Under water by 2100? Risk of the rising sea (CATASTROPHE LOOMS!!!)

San Jose Mercury News ^ | 1/26/07 | Mike Taugher

[ProtectOurFreedom]

The seas have been rising for 18,000 years, but the pace has quickened.

At the Golden Gate Bridge, the Pacific Ocean crept seven inches higher during the past century, as global warming melted glaciers and expanded ocean waters.

Californians are taking notice. In one of the first efforts of its kind in the state, officials are starting to address the threats rising seas pose to the Bay Area.

One of the first steps was to compile maps that show what would happen if the sea level rose three feet -- the upper limit for what might occur by 2100, according to computer models of climate used by the state.

The maps show a dramatic level of inundation: San Francisco and Oakland international airports would be under water, along with Foster City, parts of Redwood City and virtually all the bay wetlands, many of which have been restored at great public expense as habitat for wildlife.

Also at risk are railroad tracks running through Alviso, highways, buildings, and public works projects, such as the East Bay Municipal Utility District sewage-treatment plant in Oakland.

“There are some areas that are extremely vulnerable,” said Leslie Lacko, a coastal planner for the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission.

According to a 1990 study, a three-foot rise in sea level would threaten $48 billion in real estate, roads and pipes around San Francisco Bay.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

The Merc ran the most unbelievable series of scare-mongering GW stories this week. It was a totally over-the-top, disaster-is-imminent, we're all gonna die tomorrow series.

Not a day goes by the Merc doesn't lead with GW or Gay. Puke.

...continues

“We have a lot of infrastructure that is very vulnerable to a little bit of sea level rise,” said the study's author, Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute in Oakland. “We're going to have to spend a lot of money to protect them.”

The issue is already having an effect on flood insurance rates. They're going up around the country, in part because of natural hazards that could be worsened by warming, according to Evan Mills, a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.

As sea levels continue to rise, he said, “The demand will go up, I am sure.”

Recent climate models suggest a sea level rise of four to 36 inches by 2100, although that range will reportedly narrow when a major report from an international team of climate scientists is released on Tuesday.

On the other hand, a recent study in the journal Science suggests that since 1990, the seas have been rising in accordance with the worst-case scenario. Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany argues that climate models may underestimate how fast the seas will rise because they don't take into account some of the complexities of glacier behavior.

While any rise is likely to be gradual and could be modest, especially if greenhouse gas emissions are curtailed, scientists worry that there will be catastrophic surprises, such as huge ice sheets sliding into the oceans.

Even a relatively modest increase could spell trouble.

Raise sea level 18 inches, and salty ocean water would flow deep into the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, intruding into the drinking water supply for 23 million Californians.

[pcottraux]

What do I care? I won't be around!

[struggle]

My video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwbhwjjwwDM

[word_warrior_bob]

By the year 2100 we will be able to siphon the excess water and shoot it into outer space, nothing to worry about here.

All this freakin' water everyone's worrying about, but you can't have a power flush toilet!

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

- H. L. Mencken

[MSM Hater]

I'm 895 feet above MSL. I'm okay even if all the ice in the world melts. Bring it on.

Seriously, I'm so sick of these sky-is-falling, scare-the-public stories on global warming.

[Flavius]

cant we just eat cake

[GSlob]

IIRC, in 1824 there was an inundation in St. Petersburg - and one poet wrote about it in a letter "a nice bidet occasion for your ladies"...
Given SF public hygiene with the homeless urinating on the streets, an inundation would likewise do them a lot of good.

[beethovenfan]

The Murky News has been underwater for years.

[snarks_when_bored]

Surfs gonna be up!!

[snarks_when_bored]

Do-over...

Surf's gonna be up!!

[Dallas59]

I'm stealing your gif...

[nuconvert]

It's raised 7" in the past 100 yrs, but it's going to raise 3ft in the next 93 yrs?

"during the past century, as global warming melted glaciers and expanded ocean waters."

So what was the cause of the global warming 100 yrs ago?

((your animation is very funny))

[endthematrix]

The "do gooders" once had a plan to tug huge icebergs over to the world's drought areas. I guess they just thought that the people would drink the melt water and that would be that?

[BW2221]

Buy your Nevada oceanfront property now.

[T. Buzzard Trueblood]

Oh, for ****'s sake, what a crock.

[BwanaNdege]

FAA Identifier: SFO
Lat/Long: 37-37-08.3000N / 122-22-29.6000W
37-37.138333N / 122-22.493333W
37.6189722 / -122.3748889
(estimated)
Elevation: 13 ft. / 4.0 m (surveyed)
Variation: 17E (1975)
From city: 8 miles SE of SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Time zone: UTC -8 (UTC -7 during Daylight Savings Time)
Zip code: 94128


Field elevation is 13 feet. So a sea level increase of 3 feet will put the airport "under water". Great math there folks! And at the minimum rise of 4", they can turn the airport into a marina.... RIGHT!

[sgtbono2002]

Yeah I would be about 157 years old, I doubt I willsee that, then again I would imagine at some point Dykes and other barriers would go up,and by that time we will be getting a lot of water out of the sea by desalination for drinking purposes,that may slow things down a bit.

[stylin19a]

...global warming melted glaciers and expanded ocean waters.

um...isn't it a wash ? isn't the mass\volume created by the melting, offset by the mass\volume lost by melting ?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for the tip.