@ketanjoshi.co [bsky.brid.gy] I think we're not far off a point where banks and insurers won't write loans or insurance policies for whole cities, because of climate change from toxic fossil fuel pollution. Lismore is well on its way.
@ajsadauskas @ketanjoshi.co [bsky.brid.gy]
I live locally.
So much infrastructure here just isn't coping with AGW. there's been 2-5 traffic lights around roadworks on my drive into town now for 36 months and these are small rural roads we're talking about.
@jaystephens @ketanjoshi.co [bsky.brid.gy] And then we have Australia's next great city, Parramatta.
It's a city that, roughly once a year, has a harbour...
This from Parramatta City Council itself: "From the earliest days, the changeable nature of the Parramatta River, and other waterways, has brought with it the risk of flooding.
"Today, our CBD is one of the most flash-flood affected areas in the country. Our challenge is to live with the river in all its various conditions."
https://www.cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au/environment/connected-resilient-communities/flooding
And this from a top State Emergency Service official in 2019:
"A senior SES official has warned that Parramatta's CBD could be overwhelmed by a flash flood in as little as nine minutes, giving residents little time to evacuate.
"George Jeoffreys, senior manager for risk reduction and avoidance at the NSW State Emergency Service, cited the difficulty of predicting flash floods."
You had parts of Parramatta's CBD flood in 2020:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-10/parramatta-river-overflows-as-floods-grip-sydney/11948910
And earlier this year: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-26/nsw-pseudo-monsoon-humidity-flooding-rains-qld-nsw/105095284
And of course there's pressure to put new high-rise developments right on the river edge: https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sydney-council-rejects-build-to-rent-tower-plan-over-flood-risk-20240108-p5evsm.html
@MsDropbear42@ajsadauskas @jaystephens Knowing of Parramatta's longstanding flooding propensity, were i running the show, i'd totes close down a brilliant existing CBD technology museum then move it at enormous cost & risk to a new building built seven nanometres from said floody river, coz wot could possibly go wrong? 
@MsDropbear42 @ajsadauskas
Ugh yeah that stuff is infuriating.
Lismore gallery & library had a tried and tested plan for floods, which was basically "cram everything into the attic space", then the 2022 flood happened and they followed the plan and the waters went over the roof. So we ended up damaging both precious books and million dollar artworks
@MsDropbear42@jaystephens @ajsadauskas Shocking, ofc, but sadly, cynical pessimist moi opines that our govts & our myopic voters are gonna have to incur many more of these catastrophes before policy will meaningfully shift.
@MsDropbear42 @jaystephens With the Parramatta Powerhouse Museum, back in 2020 the state government was forced to do a redesign.
Basically, they wanted to do an open ground floor forecourt. But in flash floods, people would quite easily get trapped and drown under there, and the lawyers warned the state government would be liable.
So they changed the design to close off the ground floor to the public.
Most of the new buildings going up along the riverfront now are being built on a one-storey podium now.
That's because in some of the recent floods, there was *very* little room under the bridges.
@MsDropbear42@infosec.space@ajsadauskas @jaystephens Ta, interesting. I vaguely recall some of that, but your helpful toot defo provided more info than i knew.
I think something like this is why i feel, & tbh remain, so archly cynical... If Straya, & frankly the rest of the world, was genuinely honestly doing all the serious shit needed NOW to decarbonise & ameliorate, then seeking engineering solutions in flood zones like this would be ok. Knowing though that we & most others are totes NOT seriously addressing the crisis, fuels [boom tish] my severe pessimism, coz eg, engineering designs need engineering assumptions [in this case including expected heights & frequency of floods]. Such assumptions necessarily must be predicated on a certain "steady state" belief [plus safety margins thrown in]. That's all fine, IF we had reason to trust such assumptions. I do NOT trust them, simply coz there IS no steady state; humans are continuing to add more & more CO2 & CH4 to Gaia's atmosphere, thus more & more raising the enthalpy, ergo the heating energy, ergo... yada yada.