Silicon Valley, home to some of the world’s most prominent software groups and tech innovators, is joining the Maldives in trying to battle a potential rise in sea levels that could threaten to submerge both locations.
Writing for Forbes, Anthony Wing Kosner points to a new US$1 billion, 10 year fund raising plan launched Thursday by US Business Leaders and Senator Dianne Feinstein to try and prevent the California headquarters of Silicon Valley giants like Facebook from being submerged.
That $1 Billion that Facebook just paid for Instagram could have paid for updating the levees and restoring the wetlands in the drained former site of San Francisco Bay that is now Silicon Valley, home to Facebook, Google and billions of dollars of real estate. That the Valley has joined the Maldives (with somewhat less urgency) on the list of those threatened by potential sea level rise is actually a good thing.
Whether through floating architecture, alternative energy, better storm prediction or any number of other innovations, the future of humanity on earth is relying on the brain power of places like Silicon Valley to solve the problems caused by the planet’s increasing use of energy. The tech companies could move to higher ground, of course, an option not available in the Maldives, but the geographical web of social connections is so intense in the Valley that there are strong reasons to persist.
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