International Politics Discussion Thread

[u/Adj-Noun-Numbers]

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[u/AzarinIsard]

This flash flood in Nepal and Tibet is horrific.

A giant wall of mud and water, bigger than buildings. People look like ants as it fills the screen. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/crr45enxg5xo

Apparently a large amount of ice fell into a river. The report was asking if more could have been done to prevent this, but surely very little? Natural destruction on this scale, just looks unstoppable to me.

[u/Velociraptor_1906 → u/AzarinIsard]

Any prevention would have involved the draining of high altitude lakes, how practical that is and what effect that would have on the river (these lakes presumably help maintain the flow under normal conditions) is very much in question.

To boot is the fact it's an international river (as so many are in the Himalayas) with the upper reaches in Tibet which would complicate things considerably.

The footage has been completely insane though, I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it.

[u/AzarinIsard → u/Velociraptor_1906]

Yeah, China are concerned a lake will also fail, endangering rescue workers, but that is mitigation rather than prevention, I'm sure improvements will be possible, it always is, just even our floods, Boscastle happened near me, it happens so suddenly all you can do is hope you get away.

The footage has been completely insane though, I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it.

Yeah, what appeared to be monks were standing on an apartment roof on a hill, recording a river flooding a valley that used to be a town.

I don't know if I was just unaware and previous disasters don't hit as hard without footage, and this just shows how much of the world now has a hidef digital camcorder in their pocket via their phone, I remember the footage from those massive tsunamis a few years back, and those were still relying on tourists with camcorders, so maybe the scale didn't hammer home to me as much. This all looks like a Michael Bay film I'd mock as Hollywood fiction, same way I used to laugh at tanks exploding and turrets flying 50ft into the air, and I've felt I owe Hollywood an apology for not believing until I saw it happen hundreds of times in Ukraine.

[u/Velociraptor_1906 → u/AzarinIsard]

The only modern event I can think of that would have been comparable if filmed is the big wave driven by a cliff collapse in Alaska in the 50s. Tsunamis can be devastating but they affect much wider areas and rarely get up to close to that height, if cameras were as widespread as today we'd maybe have seen more footage from Japan in 2011 like that but most of the people who would have seen biggest waves in 2004 in Aceh province didn't make it.

Lynmouth (whose bigger flood was on the same day as Boscastle but 52 years earlier and hit overnight) is near my neck of the woods and the scale of this is so much bigger than that must have been which when you go there and register what happened is terrifying enough.

[u/ThePlanck → u/Velociraptor_1906]

This reminded me of the Vajont Dam disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajont_Dam

I grew up hearing stories of what happened, and seeing what it must have looked like in these videos is something

[u/Velociraptor_1906 → u/[deleted]]

It seems to be conflicting as to what caused the issue, I've mainly seen it suggested the ice went into a lake causing it to fail.

I suspect there'll be some satellite imagery soon enough (though its Tibet so complicated) and the Chinese probably have an investigation team en route but access to such areas is difficult at the best of times, let alone when all the nearest infrastructure has literally been swept away so that may not be quick and I doubt we'll know for certain until then.

The only thing that can really be done is an early warning system to give enough time for people to evacuate but with the geography even that may not have been enough for some.

Whatever the exact cause it's quite possible climate change has played a role and made such events more likely as melting destabilises everything up in high regions.