Sea levels and impact on the United States.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

As a follow-up to airiefairie's excellent post on March 11, 2012 ("The drowning country: a case of climate migration"), I wanted to share a new report that has been released in the interim.


NBC Nightly News featured a new scientific report suggesting significant changes in sea levels will impact the United States much sooner than thought. The report entitled Surging Seas

finds the odds of “century” or worse floods occurring by 2030 are on track to double or more, over widespread areas of the U.S. These increases threaten an enormous amount of damage. Across the country, nearly 5 million people live in 2.6 million homes at less than 4 feet above high tide — a level lower than the century flood line for most locations analyzed. And compounding this risk, scientists expect roughly 2 to 7 more feet of sea level rise this century. [see graphic below]

The report has been made available online, and Climate Central has designed a super elegant and user friendly interactive map to see what impact sea level changes will have on your own community. The map draws its information from a peer reviewed study. And it uses the National Elevation Dataset, a product of the U.S. Geological Survey.



The effects of a five foot sea rise on my home town of Hampton, Virginia. The solid blue line indicates the current shoreline, gray shows the areas affected by rising sea levels with the interior blue line the new coast line. The "city" of Poquoson would be completely wiped out. This portion of Virginia is called "Tidewater" and it would be affected the most because of the low laying tidal flats and swampy areas. On a personal note, two weeks ago, my insurance agency dropped home coverage due to my proximity to living near a flood zone in Brooklyn. The letter cited increased risks from hurricanes and other issues associated with climate change (i.e. rising sea levels).

Here what happens to Staten Island, Brooklyn, and Queens (5 foot rise):




This is the full feature from NBC Nightly News (you *MAY* have to refresh your browser page to reload the embedded video correctly ;)

Comments

[mrbogey.livejournal.com]

It's important to be scared and vote Democrat.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Zzz.

Hush, hush, hush. Here comes the Bogey man. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RLgKOamoME&list=FL8AR71E_ddIkROfNsfKi9JA&index=12&feature=plpp_video)

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

I vote Piratpartiet, tack så mycket! :)

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

But are you scared? It's a necessary condition.

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

Pirates are not scared of anything. Except maybe stinking socks and running out of rum. Bugger!

[404.livejournal.com]

Torrents for everyone! Yar!

[airiefairie.livejournal.com]

I think everything will be all right, if we believe really, really hard... =)

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

I thought fear and paranoia was the GOP's M.O.? TERRISTS!!

[chron-job.livejournal.com]

The idea of Global Warming doesn't SCARE me, so talking about it doesn't feel like scare-mongering.

Ultimately I think I, and most people, have a work-a-day attitude to it, well summed up by David Mitchel Here...

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Global Warming Denialism DOES piss me off, so if I ever seem excited on the subject, lay that at the feet of Anger, rather than fear.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

You see, what we need to do

Is come up with a fast, non-fossil fuel burning metal thing, that sounds and smells like a souped up, nos burning funny car that has a fully functional bar in the trunk, enormous tires, and an obnoxiously loud stereo system that detects the driver's favorite song and artist at any given time. Oh and a bacon dispenser.

The catch is it has to be energy efficient though, we need to figure out how to make douchebaggery green, so America can be green! :D

[il-mio-gufo.livejournal.com]

nice intro thnx for the vid

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

I'm glad that you took time out of your day to come here and share your conclusions with the rest of us. And even more that you needed to edit your single sentence answer to the pressing issue of rising water levels in coastal areas. You conclusion to the information provided of "be scared and vote Democrat" is novel, if completely fucking missing the point. With answers like that, I'd love to see your solutions to thorny dilemmas like being trapped in a paper bag.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

[nahele-101.livejournal.com]

Um, both parties play that game.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

Or one could, perhaps, remain calm, treat the environment better and try to look beyond party lines...

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Ronny can't get elected dog catcher, much less President.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

That means not enough people are thinking for themselves1! D:

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

tell me what to think cause I really wanna know

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

Considering your userpic, I'm thinking Arby's.

[existentme.livejournal.com]

Actually, just be afraid (of something, anything - terrorists, homasexuls, hoes, rising oceans, falling dollars, anything at all) be afraid of anything but your government, and go right on voting for that same government - either side, no matter - believing it will save you from all or any of those things.

That is what is important.

[usekh.livejournal.com]

As opposed to "Be scared of the brown people, vote Republican"