Sea Levels Are Rising: It's Time to Decide

[katty]

Sea Levels Are Rising: It's Time to Decide Which Coastal Cities Are Worth Saving

By Scott Thill, AlterNet. Posted April 17, 2009.

more:
http://www.alternet.org/water/136480/sea_levels_are_rising%3A_it%27s_time_to_decide_which_coastal_cities_are_worth_saving/

EXCERPT:

So what do melting ice shelves a world away have to do with the rest of us? That is where the fools come in.

"This continued and often-significant glacier retreat is a wakeup call that change is happening," USGS glaciologist Jane Ferrigno explained in a joint United States Geological Survey and British Antarctic Survey on the melt. "Antarctica is of special interest, because it holds an estimated 91 percent of the Earth's glacier volume, and change anywhere in the ice sheet poses significant hazards to society."

In other words, giant ice cubes the size of American states melting into the ocean should worry everyone on Earth living in a territory with a coast, and even those without. That includes California, which went under the climatalogical microscope in a recent Pacific Institute analysis on sea-rise bankrolled by the California Energy Commission, California Department of Transportation and the Ocean Protection Council.

Mashing together data on exponential polar melts, rising seas and coastal development, it came to a relatively reasonable conclusion.

"Sea-level rise will change the character of the California coast," Pacific Institute Senior Research Associate and study co-author Heather Cooley, tolddrow AlterNet. "My sense is that there are areas we will protect and areas we will abandon. We need to begin the process now."

[opihimoimoi]

1. Drain water into Death Valley...Dead Sea...other areas lower than sea level...

Would that help?? Buy us Time??

[katty]

2. hmmm-could work

[aquart]

3. Could be an excellent time to get one's hands

On a tall but nervous Dutchman. Yes, I have a weakness for them.

[katty]

4. ha!

[comtec]

14. That would be funny if I wasn't living IN Holland

the polderlands are toast,and they figure mother nature is going to collect interest...

thankfully where i am is a mighty 3 meters above sea level (despite being on a major river) so we\'ll be ok.
worse off we move upstairs ;)

[Dr.Phool]

5. Interesting idea.

I don't think it could hold a fraction of the needed volume though.

[opihimoimoi]

7. Buy us time??

[DRoseDARs]

11. Not. Even. Remotely.

Never mind the environment destruction such a plan would inflict.

[kestrel91316]

8. Best temporary fix I've heard of in a while.

I could get on board with that. Think of the water recreation dollars that could be generated while we're at it........

[opihimoimoi]

9. The down side is the accrued salt and its effects on ground water...might be a good thought not

thought out enough...lol

[Baby Snooks]

10. Or it could set off the San Andreas...

The earth is very fragile. We keep messing with it believing we can control it. We have to finally learn how to let Nature take care of itself and with rare exception let Nature take what it is going to take.

I forget the geophysical term but water has weight and if you put that much more water in an area with a major fault, you mignt set off a horrific displacement along the fault. Lots of water might not be worth no more Los Angeles. Particularly lots of sea water.

The water itself would serve no purpose. It certainly wouldn't lower the sea level any. Which is inconsistent which few people realize. If the sea level were to rise five feet, that would not mean a five feet rise everywhere. It might be two feet in Miami. Seven feet in Tahiti.

We do have to plan. Some cities can be saved through levee systems. Some cannot. Suffice it to say that cities along our coasts, the ones that can be saved, will resemble New Orleans. Surrounded by water. And levee systems keeping the water out. Most of the coastal cities in California are actually well above sea level. But the beach areas are gone.

Malibu may not be such a good buy after all. And the sea level rise will be as inconsistent as the sea level itself. In areas like Malibu where homes are built on the beach, suddenly a high tide is going to bring in more water. And continue to bring in more water. Until there is nothing on the beach. And then suddenly there is no beach.

No one really knows how high the sea level will rise. Or how quickly.

There is conjecture that some of our recent hurricanes had higher than normal storm surges because of a slight sea level rise that simply hasn't been detected. Until the hurricane starts moving massive amounts of water towards land.

Lots they don't know. And, well, lots they don't tell us. They are, after all, the government. I definitely wouldn't buy the "by the end of the century" and definitely wouldn't buy any beach property anywhere.

[greenbird]

12. Hydrostatic pressure?

[pscot]

6. Give up Death Valley

so we can hang on to Foster City? Sounds like a net loss to me.

[Delphinus]

13. Katty,

would you cross-post this into the Environment/Energy group?

[Sandrine for you]

15. It"s time to come to the Cap-Diamant of Quebec-City...

The British take us but the water will not.

[Stinger2]

16. Drill Baby Drill

Drill Baby Drill, Drill all the oil out of the ground and refill the holes with water, Oooops, we would now be flooded with oil, Hmmm.