Mind time: Pritzker lecture on Sea Levels

Tonight, I took advantage of my Cal Academy membership and attended a free Pritzker lecture-- and heard the head of the Bay Conservation and Development Commission speak about rising sea levels and how that will affect the Bay Area.

From the lecture, I learned:

• The sea level is expected to rise 16 cm in the next 50 years and 55 cm in the next 100 if the current trends continue unchecked. What does unchecked mean? It means that we continue to drive as much as we do, waste energy as much as we do... anything that maintains our current level of emissions.
• That sea level rise means that the current 100 year floodplain will be the new high tide line.
• Ultimately, the bay will more or less return to the same shape/area as it was back when Sir Francis Drake was nosing around... which is cool, except now there is all this development along the shorelines. Choices? Move or invest in levees and/or sea walls.
• Investment tip: put money into companies that build levees and sea walls. (not really. maybe)

The speaker also emphasized sustainable communities -- not only do we need to prepare for the rising sea level, but make efforts to not add to the problem. Elegant solutions include creating communities emphasizing consolidated resources (markets, public areas) and walking, limiting cars, and using building methods to reduce energy (placing trees next to building to increase shade/decrease the need for air conditioning, that kind of thing).

And on the topic of climate change, discussed tonight was the fact that there is no debate within the scientific community about whether or not the process is occurring. Scientifically, there are numbers and facts and conclusions; questioning happens, as it should, but the process of peer review prevents extreme, unsupportable conclusions from being published. But climate change is a politically and fiscally charged topic. Adam Frank, an NPR blogger, does a really great job of breaking down the social life (for lack of a better term) of climate change here. There are dinosaurs involved.

That's all. Go buy a canoe and turn off a light.