King tide at the San Francisco Embarcadero

Climate change presents a lot of uncertainty for our future.  But one of the climate impacts that scientists predict with confidence is sea level rise, as the ice to our north and south melts with a warmer global climate.

The ocean has already risen eight inches in the past century, and the median scientific estimate is that it will rise another four feet or so by 2100.  But a subset of scientists thinks that estimate is too low.  Some think that the sea level rise will be closer to 12 feet.

Regardless, even a few feet of ocean rise will cause havoc on our coastal cities and infrastructure.  The costs will be enormous, as we glimpsed with the storm surge caused by Superstorm Sandy in the New York City area.

To discuss how the San Francisco Bay Area will adapt to this likely future, I’ll be hosting a City Visions radio show on KALW 91.7 FM tonight at 7pm.  Please tune in and join the conversation.  I’ll post a link to the archived broadcast tomorrow.

UPDATE: The broadcast is now archived here.