Both Google and Facebook are spending millions of dollars expanding their shiny campuses along the waterfront of San Francisco Bay. Campuses which thanks to climate change could be underwater within a few decades.
Now you might be struggling to find a downside in this scenario but both Google and Facebook could be saved by hugely expensive anti-flooding measures. The costs of which are likely to be borne by the tax-payer.
In a very impressive scrollytelling presentation NPR asks Who Will Pay To Protect Tech Giants From Rising Seas?. The presentation uses drone footage and satellite maps to visualize where Google and Facebook are building along the San Francisco Bay and how these areas are threatened by rising sea levels. Alongside these impressive visuals NPR asks some important questions about what infrastructure measures can be taken to mitigate against flooding, how much these will cost and who will pay for them.
Google and Facebook will be the major beneficiaries of the building of anti-flooding infrastructure along this section of the San Francisco Bay. The question therefore arises as to how much these tech giants will pay towards ensuring their own protection.Surely neither company would allow the public to pick up the bill.
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