WASHINGTON — From Cape Hatteras, N.C., to just north of Boston, sea levels are rising much faster than they are around the globe, putting one of the world’s most costly coasts in danger of flooding, government researchers report.
U.S. Geological Survey scientists call the 600-mile swath a “hot spot” for climbing sea levels caused by global warming. Along the region, the Atlantic Ocean is rising at an annual rate three times to four times faster than the global average since 1990, according to the study published Sunday in the journal Nature Climate Change.
It’s not just a faster rate, but at a faster pace, like a car on a highway “jamming on the accelerator,” said the study’s lead author, Asbury Sallenger Jr., an oceanographer at the agency. He looked at sea levels starting in 1950, and noticed a change beginning in 1990.
Since then, sea levels have gone up globally about 2 inches. But in Norfolk, Va., where officials are scrambling to fight more frequent flooding, sea level has jumped a total of 4.8 inches, the research showed. For Philadelphia, levels went up 3.7 inches, and in New York City, it was 2.8 inches.
Climate change pushes up sea levels by melting ice sheets in Greenland and west Antarctica, and because warmer water expands.
Computer models long have projected higher levels along parts of the East Coast because of changes in ocean currents from global warming, but this is the first study to show that’s already happened.
By 2100, scientists and computer models estimate that sea levels globally could rise as much as 3.3 feet. The accelerated rate along the East Coast could add about 8 inches to 11 inches more, Sallenger said.
“Where that kind of thing becomes important is during a storm,” Sallenger said. That’s when it can damage buildings and erode coastlines.
On the West Coast, a National Research Council report released Friday projects an average 3-foot rise in sea level in California by the year 2100, and 2 feet in Oregon and Washington. The land mass north of the San Andreas Fault is expected to rise, offsetting the rising sea level in those two states.
The USGS study suggests the Northeast would get hit harder because of ocean currents. When the Gulf Stream and its northern extension slow down, the slope of the seas changes to balance against the slowing current. That slope then pushes up sea levels in the Northeast. It is like a see-saw effect, Sallenger theorizes.
Scientists believe that with global warming, the Gulf Stream and other ocean currents are slowing and will slow further, Sallenger said.
Jeff Williams, a retired USGS expert who wasn’t part of the study, and Stefan Rahmstorf, a professor of ocean physics at the Potsdam Institute in Germany, said the study does a good job of making the case for sea level rise acceleration.
Margaret Davidson, director of the Coastal Services Center for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Charleston, S.C., said the implications of the new research are “huge when you think about it. Somewhere between Maryland and Massachusetts, you’ve got some bodaciously expensive property at risk.”
Sea level projections matter in coastal states because flood maps based on those predictions can result in restrictions on property development and affect flood insurance rates.
Those estimates became an issue in North Carolina recently when the Legislature proposed using historic figures to calculate future sea levels, rejecting higher rates from a state panel of experts. The USGS study suggests an even higher level than the panel’s estimate for 2100.
The North Carolina proposal used data from University of Florida professor Robert Dean, who had found no regional differences in sea level rise. Dean said he can’t argue with the results from Sallenger’s study showing accelerating sea level rise in the region, but he said it’s more likely to be from natural cycles. Sallenger said there is no evidence to support that claim.
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Associated Press writers Allen Reed in Raleigh, N.C., and Jeff Barnard in Grants Pass, Ore., contributed to this report.
Since water seeks its own level, maybe we’re just sinking? Too many people?
I know! The moon’s pull is giving our little spot higher levels, or the Gulf Stream is flowing faster by our doorstep. :)
Didn’t they get the memo ?? Global Warming is a scam…Explain to me how water on one side of the bath tub rises faster than the other…LOL…
Wonder if the two oceans are just leveling out, since it has been known the Pacific ocean is higher than the Atlantic ocean? So, the Atlantic ocean has a few inches to catch up.
It could be like what midcoastconservative says. If it is pouring from the north, it will take a little bit for the water to spread and even itself out. The sea level will go down a little again.
Like the outer parts of a galaxy are moving slower because they haven’t got up to speed yet, because they just started moving and getting pulled into the spiral motion, which makes more sense to me rather than a gray matter on the outside slowing down the outer particles.
Originator of “Gaia Theory”:
“The problem is we don’t know what the climate is doing. We thought we knew 20 years ago.”
Now, Lovelock has given a follow-up interview to the UK’s Guardian newspaper in which he delivers more bombshells sure to anger the global green movement, which for years worshipped his Gaia theory and apocalyptic predictions that billions would die from man-made climate change by the end of this century.
Lovelock still believes anthropogenic global warming is occurring and that mankind must lower its greenhouse gas emissions, but says it’s now clear the doomsday predictions, including his own (and Al Gore’s) were incorrect.
He responds to attacks on his revised views by noting that, unlike many climate scientists who fear a loss of government funding if they admit error, as a freelance scientist, he’s never been afraid to revise his theories in the face of new evidence. Indeed, that’s how science advances.”
http://www.torontosun.com/2012/06/22/green-drivel
This is AP beginning their weekly global warming lessons. They gave it a break for a while and now they are back at it. Al Gores billions must be drying up so they need to SCARE the folks onto buying another of his Solindras.