Coastal cities need billions of dollars to build defenses against sea level rise. Tensions are growing over where that funding will come from: taxpaye

Who Will Pay To Protect Tech Giants From Rising Seas?

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2021-07-27 11:00:06

Coastal cities need billions of dollars to build defenses against sea level rise. Tensions are growing over where that funding will come from: taxpayers or private companies with waterfront property?

In the heart of Silicon Valley, the world’s biggest tech companies are expanding their headquarters on the edges of San Francisco Bay.

Google has bought more than 70 properties in the past five years in Sunnyvale to expand its campus, worth almost $3 billion.

Local governments are planning to build massive levee projects to hold the water back, costing hundreds of millions of dollars.

The entrance to Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park is marked by a piece of Silicon Valley iconography. It’s a huge thumbs-up, taller than a person, the symbol used as the social media giant’s “like” button. It’s not unusual to see people taking selfies in front of it.

The rest of the campus is bordered by something less eye-catching: a 9-foot-tall earthen berm. It’s the barrier that protects Facebook’s east campus, 1 million square feet of office space on land that juts into San Francisco Bay.