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Rising seas will swamp San Francisco
Earlier this week Gov. Schwarzenegger rolled out a map showing what the city would look like under 5 feet of water -- and warned of serious problems to come.
Fri, Dec 04 2009 at 9:08 AM
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Photo: 2012/Columbia Pictures
California is slipping into the sea.
But unlike in the movie 2012 (see picture above), it's happening too slowly to make it good fodder for an action movie. It could be better said that the sea is slipping up onto California. World sea levels are rising, and if global warming speeds up the rate at which they rise, a lot of the coastline of California and every other coastal region on the planet could get swallowed up by the waters.
On Wednesday California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled a map showing how radically altered the San Francisco shoreline would be under a five foot rise in seas which we could see by the end of the century. With that much water, the San Francisco airport would be beneath the waves, almost half a million people could be displaced in the city alone, and trillions of dollars of property and real estate wiped out.
The map was produced as part of CalAdapt, a plan commissioned by the state for ideas on how to best adapt to climate change and is viewable on the state's climate change website (I wish every state had one).
Here's a video produced by the governor explaining the problems climate change could pose to the state.
I'm not a huge fan of Schwarzenegger, but I do appreciate the fact that he acknowledges the reality of global warming and seems to want to do something about it. I wish every Republican were as practical and pragmatic. Saving the world shouldn't be a partisan issue.
It's also interesting to note how much emphasis (smartly so) is put on adapting to climate change. Global warming is here, it's happening, and while we need to do everything we can to stop further warming, we can't ignore the need to respond to the changes already taking place and those about to occur the near future.
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this is sooo fake, we have a different belief than the mayans, if they want to say that the world will end n 2012, then let them, all i know is it's fake just like justin beiber...
Wow that picture is pretty realistic and pretty scary. With all of the major and odd weather things happening around the world right now, I would not say this is impossible. I don't see it happening tomorrow though. ft lauderdale boat yard
Where I live, we generate more wind energy than any other state in the nation. We sell every last electron to those dolts in California because they think it's eco-friendly and because they're too stupid to realize that if you mandate 30%+ of your power has to be "green" and then provide for nothing to make it happen, you'll have to buy it from someone else.
Oh and California's population has risen dramactically over the last 30 years and guess what? It uses the same amount of electricity it used in the mid 1980s. Can your state say that? Laugh away....
1- No, it's math. The seas have risen at a certain, plotable rate that, if continues, will cover up the worlds coasts. I'm sure denial feels good, but it's not going to stop the rising waters.
2- And I'm sorry, but it's kind of a jerky thing to say good riddance to an entire state just because you don't like the way they govern. An entire right leaning political party would be one thing, but a state, come on.
all i can say is we owe it all to a series of terribly unenlightened republican governers...they have done thier best to carry out your wishes....morons is right....
Doesn't matter what political party they're from: they're both the same. Republican/Democrat: same stink, different pile. The only difference is the rhetoric they'll use to justify screwing you.
Have you ever seen a map of San Francisco Bay before the Gold Rush?