More Than 400 U.S. Cities May Be 'Past The Point Of No Return' With Sea Level Threats

More Than 400 U.S. Cities May Be 'Past The Point Of No Return' With Sea Level Threats

Millions of Americans live in places where it's too late to slow the threat of rising sea levels, a new study warns, and researchers are hoping those findings will serve as a call to action for cities that can still be saved by cutting carbon emissions.

The study, published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, examines how much rising sea levels will affect cities across the United States over time if carbon emissions stay the same or decrease. The most startling finding is that 414 towns and cities have already passed their lock-in date, or the point at which it's guaranteed that more than half the city's populated land will eventually be underwater no matter how much humans decrease carbon emissions; it's just a matter of when.

That's "the date where we let the genie out of the bottle, when it’s past the point of no return," lead study author Benjamin Strauss of Climate Central told The Huffington Post.

Here's the kind of doom that man-made Climate Change brings. Not the "oh no!" end of the world nonsense that deniers are always trying to over-sensationalize CC into being about, but problems like this. 414 cities underwater! Guaranteed. We can't even change that fact. It's GOING to happen. That is quite a large population shift. That means all the residents of those coastal cities will eventually have to move further inland, which will disrupt the communities that they move to. Unemployment will sore and tensions will be VERY high, and if we STILL refuse not to do anything about climate change, we'll all be set again to do this move again when the sea levels rise even further.

Of those 414 cities, New Orleans stands to be one of the most compromised.

"Even in a best-case carbon emissions scenario, 98 percent of populated land in New Orleans would be below the future sea level," Strauss said, because it's so flat and low-lying. "So it’s really just a question of building suitable defenses or eventually abandoning the city."

...

Conditions in New Orleans could be even worse than the study predicts, he noted, as it didn't take into account the fact that New Orleans is already sinking.

Poor New Orleans... So much for Mardi Gras... Oh well, Miami isn't looking to fare much better. Heck apparently, 40% of the places that will be underwater are going to be in Florida.

"The extra problem that Miami has is that it’s sitting on porous limestone, or, in other words, the bedrock underneath Miami is a lot like Swiss cheese," he said. "Water can just go through it and so building levees is not going to be effective in South Florida."

In every scenario in the study except the two most extreme ones, Florida contains at least 40 percent of the people living on potentially affected land.

Maybe that's why ole Jeb changed his tune about Climate Change.
Jeb Bush Now Says Humans Contribute To Climate Change
It's amazing what the impending threat of your home being underwater does to your desire to deny science all so you can see more zeros in your bank account.

But hey, not all is lost (except for those 414 cities). We CAN stop this for effecting more places.

While the future looks bleak in some cities, Strauss emphasized that many cities can be saved if people take swift action against carbon emissions.

"The most interesting thing to me is there are a great deal of cities where our carbon choices make a huge difference," he said. "For example, if you look at Philadelphia, under business as usual, land that accounts for more than 100,000 people could be submerged. But you divide that total by 10 with an extreme carbon cut. The very biggest difference of all is for New York City, where you can avoid submergence of land where one and a half million people live."

There's similar promise in Virginia Beach, Sacramento and Jacksonville, Florida, he said.

"To me this is really a question of our American legacy and American heritage," Strauss said. "Are we going to let the ocean take a state-sized bite out of America? If we make extreme efforts to cut carbon, we can avoid that."

Yea, I don't know about you, but displacing all the citizens who live in New York City is likely going to cause some problems. Or hey, maybe they can restructure the city so that everyone commutes on boats instead of vehicles. That'll be some exciting gridlock...

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
More Than 400 U.S. Cities May Be 'Past The Point Of No Return' With Sea Level Threats

Millions of Americans live in places where it's too late to slow the threat of rising sea levels, a new study warns, and researchers are hoping those findings will serve as a call to action for cities that can still be saved by cutting carbon emissions.

The study, published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, examines how much rising sea levels will affect cities across the United States over time if carbon emissions stay the same or decrease. The most startling finding is that 414 towns and cities have already passed their lock-in date, or the point at which it's guaranteed that more than half the city's populated land will eventually be underwater no matter how much humans decrease carbon emissions; it's just a matter of when.

That's "the date where we let the genie out of the bottle, when it’s past the point of no return," lead study author Benjamin Strauss of Climate Central told The Huffington Post.

