Effects of global warming in the SF Bay Area: A's new stadium to be underwater?

[villager]

Will global warming swamp new stadium?

Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross

Monday, February 5, 2007

02/05/2007



Everyone figures that nightmarish traffic jams are the worst problem the Oakland A's will face if they move to the bayfront wilds of Fremont. But their biggest challenge may be something they hadn't thought of -- global warming.
The A's want to build their ballpark and mall village on low-lying land west of Interstate 880, less than half a mile from a tidal channel. With ocean levels expected to rise as the globe heats up, the high tides that churn up that channel could turn the A's ballpark into prime waterfront property -- or into soup.

"You are talking about a meter rise of the sea level by the end of the century (around the bay),'' said Will Travis, executive director of the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, which helps regulate shoreline construction.

Local effects of the rising waters were the subject of a global warming conference this past week at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center, hosted by the city's Public Utilities Commission. San Francisco and Oakland airports will be under water if no protective steps are taken, and areas of Silicon Valley that now are near the bay could "look like the Lost City of Atlantis" by 2100, in Travis' words. It was widely reported that the Giants' AT&T Park could be vulnerable, but what hasn't been noticed is that the same rising tide could turn the A's Field of Dreams into Field and Stream.

The team and its fans don't have to wait decades to notice the changes along the local shoreline, Travis says -- they're already starting. "It's a combination of a rising sea level, increased rain, high tide and wind -- and (the water) can come up unpredictably,'' Travis said. If you don't believe it, Travis suggests you check out the occasionally flooded parking lots of Candlestick Point or the public promenade behind the just-opened Pier 1 1/2 in San Francisco.

<snip>

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/02/05/BAGVBNUTG71.DTL

[kestrel91316]

1. Oh, that's easy to deal with........they can just dredge up a bunch of

muck from the Bay and use it to build a DIKE!!!!!!

Deepens the Bay AND protects the stadium!!!!!!!!!!!!

:sarcasm:

[villager]

2. The bay may, in the end, reassert it's "original" size

Hello new wetlands along the Eastshore freeway!

[ourbluenation]

3. along? don't you mean over????

:)

[villager]

4. absolutely I do. Right into the shopping malls of Emeryville, etc.

n/t

[slackmaster]

5. Use it for Roman-style boat competitions

Gladiation by the Bay!

[villager]

6. hmmm... I was thinking of throwing Republicans to the lions...

...but that would require dry land! ;-)

[donsu]

7. they keep saying 'by the end of the century'. if global warming is changing

faster and faster shouldn't we stop saying that? we haven't a clue how things will really go next year much less by the end of the century.

[villager]

8. well, originally it was 2-3 centuries away...

so, yes, but I figure if they say "by the end of the next decade," they reckon everyone will freak out even more....