California

The seas have been rising for the past 18,000 years, but the pace has more than doubled. In the past, the seas have risen an average two inches per hundred years, but in the past 100 years, the sea has risen seven inches. By 2100, the sea is estimated to rise from 4-36 inches. This could have tremendous impact on California, and San Francisco.

A three foot sea level rise would threaten $48 billion in real estate, roads and pipes, around San Francisco Bay. Airports, highways, buildings, and other key public work projects, would be threatened.

A twelve inch rise would have a big effect in the delta where high tides that come scarcely would come more often. An eighteen inch rise would cause massive problems for water delivery system. With an increasingly high sea level, salt water from the ocean would reach deeper into the delta and could intrude into drinking water! That would be really bad, because water would gain greater value, and there wouldn't be enough for everyone eventually.

Property owners in this area would most likely be unwilling to give up their land, and would vote for building a retaining wall, which would be costly and unhealthy for the environment. This would make our problems worse, and because of the pollution, the ice would melt in the Arctic, the sea level would rise again, and we'd get double the problems. Californians are not the only ones who have this problem. Drag to the next page for information on Massachusetts, where they are also having this difficulty.

A possible solution to this problem is desalination.