Hurricane season may still be months away, but the threat of flooding is already on the rise, as documented by the latest reports on climate change recently released. Rising sea levels have raised the risk of coastal flooding, particularly from
Hurricane season may still be months away, but the threat of flooding is already on the rise, as documented by the latest reports on climate change recently released. Rising sea levels have raised the risk of coastal flooding, particularly from severe storms.
Analyzing both the latest forecasts of rising high tides caused by warming oceans and the latest population data from the 2010 census, one of several studies released last week, “Surging Seas” by scientists associated with the nonprofit Climate Central environmental research organization, found 3.7 million Americans living near the water will be at risk in the coming decades.
The danger is that 100-year-floods — considered so rare they might appear once every hundred years — will become much more commonplace. Such storms could produce damage similar to a tsunami.
This isn’t the first time scientists have documented U.S. vulnerability to rising sea levels, a trend that has been going on for more than a century. Insurance companies have already taken note, and many are no longer offering flood insurance.
While the timetable and specifics are subject to debate, there is no serious doubt about the consensus scientific view that ocean levels are rising because of man-made climate change, and coastal communities are threatened by it. Whether sea levels rise by three feet or four feet, coastal towns and cities are in danger when major storms strike, as they inevitably will.
Yet much of the nation’s leadership appears to be largely in denial, with Republicans especially keen on laughing off a danger so clear U.S. insurance companies won’t go near it. GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum recently called climate change a “myth” even as he was campaigning in Biloxi, Miss., a coastal community that has seen its share of devastating floods.
President Barack Obama has done better pursuing policies to improve automobile fuel efficiency, promote green energy, reduce power plant emissions and negotiate international agreements to limit greenhouse gas emissions, but it’s hardly been his highest priority in office. During January’s State of the Union address, the president mentioned climate change just once, and that was to note Congress was too divided to deal with the issue right now.
Will it take a major disaster to strike before Americans demand more from Washington on global warming? If so, such action may come too late — at least for those living anywhere near the water. Once glaciers melt and ocean waters warm and expand, the genie can’t be put back in the proverbial bottle.
This isn’t a problem that can be solved overnight but will take decades to address. That’s not cause for delay but reason to do more now, as the window for affecting climate change is gradually closing, whether deniers like Santorum will acknowledge it or not.
When the floods do come, the victims may look back and wonder why an earlier generation did so little to prevent such catastrophe. What will we tell them? Surely not that we didn’t see it coming, but perhaps we’ll just have to admit that we did — and chose to do nothing anyway.
