Pacific Institute Warns of Rising Sea Levels' Effect on California Coast

by Climate Weekly – March 17, 2009

Given the current population, a 1.4 meter sea-level rise due to global warming would put nearly a half a million people in California at risk of a 100-year flood event if no adaptive measures are taken, the Pacific Institute concluded in a new report the Ocean Protection Council, the Public Interest Research Program of the California Energy Commission, and the California Department of Transportation commissioned.

According to oceanographers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the average sea level has risen about eight inches at San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, and under a "medium-to-medium-high" greenhouse gas emissions scenario, the rise from 1 to 1.4 meters could occur by 2100.

The threat of the sea level rise will affect the obvious group of individuals who are situated on California's coastal flood plain, but it also could have a more profound socioeconomic impact. "Vulnerability to sea-level rise will be heightened among Californians who do not have a vehicle, do not speak English, or who live near hazardous waste facilities. Low-income households and communities of color are over-represented in these more vulnerable groups," the Institute explained in a recent release.

"We saw it with Hurricane Katrina," said Eli Moore, research associate for the Pacific Institute's Community Strategies for Sustainability and Justice Program and co-author of the report. "Pre-existing social and environmental inequities make some communities less able to afford emergency preparedness materials, buy insurance policies, and evacuate to escape a disaster's harm," he added.

On a positive note, the California seems to be leading the way in assessing the consequences of climate change and in trying to reduce GHG emissions, noted Peter Glick, the Pacific Institute's president and the report's co-author. "This advance knowledge will permit smart, thoughtful, and early efforts to reduce the possible impacts of sea-level rise associated with climate change," he said.