If ice melts the levels of the world's oceans will rise, flooding coastal lands. Geologic records reflect ocean levels rising and falling many feet over the millennia, naturally and without human intervention.
Human civilizations have built along coastlines, and are therefore in danger of inundation. That argues that places like San Francisco Bay, and its upstream delta region where the San Joaquin, Sacramento, and American rivers meet will be flooded if no measures are taken. The lowlands surrounding the Chesapeake Bay are at similar risk.
Both of these areas are prime locations for damming the mouth of the estuary with installation of a system of locks to facilitate navigation, and pumps to maintain the water levels within the enclosed area. That is what the Dutch have done successfully with their below-sea-level lands.
Will we in the U.S. have the practicality to do this? Time was when the answer would have been an unequivocal "yes." Today we have created so many roadblocks to developments of this sort that doing them has become next to impossible. When I drive a beautiful mountain highway like California 70 along the Feather River or the Going-to-the-Sun Highway in Glacier National Park I thank heavens we got them built before it became impossible.
It always turns out that some brackish-water-dwelling snail or bait fish will be endangered by protecting people. Then the people who hate the works of man, the Sierra Club and their fellow travelers, will tie up in the courts such practical solutions while the delta areas of the country are inundated.
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Speaking of Highway 70, there are at least half a dozen hydroelectric dams and power plants along the highway producing clean electric power and controlling floods while creating pretty little lakes. Far from destroying the canyon, on balance they make it more beautiful as the water runs all summer - not common in California.
We say we want clean electric power but nobody suggests hydro power. The Sierras are full of canyons which could be dammed to catch water and generate clean power. Why is this taboo?
