The Golden Gate Barrage: New Ideas To Counter Sea Level Rise

waderoush writes "What do Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Oracle, LinkedIn, and Intuit have in common? They're just a few of the tech companies whose campuses alongside San Francisco Bay could be underwater by mid-century as sea levels rise. It's time for these organizations and other innovators to put some of their fabled brainpower into coming up with new ideas to counter the threat, Xconomy argues today. One idea: the Golden Gate Barrage, a massive system of dams, locks, and pumps located in the shadow of the iconic bridge. Taller than the Three Gorges Dam in China, it would be one of the largest and costliest projects in the history of civil engineering. But at least one Bay Area government official says might turn out to be the simplest way to save hundreds of square miles of land around the bay from inundation."

So, who pays?

[timeOday]

In general it is good to make people accountable for the costs of their own actions. In the case of global warming, many of the people who burned much of the fossil fuel will be dead by the time the consequences occur, and in addition it's a global cause.

I wonder if we wouldn't just be better off writing some laws now that say, "look, don't come crying to us when your expensive beach-front property goes underwater. Factor that into the price before you buy."

We need a carbon tax just to speed the transition to less less-polluting energy sources; if we instead use that money to repair thousands of miles of coastline and keep burning fossil fuel, we solve nothing.

This Begs the Question

[LifesABeach]

Which is cheaper, the Space Elevator or building dams and pumping stations using fossil fuels?

Re:Or...

[MightyMartian]

I've kind of given up on that. Between the noxious attacks by oil company shill organizations like the Heartland Institute, halfwits who buy into anything that means they can fool themselves for a few more years, and a total lack of meaningful political will, I think we're fucked.

Re:Or...

[jittles]

Why is it more pronounced in some areas? There is only one ocean.... A rise in the pacific ocean will raise the level of all other "oceans". Could it be that some land masses are sinking? An 3-4" rise over the next 100 years is unlikely to impact anyone currently alive and living in the Bay Area . Wake me up when ocean front property stops going up in value.

When I was in school I took a class called "Violent Weather" and the textbook for that class indicated that the Western Pacific has more water volume than the Eastern Pacific because wind and currents pool the water up in the east, and that the water must be pushed deep under the surface to go back West. This water current typically releases its flow off the coast of Chile/Peru, if I remember correctly.

Re:So...

[roc97007]

...or old oil tankers? :-)

Re:So...

[TheNastyInThePasty]

Suddenly though the plot of Pacific Rim becomes a perfect metaphor for global warming. Our leaders pushing people to build giant dams to protects us from the monsters coming from the sea that are unleashed by a greedy class of beings that want only to strip our world of all its resources. None of the solutions actually working until the problem is attacked at its source.

Re:Or...

[riverat1]

The complexities of sea level is a fascinating subject. Ocean currents and prevailing winds can cause the water to pile up higher in places that it would otherwise be. The gravitational attraction of the Antarctic ice sheet causes sea level to be higher for thousands of miles around the continent than it would otherwise be. IIRC it's about 20 feet higher along the coast of Antarctica. More here. [yale.edu]

Re:Or...

[bhlowe]

There is never a 30 foot difference between the sea levels at either end of the Panama canal. (Otherwise, Free Energy!!)