Hacker News Reader

Comment by bartart | Hacker News Reader

Is it not a problem that Singapore is right on the ocean? Does anyone know if there risk of flooding or anything?

Singapore is one of the few major populations on earth that is shielded from most natural disasters. It's also not near a fault line, so earthquakes, tropical storms, tsunamis are unlikely to affect it.

Major flooding can occur due to rains, however. The city has dealt with it in the past and seems to have that under control.

The other major disaster that hits Singapore frequently throughout every year is the "haze" crisis [0], which is actually man-made. It was particularly bad when I was there in 2013. But I mention this only as an aside since we're talking about natural disasters; it wouldn't affect the plans mentioned in this article.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Southeast_Asian_haze#Sing...

What about water level rising due to climate change?

They're working on improving seawalls and rock slopes. [0]

[0] http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/as-sea-levels-rise-sin...

2015 wasn't too good either. Here the view from my office at the time https://imgur.com/zVECQQ3

That's awful, I'm sorry to see that. The haze problem was one of the main reasons I left Singapore. It's no way to live, no way to raise children. In 2013 I remember there was a street where a lot of birds died mid-flight from suffocation on the smoke, fell to the ground and littered the pavement.

It's just sad to see a problem like this, all caused by human activity. It could be stopped but not much is being done to do so.

Not really. Singapore is on the equator and surrounded by large landmasses (Malaya, Sumatra, Borneo, Java) on all sides, so it's never in the path of cyclones/typhoons and is shielded from tsunamis as well.

My first thought was Armory + Oil Reserve is potential to blow up the island and open the gates of hell. That sounds like a big risk to me.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com