Rising Seas Threaten 180 U.S. Cities By 2100!

A map showing where increases in sea level could affect the southern and Gulf coasts of the U.S. The colors indicate areas along the coast that are elevations of 1 meter or less (russet) or 6 meters or less (yellow) and have connectivity to the sea.
Photo: Jeremy Weiss/University of Arizona

Rising seas spurred by climate change could threaten 180 U.S. coastal cities by 2100, a new study says, with Miami, New Orleans and Virginia Beach among those most severely affected.

Cities along the southern Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Mexico will likely be hardest hit if global sea levels rise, as projected, by about 3 feet (1 meter) by 2100, researchers reported in the journal Climate Change Letters.

Sea level rise is expected to be one result of global warming as ice on land melts and flows toward the world’s oceans.

Rising coastal waters threaten an average of nine percent of the land in the 180 coastal cities in the study. Miami, New Orleans, Tampa, Florida, and Virginia Beach, Virginia could lose more than 10 percent of their land area by century’s end, the study found.

In the centuries after 2100 sea levels could rise as much as 6 yards (meters), based on the melting of giant ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica, says researcher Jeremy Weiss at University of Arizona.

Article in World Environment News: http://planetark.org/wen/61245

Posted on February 18th, 2011 | No Comments »

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