Here's the kind of doom that man-made Climate Change brings. Not the "oh no!" end of the world nonsense that deniers are always trying to over-sensationalize CC into being about, but problems like this. 414 cities underwater! Guaranteed. We can't even change that fact. It's GOING to happen. That is quite a large population shift. That means all the residents of those coastal cities will eventually have to move further inland, which will disrupt the communities that they move to. Unemployment will sore and tensions will be VERY high, and if we STILL refuse not to do anything about climate change, we'll all be set again to do this move again when the sea levels rise even further.

Of those 414 cities, New Orleans stands to be one of the most compromised.

"Even in a best-case carbon emissions scenario, 98 percent of populated land in New Orleans would be below the future sea level," Strauss said, because it's so flat and low-lying. "So it’s really just a question of building suitable defenses or eventually abandoning the city."

...

Conditions in New Orleans could be even worse than the study predicts, he noted, as it didn't take into account the fact that New Orleans is already sinking.

Poor New Orleans... So much for Mardi Gras... Oh well, Miami isn't looking to fare much better. Heck apparently, 40% of the places that will be underwater are going to be in Florida.

"The extra problem that Miami has is that it’s sitting on porous limestone, or, in other words, the bedrock underneath Miami is a lot like Swiss cheese," he said. "Water can just go through it and so building levees is not going to be effective in South Florida."

In every scenario in the study except the two most extreme ones, Florida contains at least 40 percent of the people living on potentially affected land.

Maybe that's why ole Jeb changed his tune about Climate Change.
Jeb Bush Now Says Humans Contribute To Climate Change
It's amazing what the impending threat of your home being underwater does to your desire to deny science all so you can see more zeros in your bank account.

But hey, not all is lost (except for those 414 cities). We CAN stop this for effecting more places.

While the future looks bleak in some cities, Strauss emphasized that many cities can be saved if people take swift action against carbon emissions.

"The most interesting thing to me is there are a great deal of cities where our carbon choices make a huge difference," he said. "For example, if you look at Philadelphia, under business as usual, land that accounts for more than 100,000 people could be submerged. But you divide that total by 10 with an extreme carbon cut. The very biggest difference of all is for New York City, where you can avoid submergence of land where one and a half million people live."

There's similar promise in Virginia Beach, Sacramento and Jacksonville, Florida, he said.

"To me this is really a question of our American legacy and American heritage," Strauss said. "Are we going to let the ocean take a state-sized bite out of America? If we make extreme efforts to cut carbon, we can avoid that."

Yea, I don't know about you, but displacing all the citizens who live in New York City is likely going to cause some problems. Or hey, maybe they can restructure the city so that everyone commutes on boats instead of vehicles. That'll be some exciting gridlock...

If it's too late to do anything about rising sea levels then exactly what do the people feel cutting carbon emissions will accomplish?. It's too late but we can still spend money, tax, and implement laws?


Too late but we can prevent it??? Little odd

a reply to: Krazysh0t

Well if it's too late I guess you should just take my money anyways...It is my fault you know.

Talk to me again when they're underwater

a reply to: Reallyfolks

Did you not read the final half of the OP? It clearly says that while those cities are effectively doomed, we CAN act to stop more cities from being doomed.

a reply to: Bennyzilla

So a bunch of cities are doomed to be underwater, we need to act now to prevent more cities from going underwater, and you STILL want to wait for proof? You know doing so is going to cause more cities to go underwater right? What happens if we pass the tipping point for NYC while we are waiting for this to happen?

Can we get a full list
of the 400 cities expected
to become Atlantis's ...?

This is what happened to Atlantis.


Edit: Well I'll be damned, spoonbender beat me to it.

originally posted by: Krazysh0t

So a bunch of cities are doomed to be underwater, we need to act now to prevent more cities from going underwater

What do you suggest we do to stop this? Taxes?

a reply to: Krazysh0t

NO political rats can do a darn about earth changing patterns, the problem with the government is that they wants to pass the cost of having to move large cities and people from their expensive coastal man made real state inland, that's going to cost money, somebody have to pay for it.

The whole global warming scam is about how to profit the most when Earth starts to reclaim expensive coastal property.

