Vicki
Girls With Guns Member
Sea-Level Rise Looms as a Major Threat for Coastal Cities, Infrastructure
Apr 23, 2012; 6:37 PM ET
Sea-level rise driven by climate change threatens key components of the nation's energy infrastructure such as power plants and oil and gas operations, a panel of state officials and scientists warned Congress Thursday.
In New York City, 10 of 17 power plants sit in a floodplain that could become more saturated in the next half-century, city official Adam Freed told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. In south Florida, a rise of 6 inches of seawater could cripple half of the area's flood-control capacity, said Florida Center for Environmental Studies director Leonard Berry. And in Louisiana, lawmakers are worried about Highway 1 -- a thin roadway vulnerable to inundation that links to some of the nation's richest oil and gas resources.
"The key problem is that rising seas raise the launchpad for coastal storm surges and tilt the odds towards disaster," said Ben Strauss, a scientist at Climate Central, at the committee hearing. "Just a few extra inches could mean the difference to flood a family's basement -- or New York City's subway system, disabling it for months."
Much of the hearing focused on previously released scientific studies on sea-level rise, a phenomenon where warming temperatures expand the ocean's volume through thermal expansion and the melting of ice sheets. Current projections indicate that the global sea average could rise from 0.2 meter to a high of 2 meters by the end of the century.
But effects could be felt long before that -- Strauss said that levels could increase by 8 inches or more by 2050, on top of 8 inches of rise already occurring since 1880. He outlined research last month showing that what are now once-a-century flood events could become one-in-20-year events along the New Jersey shore and annual events in Los Angeles (ClimateWire, March 15).
At more than half the 55 sites Strauss studied, storm surges on top of sea rise have "better than even chances" of rising 4 feet above the high tide line by 2030.
$500B in real estate at risk
.. cont at link.. http://www.accuweather.com/en/home-...-and-you/sealevel-rise-looms-as-a-major/64358
Call me cynical but I think they release this information and then say yeah, we said 20 years from now but we made a mistake. It might be next year. Aye!
Apr 23, 2012; 6:37 PM ET
Sea-level rise driven by climate change threatens key components of the nation's energy infrastructure such as power plants and oil and gas operations, a panel of state officials and scientists warned Congress Thursday.
In New York City, 10 of 17 power plants sit in a floodplain that could become more saturated in the next half-century, city official Adam Freed told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. In south Florida, a rise of 6 inches of seawater could cripple half of the area's flood-control capacity, said Florida Center for Environmental Studies director Leonard Berry. And in Louisiana, lawmakers are worried about Highway 1 -- a thin roadway vulnerable to inundation that links to some of the nation's richest oil and gas resources.
"The key problem is that rising seas raise the launchpad for coastal storm surges and tilt the odds towards disaster," said Ben Strauss, a scientist at Climate Central, at the committee hearing. "Just a few extra inches could mean the difference to flood a family's basement -- or New York City's subway system, disabling it for months."
Much of the hearing focused on previously released scientific studies on sea-level rise, a phenomenon where warming temperatures expand the ocean's volume through thermal expansion and the melting of ice sheets. Current projections indicate that the global sea average could rise from 0.2 meter to a high of 2 meters by the end of the century.
But effects could be felt long before that -- Strauss said that levels could increase by 8 inches or more by 2050, on top of 8 inches of rise already occurring since 1880. He outlined research last month showing that what are now once-a-century flood events could become one-in-20-year events along the New Jersey shore and annual events in Los Angeles (ClimateWire, March 15).
At more than half the 55 sites Strauss studied, storm surges on top of sea rise have "better than even chances" of rising 4 feet above the high tide line by 2030.
$500B in real estate at risk
.. cont at link.. http://www.accuweather.com/en/home-...-and-you/sealevel-rise-looms-as-a-major/64358
Call me cynical but I think they release this information and then say yeah, we said 20 years from now but we made a mistake. It might be next year. Aye!
