth and jobs.

[Little Pig]

He forgot the sarcasm tag, though most of us don’t really need it for something that obvious.

On a more general note, Chennai is just the latest city in India to be flooded out. Mumbai regularly ends up chest-deep during the Monsoons, as do many others. It has very little to do with the amount of rain, and a great deal to do with unregulated building (both by the government and illegal squatters) and poor engineering of roads, drains, and other infrastructure.

And the best available power technology, if you’re worried about CO2 emissions (which we don’t really need to be; AGW is a scam of monumental proportions), is nuclear power. The main problem is the flat-earth Luddites who got scared by a bad ‘70s disaster movie and now won’t allow modern, clean (and very safe) nuclear generation plants to be built.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Exactly and this is what has happened in many areas being touted as adversely affected by “global warming “caused” flooding.”

If anything is “man-made” it’s the environmentalists’ push to stop dredging.

[bert]

However, only one decent sized gas fired turbine plant would immediately put wind and solar out of the ‘growth’ lead

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Everywhere I drive around the Houston ship channel there’s plant construction and storage tanks being built.

[ichabod1]

Something’s wrong if Texas isn’t cashing in. I think Texas has more gas than Saudi Arabia has oil, and low transportation costs to get it to the big Texas cities.

[Ben Ficklin]

Most, if not all, of the problems with coal powered plants in Texas revolve around the leveraged buy-out of TXU to create Energy Future Holdings/Luminant in 2005-2006. That LBO was the largest in US history and was predicated on the price of natural gas staying high, which collapsed in 2008, leaving EFH with a very, very high debt to equity ratio. That is nature of LBOs aka vulture capitalism

Also, Obama threw them a curve ball. They didn't think that Obama would include Texas in the cross state pollution regs.

The underlying problem was/is using the lignite coal in east Texas and EFH was so broke they couldn't afford to switch to Powder River coal

Eventually EFH went into bankruptcy and has recently bought some court approved gas plants.

[Ben Ficklin]

Silting of rivers and lakes are a function of high water, and historically, measured in geologic time, river beds shift/move around.

The other thing is that the monsoons combine with nutrient run-off of the Himalayas so that rice farming in India and western China feeds half the people on earth.

The Indian govt recognizes the problems they face with their fertility rate.

India operates one of the largest constellations earth observational satellites. Not as many as the US but as the GOP tries to shut down these satellites being operated by NASA, NOAA, and USGS, India could end up with more than the US.

India's EOS

[Cincinatus' Wife]

...cross state pollution regs.

Yes. There's that too.

Thank you for that other information.