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United States

Saving History With Sandbags: Climate Change Threatens the Smithsonian (nytimes.com) 125

President Warren Harding's blue silk pajamas. Muhammad Ali's boxing gloves. The Star Spangled Banner, stitched by Betsy Ross. Scripts from the television show "M*A*S*H." Nearly two million irreplaceable artifacts that tell the American story are housed in the National Museum of American History, part of the Smithsonian Institution, the biggest museum complex in the world. Now, because of climate change, the Smithsonian stands out for another reason: Its cherished buildings are extremely vulnerable to flooding, and some could eventually be underwater. From a report: Eleven palatial Smithsonian museums and galleries form a ring around the National Mall, the grand two-mile park lined with elms that stretches from the Lincoln Memorial to the U.S. Capitol. But that land was once marsh. And as the planet warms, the buildings face two threats. Rising seas will eventually push in water from the tidal Potomac River and submerge parts of the Mall, scientists say. More immediately, increasingly heavy rainstorms threaten the museums and their priceless holdings, particularly since many are stored in basements. At the American History Museum, water is already intruding.

It gurgles up through the floor in the basement. It finds the gaps between ground-level windows, puddling around exhibits. It sneaks into the ductwork, then meanders the building and drips onto display cases. It creeps through the ceiling in locked collection rooms, thief-like, and pools on the floor. Staff have been experimenting with defenses: Candy-red flood barriers lined up outside windows. Sensors that resemble electronic mouse traps, deployed throughout the building, that trigger alarms when wet. Plastic bins on wheels, filled with a version of cat litter, to be rushed back and forth to soak up the water. So far, the museum's holdings have escaped damage. But "We're kind of in trial and error," said Ryan Doyle, a facilities manager at the Smithsonian. "It's about managing water." An assessment of the Smithsonian's vulnerabilities, released last month, reveals the scale of the challenge: Not only are artifacts stored in basements in danger, but floods could knock out electrical and ventilation systems in the basements that keep the humidity at the right level to protect priceless art, textiles, documents and specimens on display. Of all its facilities, the Smithsonian ranks American History as the most vulnerable, followed by its next door neighbor, the National Museum of Natural History.

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Saving History With Sandbags: Climate Change Threatens the Smithsonian

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  • by nevermindme ( 912672 ) on Friday November 26, 2021 @10:16AM (#62023095)
    DC will always be a Swamp.
    • by JaredOfEuropa ( 526365 ) on Friday November 26, 2021 @10:25AM (#62023117) Journal
      So Drain the Swamp. Like we did in the Netherlands. Since a lot of our land is under sea level, managing the water table is a constant necessity. Come ask us how.

      Oh you mean that swamp... no we haven't drained that yet either...
      • by flyingfsck ( 986395 ) on Friday November 26, 2021 @11:05AM (#62023171)
        Before draining the swamp, you should empty the trough. If you do that, the swamp monsters will go away all by themselves.
      • So Drain the Swamp. Like we did in the Netherlands. Since a lot of our land is under sea level, managing the water table is a constant necessity. Come ask us how.

        Ya, but that would require thought, long-term planning, effort and probably taxes, all of which Americans loath to pay and some politicians are loath to levy -- both even for worthwhile objectives. Everyone wants what *they* want, for free, no one want to pay for stuff they don't personally care about and/or doesn't directly affect them.

        Perhaps we haven't gotten through the "me" vs. "us" stage of development, which would explain why we're having so much trouble with "us" vs. "them" ... (sigh)

        • Perhaps we haven't gotten through the "me" vs. "us" stage of development, which would explain why we're having so much trouble with "us" vs. "them" ... (sigh)

          This is why you need kindergartens. That's precisely what you learn there.

          • Perhaps we haven't gotten through the "me" vs. "us" stage of development, which would explain why we're having so much trouble with "us" vs. "them" ... (sigh)

            This is why you need kindergartens. That's precisely what you learn there.

