Some folks think switching to electric vehicles and renewable energy would be inconvenient and costly. But they’re not considering the cost of inaction. Doing nothing puts us on the path for high carbon emissions. Let’s consider just one predicted consequence: a ten foot (3 meter) sea level rise. We don’t know when exactly, but melting ice and warming seas are accelerating rapidly. And the seas will continue rising until we fix our carbon pollution problem.

Much of the most expensive real estate in the US is just above sea level in places like California, Florida and New York, so let’s consider just a few examples.

• San Francisco International Airport runway 10R ends at about seven feet above sea level.
  • So much for the convenience of flying.
• Highway 101 south of the airport is often between zero and ten feet above sea level.
  • Even a super-duty pickup truck can’t drive through that.
• Miles of sea walls are being built in places like Foster City California to protect against a three foot sea level rise, but other vulnerable Bay Area cities are doing far less.
  • If you pay taxes for a sea wall, but the neighboring town does not, where will you move?
• Many farms in the Sacramento Delta are already below sea level, behind levees first built by Chinese laborers in the 1850s. California is working on a tunnel there to protect and transport freshwater, but the intakes are around Hood California, elevation 7-10 feet.
  • We’re going to need a longer tunnel.
• The traffic tunnels in Manhattan are just around sea level, and they can be closed in advance of storm surges. For now, they can be reopened after the storm passes. But lower Manhattan lies around five feet above sea level.
  • Maybe New York City will be renamed New Atlantis?
• Miami is around six feet above sea level, but its fresh water aquifer lies between 2-6 feet through porous rock below the flat land.
  • No more beach is bad enough, but no fresh water?
• Critical systems at Turkey Point nuclear power plant near Biscayne Bay are at 20 feet elevation, so you might think a ten foot rise would still be safe. But the hurricane surge in 1992 was 16 feet, and storms are getting bigger and more powerful.
  • Anyone remember Fukushima?

We already have a housing affordability problem. What will happen when some lowlands disappear? Well, tens of millions of Americans may have to move by the end of the century, driving up costs in inland areas. That seems inconvenient and costly.

And infrastructure is just one of many different problems being caused by our carbon pollution (see January, February and March). April is supposed to be Financial Literacy month, but our government has stopped even discussing the coming crisis, let alone funding research, mitigation or prevention. Seems pretty stupid to ignore the costly consequences of doing nothing about the climate crisis.