I hope this monument to opulence fails miserably and the developers lose their shirts.
There’s no way they won’t damage or destroy that reef.
The first big storm is going to destroy much of the sand island.
But, 10% are special protection zones! Won’t matter, they can’t survive if huge amounts of the non protected reef are destroyed.

Not to mention sea level rise will put it underwater quickly, it’s barely above current sea level in the plans.

Look at Mexico, dozens of comparatively tiny resorts not even on the reefs, but on land, and that reef is not 10% what it was in the mid 80’s. Building ON the reef is guaranteed to destroy it, as is tourism.

I hate when companies are allowed to build on natural wonders to exploit the beauty, they invariably destroy that beauty within decades. That entire reef/coastline should be off limits to construction so the two desert properties have an attraction. When the reefs die from sun tan lotion poisoning, bleaching, sand displacement, accidents with supply ships, the first major fuel spill, etc, that place will be a $5 billion waste, abandoned to the desert.

Remember the “islands of the world” project in Dubai? This sounds even less thought out than they were, more ecologically disastrous, needing more infrastructure to be built, requiring ships to bring fuel as there’s no nearby port to run pipelines from (guaranteeing oil spills). All for what? So billionaires can get off their yachts for a while in luxury?

Wiki-Significant changes in the maritime environment [of Dubai]. As a result of the dredging and redepositing of sand for the construction of the islands, the typically crystalline waters of the Persian Gulf at Dubai have become severely clouded with silt. Construction activity is damaging the marine habitat, burying coral reefs, oyster beds and subterranean fields of sea grass, threatening local marine species as well as other species dependent on them for food. Oyster beds have been covered in as much as two inches of sediment, while above the water, beaches are eroding with the disruption of natural currents.

That was a $12 billion project to exploit the pristine coast and beautiful waters that no longer exist, the islands themselves are sinking and eroding, most were evacuated or never used at all, the water is now mud colored, the reefs are gone. An unmitigated disaster. This sounds extremely similar.

Oppose this and similar projects.

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The British Film Institute (BFI) has restored footage taken during Ernest Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition, including the poignant moment the ship’s mast collapses as Endurance is crushed by sea ice. Despite the sailors’ perilous predicament, Shackleton insisted the nitrate film was salvaged. The remastered work is part of a collection depicting early 20th century Antarctic exploration.

Ignoring your total ignorance of recent history to point out, Joes favorability rating on his state of the Union address was 78%.
78% Bob. 30% higher than Trump’s best poll.
Failure Trump never got 50% approval on anything, and today rates around 30% and falling fast as he supports Putin’s invasion and hates on America, as his obvious attempts to subvert democracy and steal the presidency are exposed in courts, as his total failures as a businessman are exposed through the courts.

This is you pick. This is you guy? I can only hope he’s the 2024 candidate. It won’t be a blue wave, it won’t be a blue tsunami, it will be a blue sea level rise…and likely a red demise.
ROTFLMFAHS! So gratifying watching your anti American hate group lose its power.

LMFAHS!!!
So delusional and backwards, Bobby. The sky, sea, and land are all orange through your eyes, aren’t they?
4500% increase in voter registration refusals, but no increase in fraudulent applications found. All Republican driven. A vote wrongly denied is the same as a vote wrongly cast, and Republicans are undeniably guilty of both but can’t point to any verifiable examples from the left of in proper vote denial or intentional voter fraud, only cases they make up (like the poster boy for vote fraud claims that finally admitted he voted as his wife for Trump).

It’s all Republican fuckery. Name the Democratic fuckery you mean, be specific with verifiable examples. I know you can’t, snowflake.
Every instance found, all Republican vote fraud. There were many, but not at levels that mattered (for the direct vote fraud, other Republican frauds like the violent coup attempt and fraudulent Republican electors, those mattered).

Every hurdle to vote, Republican written, all directly targeting minorities….it’s only Republicans creating racist targeted roadblocks for certain voters they wouldn’t accept as roadblocks to their own firearm ownership, because it’s not about safeguarding rights it’s only about underhanded power grabs by the political minority in this country, the party who only won one presidential election in the last 8 by getting more votes….they’re Republicans. Democracy isn’t a friend of Republicans.
They’re the party that’s openly anti democratic. They’re the party that admits that if every eligible voter voted they would NEVER win another election. You vote Republican because you’re an infantile sucker that likes to trigger the libtards (no matter the cost to America) and who can’t ever admit he’s w-w-w-w-wrong.

You’re Eric Cartman. Dim, dishonest, and despised.

It's like splitting the red sea.

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Huh, I guess if tuna is chicken of the sea, then is lobster the cat of the sea? Don't really wanna eat lobster now...

Making the Soundtrack to Slice of Sea—Tibet

They went round the wrong way? Jeebus, Chile is a huge leeward shore to avoid... That bit about having to then fight the current to go 200 miles further west before you can turn north so that you have enough sea room not to get smashed onto the rocks of the Chilean coast when the weather turns rough... We had engines at least as a backup, but just in case of emergency. Plus we had weather radar and modern forecasts so we could plan a route to avoid the worst of what was to come. Respect.

I especially loved the part about how sailors on the upper yards like the royals or the masthead being "as close to heaven as a sailor ever gets".

Yeah, 20000ft is roughly 6km. The air density is about 1/2 but from what I can determine that doesn't equal 1/2 air resistance, but something more like 90-95% air resistance of sea level.

Having said that, I haven't studied aerospace engineering, so I might be getting the details wrong.

There are definitely some minor advantages to building on a mountainside, but I don't think they outweigh logistical difficulties under normal circumstances.

The idea has a good bit of scifi (and probably scientific) history behind it though. I believe Heinlein used a railgun cargo launcher from the moon in Moon is a Harsh Mistress and a mountainside sled rocket in one of his earlier books.

Project Rho is a great resource for hard scifi and rocketry research for writers. http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/surfaceorbit.php is the link to a page that discusses maglev, railguns and rocketsleds.

I’m thinking Mt Chimborazo in Ecuador…at over 20000 ft, it’s peak it the farthest from the center of the earth (while not being the highest above sea level thanks to the equatorial bulge).
Sure, it doesn’t remove air resistance or friction, but halving it, even cutting it by 1/3 is a massive leap in efficiency and negates much of the extreme engineering and materials needed to overcome the friction….plus, as you mentioned, there’s the rotational speed advantage from launching on the equator vs Florida.
Also, while extremely minor, there’s also a slight reduction in gravitational pull at those heights. A joule saved is a joule earned!

Using a mountainside might help with structural integrity, but it's not likely to give much air resistance advantage if I'm reading the math correctly. The 5 highest peaks in the US are all in Alaska and and range from just under 5km to just over 6km. Commercial jets using air resistance/density for lift fly at about 10km and even at 38km aerodynamic lift still carries 98% of the weight of the plane (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A1rm%C3%A1n_line)

Air density is halved at 5km compared to sea level, but air resistance doesn't diminish as quickly (due to it being multiplied by velocity squared and drag coefficient), and only becomes irrelevant (for short-term purposes) around 100km at the Karman Line.

If we had a 5km peak in Florida, the lack of logistical costs might make the benefits worth it, and if we could build on one of Equador's 5km peaks, then there's the further advantage of equatorial location for optimal rotational advantage (part of the reason we launch from South Florida)

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