Climate change is happening, and we now need innovative solutions for how to deal with its increasingly disastrous effects. One example of a way to help spur creative answers to climate change comes to us from California. The Bay Conservation and Development Commission, a state agency, is preparing to launch a $125,000 competition calling for proposals from architects, planners and engineers to "climate-proof" the San Francisco Bay Area.

The San Francisco Chronicle's urban design writer John King wrote:

The aim isn't to stop climate change from happening, say officials, or to build impregnable levees. The goal is to get designers thinking creatively about how to prepare for a world where the sea level might climb several feet - inundating large portions of the developed region unless something is done.

The ideas contest will start in the spring and conclude at the end of 2009. Then the commission will choose the the top five "provocative and plausible" entries and award their designers with $10,000.

Regions around the world will be facing waterfront issues and will need to come up with innovative ideas to protect their shorelines as the sea levels rise. Perhaps this could this be the beginning of a new kind World's Fair? One that comes up with solutions to problems people all over the world will soon face?

Patently unsustainable human "overgrowth" activities are ravaging Earth. They could be regulated and limited.

With human population projections indicating that the human community will have 9+ billion members by 2050, perhaps it is time to open discussions here and elsewhere about the profound implications of a 40% increase in the human population in the coming four decades. After all, the frangible biological systems and finite resources of our planetary home make clear to a sensible observer that a planet with the size, composition, and ecology of Earth cannot indefinitely sustain the unbridled increase of human overproduction, overconsumption and overpopulation activities.

Now for a question: Is it reasonable to conclude that the unbridled increase of the clearly visible and distinctly human global overgrowth activities we see overspreading Earth in our time cannot be sustained much longer, much less indefinitely, secondary both to Earth's limitations and humankind's "feet of clay"?

Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population,
established 2001

http://sustainabilityscience.org/content.html?contentid=1176

Posted by: Steven Earl Salmony on December 20, 2008 5:21 AM

Yes, definitely yes, some of the darkest of dark days are passing into history......finally. The future is about to begin.......mercifully.

An unnecessary and unjustifiable war at a cost of three trillion dollars; a crashing economy at a cost of trillions more; a degraded environment, a dissipated Earth.......priceless.

And people responsible for these nightmares want their 2008 bonuses......predictable.

Posted by: Steven Earl Salmony on December 21, 2008 6:45 AM

Fantastic! We need to think in and out of the box when it comes to climate change.We must anticipate that on a major sea rise scenario we have constructed our major power,water and sewage plants in a "safe" location. We must also plan for desalinization plants (Calif. is already constructing presently for state use only. in future this water could be sold to other states) to store and pipe water to the inland states that desperately need water during drought seasons. We must too never forget that as we plan for mankind we must also plan to sustain our flora and fauna throughout our state forests and parks nationwide! Solar and wind power in the deserts(upon evaluation of best positioning of course), water storage tanks on mountains, water feeds to our rivers and streams and recycling of our water from our sewers,rivers and streams for reuse.(plus we must give a little chemicaly clean water back to our oceans.

Posted by: Richard Rosas on December 21, 2008 12:29 PM

Please note that comments will remain open for only 14 days after the article is posted. While previous comments will remain visible, attempts to post new comments after this period will fail. This helps stop comment spam, so your forebearance is appreciated.

The Worldchanging comments are meant to be used for further exploration and evaluation of the ideas covered in our posts. Please note that, while constructive disagreement is fine, insults and abuse are not, and will result in the comment being deleted and a likely ban from commenting. We will also delete at will and without warning comments we believe are designed to disrupt a conversation rather than contribute to it. In short, we'll kill troll posts.

Finally, please note that comments which simply repost copyrighted works or commercial messages will be summarily deleted.