[GPSCC-chat] Are we all to be Alviso?

[Wes Rolley]

If you live in the Santa Clara Valley, you should have heard of the fate 
of Alviso <http://www.sanjose.com/underbelly/unbelly/Alviso/aloha.html> 
and it's slow sinking as more and more ground water was pumped for 
irrigation.  Maybe we should be asking whether we will all be living in 
an Alviso... or rather just were are we in danger of suffering a similar 
fate.

NASA is looking hard at this since NASA-Ames must might be flooded by 
2050.  There is an interesting entry at KQED's Climate Watch Blog 
<http://blogs.kqed.org/climatewatch/2011/02/04/nasas-closer-look-at-the-bay-area/> 
today.  Not only does it mention what NASA is doing, but also gives a 
map that shows what parts of Mountain View and other S. Bay areas will 
be under water with a 16 in. sea level rise.

I went back to the source of that Map, the San Francisco Bay 
Conservation and Development Commission whose site is linked from 
Climate Watch.  While they do make the very good point that sea level 
rise is happening now (7 in since measurements started) the general 
opinion of many climatologists is that the IPPC prediction that they 
used are overly optimistic and that the reality of climate change is 
running ahead of their predictions.

The reason I am going into this as much as I am, is to point out that we 
are in deep financial trouble at a time when climate change is going to 
demand large expenditures to react to what is coming and that it will be 
far cheaper to do things now than later.  What does this mean for local 
government?  How will local governments possibly finance whatever work 
they need to do with dwindling tax revenues?  What alternatives do we 
have?  What cities are really in a position to do anything now?

If this is not an opportunity for the Green Party, then why is it the 
"Green" Party?
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