6/25/2023 0 Comments California sea of rosesThe response to rising sea levels increasingly involves adaptation and mitigation in addition to prevention. County communities face growing peril from fire, heat, floodingĪ new county report lays bare how social and economic inequality have left millions of local residents vulnerable as the climate crisis heats up. “They’re already sort of on that knife-edge, and another foot of sea level rise is going to increase the frequency of flooding of those communities.”Ĭoastal erosion - already a concern in California, Louisiana and South Florida - will also intensify as waters rise, eating away at seaside cliffs, threatening local real estate and forever altering ecosystems and shorelines.īarnard said it’s hard to envision urban coastal areas like Los Angeles retreating entirely, but “it definitely will be more costly to defend the coast, and more costly to keep beaches around.”Īnd while some residents may choose to relocate, many of the communities most vulnerable to coastal flooding and other climate change hazards are low-income communities with limited mobility, according to a separate report from Los Angeles County, which was published at the end of last year.Ĭalifornia Dozens of L.A. Venice, Seal Beach, Newport and parts of Huntington Beach are all examples. “There’s definitely a lot of low-lying communities that have seasonal or annual high tide flooding today,” Barnard said. The daily emergence of groundwater pushed up by the rising seas could also expose an additional 350,000 people and $100 billion worth of properties, he said. In California, the impacts could be acute: Daily overland flooding from one foot of sea level rise equates to about $15 billion worth of properties at risk and would affect about 38,000 people, according to Patrick Barnard, a USGS research geologist who also worked on the report. “There will be highly variable impacts along those coastlines, but there’s no denying that a large portion of our economy and revenue and tax base are right there, front and center.” population lives within 60 miles of the shore. “The magnitude of these impacts, direct and cascading, will be high,” she said, noting that 40% of the U.S. The rising seas also pose a critical risk to infrastructure such as roads, water supplies, power plants, oil and gas wells and sewage treatment systems, and nearly “everything that we use, eat and wear” that comes through the supply chain and arrives through coastal ports, LeBoeuf said during the news conference. Scientists say climate change is playing a major role. The West is experiencing its most severe megadrought in a millennium, according to a new study. Moderate flooding, which can already be damaging and disruptive by today’s standards, is expected to occur 10 times more often by 2050 than it does today, according to NOAA National Ocean Service Director Nicole LeBoeuf.Ĭlimate & Environment Western megadrought is worst in 1,200 years, intensified by climate change, study finds Sinking lands, storm surges, wave affects and other coastal flood factors will combine to significantly increase the exposure of communities along the coast. What’s more, sea level rise “does not act alone,” the researchers said. The East Coast could see as much as 14 inches of sea level rise by 2050, and the Gulf Coast as much as 18 inches, according to the report, with regional variabilities primarily attributed to land height changes. Tens of millions of people in the United States and hundreds of millions of people globally live in areas that are at risk of coastal flooding. “It’s a wake-up call that comes with a silver lining: It provides us with information needed to act now to best position ourselves for the future.” “This report is a wake-up call for the United States,” NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad told reporters. Researchers used tide gauges, satellite observations and computer modeling to narrow in on sea level rise predictions with increasing precision, they said. Together, they emphasized that sea level rise driven by global climate change already poses a “clear and present risk” to the nation, and will continue to worsen in the decades and centuries to come without immediate action. Geological Survey and other government agencies. The report, which updates federal sea level projections from 2017, was led by researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA, the U.S. Scientists are seeing changes off Alaska that have never been documented before, as warming upsets a vast ecosystem and one of the world’s vital fisheries. Climate & Environment Unprecedented die-offs, melting ice: Climate change is wreaking havoc in the Arctic and beyond
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