Post · bonfire.cafe

I live a couple of hundred metres from South Parade Pier in Southsea on Portsmouth’s seafront. This month work has started on Frontage 5, the bit of hardened sea defences in the Southsea Coastal Scheme that runs past the top of my road.

The visual below schematically shows the intended outcome including a much-needed extension of the 2-way cycle lane.

But given the *huge* investment the extraordinary thing is “the promenade will be raised by [only] around half a metre”

https://southseacoastalscheme.org.uk/frontage/speakers-corner-to-south-parade-pier/

Looking east, a CGI rendering of the part of South Parade that becomes Eastney Esplanade as it runs past South Parade Pier. Tiered planting near the pier entrance is sandwiched between a 2-way cycle path and the promenade. The path and the road stretch away towards Eastney.

Jen

@jetlagjen@gts.phillipsuk.org replied · 3 weeks ago

@urlyman I shall be very sad when Southsea Castle's dry moat is no longer dry. The day is getting closer.

Jonathan Schofield

@urlyman@mastodon.social replied · 3 weeks ago

…here below is some perspective on my inserted use of the word “only” above.

https://mastodon.social/@urlyman/111683180655114493

Jonathan Schofield

@urlyman@mastodon.social replied · 3 weeks ago

…Now I’m aware that sea level rise, though frighteningly pressing for low-lying places that are not having ~£150 million spent on them, are incremental, for now.

But it very much has not been in the past. It has proceeded in very large jumps, as local tipping points are passed.

The thing is though, our entire culture is one of incrementalism. We cannot institutionally conceive of the jumps we are fuelling
https://mastodon.social/@urlyman/113689983967292928

Jonathan Schofield

@urlyman@mastodon.social replied · 3 weeks ago

…and we certainly have no way to ‘price’ such implications.

We have risk analyses that haven’t got a clue about what to do about the level of risk.

As John Schellnhuber puts it:

“When the risks are existential, calculating probabilities doesn’t matter. What matters is the high-end possibilities.”

That said, I’m philosophical about this. I don’t expect anything we are doing to stand up until my death, much less so afterwards. I guess we’ll see how that feels when step change inundates us

Jonathan Schofield

@urlyman@mastodon.social replied · 3 weeks ago

…Less than 100 years ago trams used to run on the sea front and along my road that runs perpendicular to it. (Now it’s mostly buses, SUVs and fucked up Fast and Furious wannabes.)

Maybe a hundred years from now my road will be a waterway for the weirdos still living on the upper floors of my house, like a less magical version of KSR’s New York 2140 meets Kevin Costner’s Waterworld 🤷‍♂️

https://mastodon.social/@urlyman/111135790907428024

Jonathan Schofield

@urlyman@mastodon.social replied · 3 weeks ago

…apparently The Beatles played in the Savoy building you can see in the linked picture above at the top of my road.

And then a few decades later Harry Redknapp bought the run down casino and clubs it had become, sat on the land for years before it ‘mysteriously’ caught fire so he could bung the Conservative council £400k to buy himself out of affordable housing obligations and sell off the land to Mcarthy & Stone to build expensive retirement flats.

From where they can watch the sea rising

The hoarder of dodgy wealth and alleged arsonist Harry Redknapp giving himself a slow hand clap.

A young Paul McCartney presciently looking shocked at what’s to become of the Savoy building on South Parade.

Susi Arnott

@SusiArnott@mastodon.green replied · 3 weeks ago

@urlyman When were plans approved and with what information or understanding of #climatebreakdown? (And wondering as always whether the embodied carbon footprint was declared; looks like a huge plonk of cement)

Jonathan Schofield

@urlyman@mastodon.social replied · 3 weeks ago

@SusiArnott yes, the carbon emissions of it must be enormous

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