            Judging by how many people are behaving, looks like we'll need bigger desks in kindergartens so we can send some people back for a refresher. Current events make me think about this exchange in The Good Place [wikipedia.org], S3:E4, "The Snowplow":

            Simone: As humans evolved, the first big problem we had to overcome was "me versus us." Learning to sacrifice a little individual freedom for the benefit of a group. You know, like sharing food and resources so we don't starve or get eaten by tigers, things like that.
            Eleanor: Okay, with you so far.
            Simone: The next problem to overcome was "us versus them," trying to see other groups different from ours as equals. That one, we're still struggling with. That's why we have racism and nationalism and... why fans of Stone Cold Steve Austin hate fans of The Rock.
            Eleanor: No, we hate The Rock because he went Hollywood, and Stone Cold keeps it real, so The Rock's fans are the real jabronis. Point made. Keep going.

            Learning to sacrifice a little individual freedom for the benefit of the group -- like wearing masks, social distancing, and getting vaccinated ... Just my $0.02.

      • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        Oh you mean that swamp... no we haven't drained that yet either...

        What? Trump did drain the swamp to his credit. It's just well, he ended up refilling it with even more muck.

    • by hey! ( 33014 ) on Friday November 26, 2021 @10:34AM (#62023137) Homepage Journal

      You should be wary of anyone who conceives of the district as "The Swamp", and really, really wants to go there.

      • You should be wary of anyone who conceives of the district as "The Swamp", and really, really wants to go there.

        The strange paradox of the Republican party, a hatred of Government with a deep white hot loathing, but they really really really want to be the government, and want total power in it.

        • [x] wants to limit the power of their opponents, while maximizing their own.

          is true for all values of x.
          • [x] wants to limit the power of their opponents, while maximizing their own. is true for all values of x.

            It does not follow however that all values of x are identical.

            Xd -does not claim to want to reduce the size of Guvmint to where they can drown it in the bathtub. So there is no paradox in that case.

            Xr on the other hand does.

            As well, all values of x are proficient liars, The paradox remains when you claim unproven fraud in order to force your way into ruling when you claim to hate it.

            Therefore it does follow that having a deep desire to be what you claim to hate is a verifiable act of dissembling.

            • I didn't mean to imply that they're identical, merely that the paradox should be self evident without knowing anything about them.
              Republicans can't really want government so small that it can be drowned in a bath tub, because if that were the case, well, those damn dirty Dems would be dropping planned parenthood leaflets from the skies, or teaching our kids that there are steps that can be taken to prevent teen pregnancy.

              No political party wants government small enough to drown in a tub. They want govern
              • I didn't mean to imply that they're identical, merely that the paradox should be self evident without knowing anything about them. Republicans can't really want government so small that it can be drowned in a bath tub, because if that were the case, well, those damn dirty Dems would be dropping planned parenthood leaflets from the skies, or teaching our kids that there are steps that can be taken to prevent teen pregnancy. No political party wants government small enough to drown in a tub. They want government that enforces their mores, and prevents anyone else from imposing incompatible ones upon them. This was the case back when the Dems were the dipshit racists too.

                Who are now the people in control of the Republican Party, the former Dixiecrats.

                The Kennedy's moved the Dems too far to unacceptable Southern values when they got behind things like Integration and equal rights, then Johnson really pissed them off with his "Great Society".

                The Southern Democrats were just as racist as when they used to own people, but were still much butthurt by their second place finish in the Great War of Northern Agression. And no way they would be Republicans for a long time. So

    • Ayup - maybe the Smiths need to borrow some tables from Venice to lift things off the floor.
    • by Spazmania ( 174582 ) on Friday November 26, 2021 @12:06PM (#62023259) Homepage

      Not every decrepit building suffering groundwater intrusion is because of climate change. DC has had heavy storms for centuries. The difference now is that there's so much hard surface where the water can't soak in to the ground that it all flows (and overflows) towards the rivers. I don't know what the future holds but blaming current DC basement flooding on climate change is patently absurd.

