It’s not just sea level rise — the East Coast is sinking, too
[link:http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/14/science/earth/grappling-with-sea-level-rise-sooner-not-later.html?smid=tw-share|
The New York Times has a frightening overview of the latest science on sea level rise — specifically, the threat it poses to the United States. The consensus is that, yes, the U.S. is at risk; the East Coast in particular. But surprisingly, it’s not just rising tides that we have to watch out for — it’s sinking land. From the Times:
[link:http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/14/science/earth/grappling-with-sea-level-rise-sooner-not-later.html?smid=tw-share|Scientists say the East Coast will be hit harder for many reasons, but among the most important is that even as the seawater rises, the land in this part of the world is sinking. And that goes back to the last ice age, which peaked some 20,000 years ago.
As a massive ice sheet, more than a mile thick, grew over what are now Canada and the northern reaches of the United States, the weight of it depressed the crust of the earth. Areas away from the ice sheet bulged upward in response, as though somebody had stepped on one edge of a balloon, causing the other side to pop up. Now that the ice sheet has melted, the ground that was directly beneath it is rising, and the peripheral bulge is falling.]
Some degree of sinking is going on all the way from southern Maine to northern Florida, and it manifests itself as an apparent rising of the sea.
http://www.salon.com/2014/01/13/its_not_just_sea_level_rise_the_east_coast_is_sinking_too/
Times Article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/14/science/earth/grappling-with-sea-level-rise-sooner-not-later.html?smid=tw-share
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It's just not in our psychological make up to deal with any of this.
Darwin at work.
