[LINK] : ‘Alarm bells ringing’: You can soon pay for a coffee with your face. Should you?

[David]

On Monday, 17 August 2026 12:35:46 AEST Philip N Argy wrote:

> @_DavidL_
> But on your scenario everyone will have drowned before they suffer any impact injury!
????

> And earthquakes are not caused by climate change, although they potentially have a common cause, such as induction heating of the Earth's iron core.  Mankind has not been around for one full circuit of the Sun around the Milky Way, so we can't be sure there's no other factor at play.  King Canute's subjects didn't believe he couldn't control the tide.  Their modern day counterparts can't believe humans can't control global warming, even though without it we'd still be in the last Ice Age!

I'm afraid I can't see the relevance of any part of that argument.

Right now in 2026 the NSW Government is building a high-speed rail network.  The tunnels may be "built to withstand earthquakes and braced against subsidence" according to some specification or other.  But that doesn't seem to have stopped problems with the recently opened south-western section of tunnel near Rozelle, including water penetration, when it's not even under water as far as I'm aware though it may be near Blackwattle (?) Bay.

In any case, the CSIRO thinks redistribution of mass over the Earth's surface will cause subsidence issues, whatever King Canute may have thought.

And the hypothetical scenario I described was intended to illustrate a point regarding the legal issues Roger raised.

_DavidL_