Severe, chronic flooding will devastate California coast as sea levels rise, experts say
By Joshua Emerson Smith
According to scientists, sea-level rise is underway in some seaside neighborhoods and comes on top of the potential for large storms to intensify because of climate change. Cities along the East Coast — such as Miami, Boston and Charleston, S.C. — face the greatest risk, but flooding is also projected to harm much of San Diego County’s coastline in the coming decades.
The major questions currently are: How much flooding will vulnerable cities experience, and how fast?
The answers are difficult to determine because it depends largely on future global efforts to curb greenhouse-gas emissions, and there are widely varying predictions about glacial melt in Greenland and Antarctica. Mountain glaciers contain enough ice to increase seas by 1.5 feet, while Greenland and Antarctica have sheets of frozen water that, if melted, would boost ocean levels by 24 feet and 187 feet, respectively.
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According to a new report by the Union of Concerned Scientists, the number of U.S. communities that would flood more than twice a month could double to 170 by the year 2035 if sea levels increase by four to six feet by the end of this century.
“People need to know how much time they have and be adjusting their portfolio of options accordingly,” said Kristina Dahl at the scientific union, who co-wrote the report. “In communities where they maybe only have 20 years before this type of flooding sets in, they need to be thinking in bold new ways.”
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