Rising Seas Could Threaten U.S. Landmarks

Scientists Say Global Warming Likely To Flood Jamestown, Va.; Wall St.; Other Famed Spots

(AP)  Ultimately, rising seas will likely swamp the first American settlement in Jamestown, Va., as well as the Florida launch pad that sent the first American into orbit, many climate scientists are predicting.

In about a century, some of the places that make America what it is may be slowly erased.

Global warming - through a combination of melting glaciers, disappearing ice sheets and warmer waters expanding - is expected to cause oceans to rise by one meter, or about 39 inches. It will happen regardless of any future actions to curb greenhouse gases, several leading scientists say. And it will reshape the nation.

Rising waters will lap at the foundations of old money Wall Street and the new money towers of Silicon Valley. They will swamp the locations of big city airports and major interstate highways.

Storm surges worsened by sea level rise will flood the waterfront getaways of rich politicians - the Bushes' Kennebunkport and John Edwards' place on the Outer Banks. And gone will be many of the beaches in Texas and Florida favored by budget-conscious students on Spring Break.

That's the troubling outlook projected by coastal maps reviewed by The Associated Press. The maps, created by scientists at the University of Arizona, are based on data from the U.S. Geological Survey.

Few of the more than two dozen climate experts interviewed disagree with the one-meter projection. Some believe it could happen in 50 years, others say 100, and still others say 150.

Sea level rise is "the thing that I'm most concerned about as a scientist," says Benjamin Santer, a climate physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

"We're going to get a meter and there's nothing we can do about it," said University of Victoria climatologist Andrew Weaver, a lead author of the February report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in Paris. "It's going to happen no matter what - the question is when."

Sea level rise "has consequences about where people live and what they care about," said Donald Boesch, a University of Maryland scientist who has studied the issue. "We're going to be into this big national debate about what we protect and at what cost."

This week, beginning with a meeting at the United Nations on Monday, world leaders will convene to talk about fighting global warming. At week's end, leaders will gather in Washington with President Bush.

Experts say that protecting America's coastlines would run well into the billions and not all spots could be saved.

And it's not just a rising ocean that is the problem. With it comes an even greater danger of storm surge, from hurricanes, winter storms and regular coastal storms, Boesch said. Sea level rise means higher and more frequent flooding from these extreme events, he said.

All told, one meter of sea level rise in just the lower 48 states would put about 25,000 square miles under water, according to Jonathan Overpeck, director of the Institute for the Study of Planet Earth at the University of Arizona. That's an area the size of West Virginia.

The amount of lost land is even greater when Hawaii and Alaska are included, Overpeck said.

The Environmental Protection Agency's calculation projects a land loss of about 22,000 square miles. The EPA, which studied only the Eastern and Gulf coasts, found that Louisiana, Florida, North Carolina, Texas and South Carolina would lose the most land. But even inland areas like Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia also have slivers of at-risk land, according to the EPA.

This past summer's flooding of subways in New York could become far more regular, even an everyday occurrence, with the projected sea rise, other scientists said. And New Orleans' Katrina experience and the daily loss of Louisiana wetlands - which serve as a barrier that weakens hurricanes - are previews of what's to come there.

Florida faces a serious public health risk from rising salt water tainting drinking water wells, said Joel Scheraga, the EPA's director of global change research. And the farm-rich San Joaquin Delta in California faces serious salt water flooding problems, other experts said.

"Sea level rise is going to have more general impact to the population and the infrastructure than almost anything else that I can think of," said S. Jeffress Williams, a U.S. Geological Survey coastal geologist in Woods Hole, Mass.

Even John Christy at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, a scientist often quoted by global warming skeptics, said he figures the seas will rise at least 16 inches by the end of the century. But he tells people to prepare for a rise of about three feet just in case.

Williams says it's "not unreasonable at all" to expect that much in 100 years. "We've had a third of a meter in the last century."

The change will be a gradual process, one that is so slow it will be easy to ignore for a while.

"It's like sticking your finger in a pot of water on a burner and you turn the heat on, Williams said. "You kind of get used to it."