  • It's like the opening scenes of a disaster movie.... but a disaster movie that plays out over years, instead of a couple of hours.

    Are we all just going to be boiled frogs?

    Or perhaps drowned frogs....

    • And as usual there's that scientist that tells everyone about the impending doom, but nobody bothers to listen.

      • The "impending doom" of 2cm of sea level rise per century? Here's your thought experriment: find photographs of the Statue of Liberty from the water when it was erected in 1886 and compare it to 2021.

        • Hey, you don't have to convince me, I already don't give a fuck about your planet. I have no kids and it will somehow last the maybe 30 years I have left, why'd I give a fuck about what happens after that?

        • So, California basically burned to the ground, Texas had extreme weather (which scientists also predicted), Siberia is still burning⦠but youâ(TM)re gonna cherry-pick one of the few statistics that is less of a problem than expected?

          Btw sea-level rise will absolutely be a problem, in Florida it already is, pacific islands too. Itâ(TM)s only a matter of time, might be 100s of years, but still a problem for most coastal areas.

  • New rule (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Geoffrey.landis ( 926948 ) on Friday November 26, 2021 @10:20AM (#62023105) Homepage

    Many people already know this. Now the Smithsonian will need to learn it, too:

    Never store anything in the basement unless you don't care whether you lose when the basement floods.

  • by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Friday November 26, 2021 @10:26AM (#62023121)

    Not only does it eliminate our future but also our past.

  • by Valgrus Thunderaxe ( 8769977 ) on Friday November 26, 2021 @10:41AM (#62023147)
    Are they really? Doesn't it stand to reason if water was encroaching they would move them? They entire contents of the Louvre was moved during WWII, and they had much less notice than anything that resembles water coming ashore in Washington DC.
    • by Mspangler ( 770054 ) on Friday November 26, 2021 @11:07AM (#62023179)

      Exactly. The Appalachian Mountains are quite near by, and they have been there for 480 million years. Nothing important should be built in a swamp. It's going to sink.

      Or burn down and then sink. And if you get a big enough pile of rubble so the castle stops sinking you end up with an out of tune singer and kill crazy knight at your wedding. It's just not worth it.

    • by kenh ( 9056 ) on Friday November 26, 2021 @11:36AM (#62023219) Homepage Journal

      The point of a story like this is someone trying to take credit for pointing out to the public what I'm certain everyone that works in the 100 year-old building already knows - it leaks.

      They want credit for declaring a crisis before the Smithsonian does their planned maintenance, so they can pretend they and they alone are responsible for 'saving our history'.

      This 'crisis' is decades away and easily avoidable, but with sufficient hand waving and yelling of 'climate change' they get taken seriously, as countless journalists and bloggers jump on the virtue-signaling train and repetition reinforces the imagined 'crisis'.

      • Motivations vary between individuals. Many involved will actually be concerned about the contents, not personal gain. After all, many will have spent years or decades conserving of researching them with modest remuneration and don't strike me as those quite as motivated by glory and riches as you seem to imply.
    • Moving things requires somewhere to move it to that is able to receive it, and money to do it. Do yes, vulnerable things can be destroyed and yet there can be a lack of action to save them. This can be especially true when it is slow and incremental, and so the Louvre in WW2 is a poor example.
  • by Alain Williams ( 2972 ) <addw@phcomp.co.uk> on Friday November 26, 2021 @10:59AM (#62023161) Homepage

    Climate change will hit many things, we can spend a lot of money & protect for a while but, long term, places like the Smithsonian are doomed. The real fix is to move them somewhere else - higher ground. The costs will be huge but only those with eyes tightly shut did not see this coming. This is why the many politicians and business lobbyists who watered down targets at COP26 [consortiumnews.com] really need to be held to account.

