Published since 2005. San Francisco is a city that belongs to the people of the world. Hence this blog has a global focus. The name "Sam Spade's San Francisco" refers to an exciting era in the City's history, the time of Dashiell Hammett's fictional gumshoe and San Francisco character, Sam Spade. My name is Tom Dunn and I edit the blog. I'm not as exciting as Sam Spade, but I am definitely a San Francisco character.Contact or on Twitter -- Search blog below.
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Friday, August 11, 2006
The 42 Islands of San Francisco
We have all heard about retreating glaciers, melting ice caps and thousands of icebergs floating in the sea. It's no longer science fiction. It's real and it's happening today - right now!
San Francisco is famous for its hills. The traditional definition of a San Francisco hill is a mound higher than 100 feet. There are 42 hills in San Francisco using this definition. Mount Davidson is our tallest hill and it measures 925 feet. The rest of San Francisco is pretty much at or just slightly above sea level. The Marina, Hunter's Point and the Financial District all sit on landfill ... and we cannot forget Treasure Island which is constructed of leftover dredged muck taken from the bottom of the bay.
Now scientists report that the Greenland ice cap is melting at alarming rates ... much faster than previously thought. Scientists believe that if the Greenland ice cap melts completely it would raise the levels of the world's oceans by an average of 21 feet.
Moreover, scientists have not yet fully calculated what additional impact the melting of the massive Antarctic ice cap will have on global ocean levels.
When Earth's climate has finished its shift toward a hotter, more humid and tropical planet, the map of the world will be greatly changed. Some entire nations will be submerged. Many major cities, including most of the seaboard cities of the United States will be under the sea. The total land area of the planet will be substantially reduced.
What would happen to San Francisco if the ocean were 21 feet higher? That figure would rise even higher once the Antarctic icepack melt is factored in. We would become a city of 42 islands. Most of the East Bay would be pushed back to the Oakland Hills and all the agricultural islands of the Sacramento River Delta would be submerged and San Francisco Bay would increase 200% in size.
It won't happen in our lifetimes, but our great-grandchildren will begin dealing with the brunt of the impact. In the coming centuries the major global issue will be a geopolitical struggle unlike anything yet seen by humankind.
And it will have all happened because of .... oil.
dona nobis pacem.
1 comments:
said...
A park ranger pointed out the seven marine terraces visible from the edge of the cliff... San Francisco Bay has risen out of the sea --and been submerged again countless times, though most people assume there was only ONE ice age.
Two-thirds of San Fancisco Bay have been filled in since 1849! Driving down the peninsula, I was amazed at how much has been built on the bay-side of the Bayshore Freeway (how many of you can remember when it really WAS the bay shore?) since I was a kid.
And yet, developers STILL don't comprehend "liquifaction." And STILL insist on building on or near faultlines... they're just as bad as the South Florida Builders Association lobbying to relax all those pesky codes designed to prevent death traps in the next hurricane...
1 comments:
A park ranger pointed out the seven marine terraces visible from the edge of the cliff... San Francisco Bay has risen out of the sea --and been submerged again countless times, though most people assume there was only ONE ice age.
Two-thirds of San Fancisco Bay have been filled in since 1849! Driving down the peninsula, I was amazed at how much has been built on the bay-side of the Bayshore Freeway (how many of you can remember when it really WAS the bay shore?) since I was a kid.
And yet, developers STILL don't comprehend "liquifaction." And STILL insist on building on or near faultlines... they're just as bad as the South Florida Builders Association lobbying to relax all those pesky codes designed to prevent death traps in the next hurricane...
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