That is why humans needs to be made responsible for Earth cycles, because after all you can not tax earth.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

The article doesn't say when it is going to happen. Sounds kind of open ended to me. Like writing an article on an asteroid impact. Yeah, it'll destroy the earth, we're doomed. But they never say when.

a reply to: Krazysh0t
Sounds like we may have a repeat of ancient history in the making. Well, sort of. This time, we're aiding and abetting. I realize pointing fingers isn't going to change it, but government and industry should be held culpable, for oppressing technologies that could have gone a long way toward preventing this.

I'm not completely on board with man-made climate change, but I can certainly believe we've had an effect on what was already happening. Add to that, we've had the chance to minimize our footprint on the ecosystem, and declined to do so.

So I am back after a long absence, and I find it amusing that this climate warming change nonsense still gets traction here.

originally posted by: marg6043
a reply to: Krazysh0t

NO political rats can do a darn about earth changing patterns, the problem with the government is that they wants to pass the cost of having to move large cities and people from their expensive coastal man made real state inland, that's going to cost money, somebody have to pay for it.

The whole global warming scam is about how to profit the most when Earth starts to reclaim expensive coastal property.

That is why humans needs to be made responsible for Earth cycles, because after all you can not tax earth.

Rest assured there are democrat operatives trying to figure out a way to tax animals. Stealing half a squirrel's cache of acorns because ya know, there are disadvantaged squirrels out there who are too lazy to hoard enough nuts of their own.

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: Reallyfolks

Did you not read the final half of the OP? It clearly says that while those cities are effectively doomed, we CAN act to stop more cities from being doomed.

So global warming and rising sea levels are a global issue. But dealing with it locally can not only prevent a global problem from getting worse but prevent future issues? That's more that a little crazy and senseless but hey, whatever helps people push their beliefs.

originally posted by: spoonbender
Can we get a full list
of the 400 cities expected
to become Atlantis's ...?

Here's the full report

a reply to: Klassified

Earth cycles or what the profiteers want to call it, clima change, is becoming an inconvenience to humanity specially when it comes to the money making expensive coastal real estate, that will be the first to go under water if the planet decides is time to reclaim back what once was under water to begin with.

Humans has created a money making pit, from fake beaches to controlling water flows in order to build in areas that were no mean to be build in.

Now earth can reclaim all that, all the doom, because all the money that will be lost, to the economy.

Is not about humans is about money, somebody has to pay for it.

Earth will warm up, then will freeze all over again, I guess I will not longer be here to see that one, when cold will become the next money making profit scam.

Sadly life thrives in warmer weather, but in colder weather lives tends to die out.But earth will keep on going as usual.

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: Krazysh0t

The article doesn't say when it is going to happen. Sounds kind of open ended to me. Like writing an article on an asteroid impact. Yeah, it'll destroy the earth, we're doomed. But they never say when.

The report is about sea level rises from now until 2100, both with us doing something about it and doing nothing. Again I'll link it below.

report

originally posted by: Klassified
a reply to: Krazysh0t
Sounds like we may have a repeat of ancient history in the making. Well, sort of. This time, we're aiding and abetting. I realize pointing fingers isn't going to change it, but government and industry should be held culpable, for oppressing technologies that could have gone a long way toward preventing this.

I'm not completely on board with man-made climate change, but I can certainly believe we've had an effect on what was already happening. Add to that, we've had the chance to minimize our footprint on the ecosystem, and declined to do so.

Consider this. Research team suggests European Little Ice Age came about due to reforestation in New World. If mere trees can affect global climate, why can't humans?

a reply to: Krazysh0t

The term "Past the point of no return" suggests that no measures could possibly be taken, to save those cities. This is patently false, since vast walls COULD be built, lessons learned from The Netherlands and the way that nation dealt with sea level problems, and things COULD be done. So, those cities are not beyond the point of no return. The sea level change however, may be beyond the point where it cannot be slowed or stopped, but it is important to understand what that actually means.

All it really means is that the US government is going to have to stop spending money on thoroughly questionable wars, operations, and systems, as it has over the last decade or so, and start spending money on building up the coastal defences of these locations, with future proofing those solutions in mind. Intelligent, long lasting, easily modified, easily added to solutions are what is needed here.

originally posted by: HighDesertPatriot
So I am back after a long absence, and I find it amusing that this climate warming change nonsense still gets traction here.

Maybe because it's real...