Sea level rise is a hot topic in the San Francisco Bay Area these days, with more organizations and cities, including San Francisco, making efforts to coordinate a response to the rising tides that are inevitably coming to the Bay Area over the coming decades. The problem is that many of us in the SF Bay region still see sea level rise as a problem that we won’t need to face for many years.
Shocking new projections about how soon sea level rise will happen and how extensive it will be may force this to change. As Insurance Journal reports, a seiner NOAA official announced at a conference for the insurance industry earlier this month that new data shows sea levels may rise up to nine feet by 2050-2060. This is more than double—and much sooner than—the existing projections of a rise of four feet by 2100.
This is more evidence that development projects along the Bay shoreline, even when built to specifications that make them seem prepared for sea level rise, are simply producing buildings that will be temporary. More needs to be done to educate the public, business community, and government officials about these realities and to increase coordination across the SF Bay region in response to sea level rise and the inevitable risks it poses to our economy and way of life.
—”The Bay Planning Coalition is a non-profit organization well known for its advocacy and credibility in the San Francisco Bay Area corporate and environmental community. When we speak about an issue, legislators and regulators listen.”
