Stephen Rees's blog

The following item was sent to the trans-action email list serve by Jack Becker. It is reproduced here with his permission

How Susceptible is the City of Vancouver and the False Creek Neighbourhood from Global Warming and Rising Sea Levels?

At an open house for the Southeast False Creek Lands, the Olympic site, before its approval at the City’s Council, I asked a planner if provisions were being made in the development for the predicted rising of the sea level from global warming. He responded that there were not and further that city management did not want to consider that need.

As a resident on the north side of False Creek, my thoughts were that the city wanted to get into the sand bagging business or wanted to throw a lot of work to the retaining wall builders when water levels were threatening to cross the seaside roads and enter into the doors of the roadside townhouses.

Today, around noon as I was cycling along the seawall, I noticed that some of the gangways to the False Creek ferries docks were bending slightly upwards at the docks, not downwards as is usual. Also, I noticed that the walkways along the seawall were submerged with the water level almost reaching the underside of the benches facing the water.

Sure it had snowed somewhat for two days and rained for the last 18 hours. But the Pacific Ocean is a wide body of water with capabilities to absorb such rainfall. False Creek is not a river.

So, with high tide, the water level was within one and a half meter of Marinaside Crescent and about two to two and a half meters from the front door of the townhouses abutting the Seaside Path.

Is there a lesson here for us?

H-JEH (Jack) Becker