    Other low lying places to abandon: New Orleans [vice.com], New York [wikipedia.org], London [timeout.com], I could go on ...

  • by Craefter ( 71540 ) on Friday November 26, 2021 @11:09AM (#62023181)

    Old building, storage in the basement, water falls mysteriously from the sky. So climate is to blame if I have an old rotten building and put everything in the basement. While we're at it, lets blame gravity which pulls all the water to the basement.

    In Africa they would have been happy with some ground water but here it has to be sucked dry lest it damages some dusty books.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Rhipf ( 525263 )

      Obviously you didn't read the summary.
      The Potomac is a tidal river and as the ocean water levels rise (due to climate change and melting icecaps/glaciers) the level of the tide waters is going to rise. Eventually it will rise enough to flood the Mall where the Smithsonian is located.
      The rising ocean levels also rise the underground water table and since the Smithsonian is built on former swamp land the water table is already close to (higher?) than the level of the basements thus increasing water encroachme

      • The autists are certainly out in force today.

      • "The rising ocean levels also rise the underground water table and since the Smithsonian is built on former swamp land the water table is already close to (higher?) than the level of the basements thus increasing water encroachment into the building."

        What's your citation for this claim? Swampy lands are much more likely to sink faster than a surrounding sea will rise, I would think.

        • by Rhipf ( 525263 )

          I didn't think this would actually need a citation. Unless the area is constricted by a circle of solid rock then the water table has to rise if the ocean levels rise. If you don't see how that is possible just imagine that the ocean level rises enough for the whole area to be under 6ft of water. Do you think the water table would still only be at the point it is currently (again barring any natural or artificial barrier to the rising water)?
          As for the swampy area sinking faster than the ocean levels rising

  • Every problem but the first is caused by either a building maintenance failure or poor drainage, both of which can occur nearly anywhere. The first, while it will be made worse by climate change, is basically 'you built on a swamp, and didn't make the basement watertight'.
  • This is getting silly, the Smithsonian can be described as a collection of largely century-old building, some of which may have leaky basements. Leaky basements can be fixed, "history" isn't at risk.

    And I'm pretty sure before the national mall floods at least one of the thousands of career Smithsonian workers will suggest moving these 'sacred' items to higher ground.

    • by Chas ( 5144 )

      This isn't just a leaky basement.

      The ground around and under the complex is inundated with water, as it's all landfill.

      So simply digging it out and sealing the basements won't ACTUALLY fix the problem.
      There's just way too much hydraulic pressure.
      And you can't undermine to seal the floors.

      Well, you COULD. But the engineering for such a project would be expensive, even for a government like the US, which is just printing money like its going out of style.

      It'd probably be more economical to tear down and rebu

  • by alispguru ( 72689 ) <[moc.em] [ta] [enab.bob]> on Friday November 26, 2021 @11:30AM (#62023209) Journal

    I thought the Smithsonian was supposed to be "the nation's attic".

    Now you tell me the stuff is actually in the nation's basement?

  • These people are either ignorant of, or just completely glossing over the fact that, historically, the DC area is SWAMPLAND (like Chicago and New Orleans are).
    So it's all high water tables, landfills, and low elevations around sea level.

    Nowadays, our building codes generally either prohibit, or highly discourage such behavior. There is SOME reclamation land, but usually done with a more modern understanding of "just dump crap in there until the water disappears".

  • by PeeAitchPee ( 712652 ) on Friday November 26, 2021 @12:42PM (#62023321)

    Only a small fraction of the Smithsonian's holdings are actually stored at the museums on the National Mall. The museums there are mostly comprised of exhibit space. The vast majority of the items in the Smithsonian's collections are stored at offsite facilities -- 40% are stored at the Museum Support Center [wikipedia.org] in Suitland, Maryland, and the remainder at other offsite facilities.

