This little peninsula, so famous around the world, is barely 7 by 7 miles square. Surrounding on three sides, obviously, by water, it also is built on top of seven major hills.
The high zones will survive the coming sea level rise, no problem.
The western edge of the City is mainly a very low sand plain except for Land's End to the north and these cliffs at the City's southern exposure. Although they will erode badly under the smashing waves that soon will reach them, still they will protect some of the Sunset and the Richmond Districts from inundation.
All around the city's perimeter is bay fill -- land that will soon, like the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, be below sea level. Unless we erect levies, these parts of the city will revert to where they were before settlers claimed them -- under the sea.
There is a terrible loveliness to this fate. Nature reclaiming what is hers from a species that has overstretched its reach, and will now have to pay the price, which in terms of ecological justice, is precisely how it should be.
If it sounds that I am happy at our collective future as global climate change wreaks havoc on human society, the sounds are being misinterpreted. It's more that I am resigned. It gives none of us pleasure to recognize the calamities that await us. The climate clock is ticking.
Those who are ignorant, those who are fools, will continue to debate climate change, and what is causing it. They can debate it all they want, but the sea will rise above their knees to their necks just the same.
It just might be an opportune time for everybody to learn how to swim.
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