[octavianfdlr]

"Rising Seas Could Threaten U.S. Landmarks"
Spreading glaciers could threaten U.S. Landmarks, too.

The (to quote MCVet) "VAST majority of the Worlds Scientist" know about the threat global cooling has posed in the past and can be expected to pose in the future. This is what makes the statements to the contrary by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change so amazing. It is almost as if there were very few actual scientists involved in making the UN/IPCC pronouncements.

alphaa10 has pointed out the fact that Bush uses the term "Climate Change." I wonder why alphaa10 did not also point out that the IPCC uses the same term?

[mercyme884]

You people can *** and complain and blame Bush and the republicans all you want to for "global warming"just like they have some control over the earth and how it functions.But let me tell you they don''t and neither do all your scientists and their "crying global warming Wolf" It is totally out of the hands of you mere mortals. The earth has survived a lot more than global warming and it will survive that too no matter how much you ***.So why don''t you people just accept you are only human, and have no control of what happens to the earth and let God do his JOB.

[mcvet]

afmca, demonizing political groups is also a tool used by one who lacks intellectual options of grasping concepts.
Global Warming is not a recent US-political issue, it is a worldwide issue and has been taking place since the last ice age. It is easier to track changes in recent years only because we have the ability to do so. Global cooling has been an issue in the 5th, 12th, and 19th centuries. You should have paid more attention to History and Science classes before you overextend your brain cells blaming the current Administration for a longstanding global problem.


Posted by ralan40 at 12:27 PM : Sep 24, 2007
+ report abuse

So where did you get your degree there Sparky? What University did you come out of knowing so much more about this situation than the VAST majority of the Worlds Scientist who DO in fact have all those degrees. You also fail to admit that your fuhrer has refused for most of his Term to even admit that Global Warning is a FACT, even in the fact of overwhelming evidence. But hey we can''t blame the fuhrer for anything... don''t you people know the fuhrer and the party NEVER make a mistake! The Worlds Scientist and your own are just LYING to you and we need to form our own SS to take care of those who refuse to follow the fuhrer and the party... Oh! that''s right we already have the SS, it''s called Blackwater here in America!! Who in their right minds listens to these clowns anymore is beyond me!! Sieg Heil Bush!!

[oneshotal-2009]

i can''t resist - so, global warming is a big worry?
what about warring till the oil is gone, then warring till the coal is gone? then warring with sticks and stones? there''s nothing but lunatics running the world, and they ain''t got the balls to admit what%u2019s what. business as usual, till death do us part.
p.s. the universe still appears to never end and have no beginning.

[hawksprings]

The sky is falling...the sky is falling. Al Gore needs to cut back on private jet trips, his 20,000 square foot mansion and fewer limo rides. That ought to hold things off another century.

Posted by mbcsmith at 10:01 AM : Sep 24, 2007

[peoplepower-2009]

There goes New Orleans into the drink again and they can''t bail themselves out of that sink hole this time.

[alphaa10-2009]

For immediate release-- (Washington, Sept. 24) At a House Press conference, Pres. Bush announced a negotiated truce with the forces behind global warming.

Waving about a document before assembled members of the nation''s press, Mr. Bush insisted it was "relief in our time" and pledged to hold the universe accountable for any violations of the pact.

Mr. Bush also reminded Americans he prefers to call global warming "climate change", instead. "This pact will hold until hell freezes over," commented newly-minted press secretary Dana Perino, barely suppressing a giggle.

[alphaa10-2009]

For immediate release-- (Washington, Sept. 24) At a House Press conference, Pres. Bush announced a negotiated truce with the forces behind global warming.

Waving about a document before assembled members of the nation''s press, Mr. Bush insisted it was "relief in our time" and pledged to hold the universe accountable for any violations of the pact.

Mr. Bush also reminded Americans he prefers to call global warming "climate change", instead. "This pact will hold until hell freezes over," commented newly-minted press secretary Dana Perino, barely suppressing a giggle.

[micma-2009]

No worries, Bu$h has awarded Halliburton a multi-billion dollar no-bid contract to build ***** around all U.S. coastal cities.

[boldwin223]

Never fear George Bush is here to save the day with a little help from Halliburton, that is!!