According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, almost 40% of the population lives in high population-dense coastal areas. Around the world, eight of the world’s ten largest cities are situated near a coast, with about 250 million people living by a coast line less than 5 feet above sea level. It is projected that all of these people will be directly affected in some way by seawater rising in the future (Siegert, 2017). For the county of Orleans Parish, the rapid loss of coastal land is not a future scenario, but a current reality. Due to our unique geography, Louisiana loses about 16 square miles a year; the rapid erosion of Louisiana’s cost is only expected to accelerate over time. (Wernick, 2014).
Around 10,000 years ago the San Francisco Bay was once not a bay. The glaciers from the ice age melted into water and then the water flowed into “canyons” to form into the San Francisco Bay. However the flowing of the bay may not have stopped. The San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission predicts that the sea level will increase so much the sea will take over and flood populated areas and landmarks like the San Francisco and the Oakland International Airports. We could recover from natural disasters like earthquakes, tornadoes, and hurricanes, but not sea level rising. The New York Daily News say that it would take only 12 feet for the ocean to rise and take over several landmarks and populated areas in the San Francisco Bay Area and another landmark could be San Francisco Giants’ AT&T Park.
“‘We know even relatively small amounts of sea level rise affect us,’ [Carl Spector, commissioner of Boston’s Environment Department] said. ‘All the models we’re seeing are concerning’” (Abel). Climate change, the warming and changing of the Earth’s atmosphere, has become a very prevalent issue over the past century. Despite having numerous sources in terms of hard evidence, many people still do not believe in the effects of climate change. Sea level rise is one effect of climate change that may change the minds of many because of its reality in today’s world. This issue is especially relevant in the Northeast because of several factors that further affect the sea level rise. In order to stop further effects on the Northeast, legislators must
Vancouver as a coastal city is projected to experience increased annual precipitation and temperatures, with hotter, drier summers. More intense and frequent rain and wind storms are anticipated, and sea level rise will pose a significant challenge by mid-century.
The Sea Level has increased over the past 200 years as average global temperatures have increased. The rise is due to two factors, the freshwater being added to the oceans from ice melt in the cryosphere, and the thermal expansion of the oceans due to rises in sea temperature. The sea level has risen 6 to 8 inches in the past 100 years. It is predicted to rise another 50 to 90 centimeters in the next century. As the sea level rises it’s jeopardizing rapidly growing coastal communities, which causes evacuation in some areas causing people to lose their homes. Sea level is the effect
Pierre-Louis, K. (2017, April 17). As sea levels rise, where will all the people go? Retrieved April 13, 2018, from
Decades of research suggest that sea-levels are rising, and will continue to rise as a result of climate change. This rise will have the most immediate and significant impact on
Cities in Florida also lack the technology, money and manpower to keep back the seas by themselves (“Sea rise”, 2015). Despite warnings from water experts and climate scientists about risks to cities and drinking water, skepticism over sea-level projections and climate-change science has hampered planning efforts at all levels of
According to the American Bar Association, "The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has concluded that during the 20th century, sea levels rose some 5-9 inches throughout the world."(Gresham, Imwalle). This not only puts costal communities at risk of losing their homes, but also cause damage to infrastructures worth millions of dollars. The rise of sea level due to climate change has put Bay Area officials hard at work to come up with different plans on how to deal with this in the future.
the location is next to the coast. If the sea levels were to rise there is a strong possibility that
According to John King, scientific studies say that the Bay Area’s average tide could increase several feet or more by 2100 due to climate change and rising sea levels. In 2015, ramps connecting to Highway 101 near Mill Valley were already closed 30 times. It is important to find the “political will” to process the long term plans regarding sea level rise that have been denied for the past half century. Sea level rise was not priority of current politics debate in San Francisco compared to issues with homeless camps and gun crisis. San Francisco Sea Level Rise Action Plan’s goal is to get people prepared for slow moving threat to the Bay
Sea levels have risen four inches in the last two decades say the agency's scientists. Canada needs a coordinated, countrywide effort to combat the devastating effects, suggest a leading climate scientist. The time is now and we to think about our children and grandchildren.
The sea-level rising here in tidewater is a major issue considering that the elevation throughout this area is much lower than the majority of the cities in Virginia. I've had a firsthand experience with some of the results of the sea-level rising here in Tidewater, VA. I witnessed how a short thunderstorm can turn into flash flood within a matter of minutes. The following days of some significant floods, I’ve driven passed cars that were left behind due to them not being able to move past all the water. The flooding would leave residents with costs towards the damaged property. With the elevation measuring about 7ft in Norfolk, the sea-level rising is a large threat to the residence. According to Norfolk real estate broker Kathy Heaton claims
coastal cities. The Gulf and southern Atlantic Coast could be possibly be hit hard, cities like Tampa, Miami, New Orleans, and Virginia Beach. Those cities could also lose more than 10% of land by then. With 40.5 million people living in the coastal municipalities, twenty of those cites had more than 300,000 inhabitants. “Impacts from sea-level rise could be erosion, temporary flooding, and permanent inundation.” (Weiss, 2011.) Erosion is when continents are continually losing sediments to the sea, the sediments slowly fill the ocean basin, pushing sea level up. (Mylroie, 2012.) A study was done on the effect of the future sea level rising on the propagation of tides in the Patagonian Shelf. The effect of flooding of low lying areas was studied, the coastal morphological features and the sense of tidal wave propagation in the southern Hemisphere, and inundation does not significantly modify the solution on the Patagonian Shelf, but in the Northern Argentinean Shelf the results are changed. The most important changes to the characteristic of tides can occur when sea level rising. (Clara, 2015.) Studies shows that coastal cities are more vulnerable than others. (Hughes, 2015.) For example, like the Atlantic coast the sea level will rise three to four times faster than global average. “Everything we see shows that, if you look in the past, each increment of warmth seems to correlate with increasingly higher sea level.” (Sumner,
Rather than focusing on the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, like climate mitigation, climate change adaptation focuses on bracing for, managing, and counteracting to impacts of present and future climate transformations. Sea level rise (SLR) is forecasted to advance throughout the Northeast USA, increasing coastal flooding, susceptibility to storm impacts, and decrease of coastal marsh areas. This is concerning as, presently, over 40 million people reside in coastal shoreline counties in the Northeast USA, and this number is still growing. This number stresses the importance of vegetation stabilizing soil profiles and flood reduction through wave attenuation provided by coastal marsh areas. Also, coastal sediment inputs, a key