    The National Mall and a lot of downtown Washington D.C. was built on low-lying, reclaimed swamp land (specifically, the Washington City Canal and Tiber Creek) and so the area has been flood-prone since it was built [mallhistory.org]. Flooding there isn't new and certainly doesn't surprise anyone.

    • If you don't understand what they mean is that flooding in that area is likely to get a whole lot worse in the foreseeable future, the odds are good you're an idiot.

    • The National Mall and a lot of downtown Washington D.C. was built on low-lying, reclaimed swamp land

      This simply isn't true. For the life of me, I can't figure out where this myth originated.
      Parts of the mall area were definitely reclaimed land (the land south and west of the mall used to be marsh), but most of it was land "when they got there", with an elevation of between 30-50 feet above the Potomac, and nothing remotely approaching resemblance to a swamp.

  • Objects can be moved and structures can be rebuilt or replaced.

    Cities CHANGE. Adapt and build better. If we want a structure visually and materially identical to one that's lost, build it! Western Europe recovered nicely from two world wars doing just that.

    It really is that simple. Overthinking is silly. If you want engineering, pay engineers. If you want structures, pay other humans to build them. The US is amply rich especially right now.

    • If we want a structure visually and materially identical to one that's lost, build it!

      We don't even need to build a copy, just move all the buildings. If we could do it at Abu Simbel [wikipedia.org], we can do it to the Smithsonian.
  • Melting ice on Greenland lowers the sea level on most of the US east coast because the mass of ice is so large it's gravity pulls water into the Atlantic. Washington is still north of the break even point. Also Washington DC is still experiencing a small amount of bounce back from the weight of the last glaciation. Again, not much but still more than the rate of sea level rise. Places like St. John's Newfoundland though will see a sea levels drop of over 40m. https://www.science.org/conten... [science.org]
    • That's interesting. The DC Mall is built upon infill, so my guess is that the land would sink faster than any waters would rise.

  • So let's see, there is stuff stored in the basement and they are concerned about potential water intrusion and damage.

    This sounds like a super hard problem but let me take a stab at it. Maybe they could move the stuff out of the basement?

  • It's pretty bad at the National Library of Medicine. NLM lore claims the facility was built in an underground silo with a roof that can collapse upon the building to seal it from nuclear and conventional attack, but groundwater and flooding were apparently not in the design plans. There are water sensors throughout the complex to protect the collection after several water emergencies exposed the oversight.

    The easy idea is to store artifacts above ground if they must be kept in flood-prone areas. Not sure

  • I have lived in dc for over a decade and there is no fâ(TM)ing way that mean sea level increases in the worst case would cause the smithsonian to go underwater. I love climate science but this is some serious fake news bullshit.

  • So, will US Congress demand more nuclear fission power to lower CO2 emissions? No? Okay then, they are clearly not taking global warming seriously.

    There is ample evidence that nuclear fission power is the safest energy source in human history, it is lower in CO2 than so called "zero carbon" solar power, takes far less material resources and land than any other energy source we have available, and that nuclear power is far more reliable than any other option. Here's but on place to see this evidence: http [blogspot.com]

  • Yes, so OBVIOUSLY the fact that the basement is wet is "climate change".

    The zealots will buy it and weep piteously unto the (secular) heavens. The rest of us will shrug and say "well obviously it's a hundred year old building in a swamp"

  • ...and flooding risks haven't exploded in a year. No, they have not.

    So they will adapt. Seawalls, flood levees, drainage, and all other manner. Mind you, since much of DC was swamp not long ago, building such structures within feet of the likely flood level was never a good idea, and it's a common mistake.

    We will adapt, even the big cities will adapt. Have a few consultants over from the Netherlands. They can set you on a course to solve this in a month I bet. But since we've watched DC go from mere seat of

  • Why are all these valuable items stored in
    the fucking basement, for gods sake?

    There are plenty of office towers in DC that could house
    the collection in their upper floors.

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