Concerning news in relation to climate change has been released. This indicates that the U.S. coastline to see up to a foot of sea level rise by 2050. The associated report, from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), projects a century of sea level rise in just 30 years.
The Sea Level Rise Technical Report presents issues of concern for policy makers. The predictions are outlined for each decade, across the next 100 years, based on a combination of tide gauge and satellite observations.
These data have been subjected to computer modelling and provided to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The report projects sea levels along the coastline will rise an additional 10-12 inches by 2050 with specific amounts varying regionally, mainly due to land height changes.
The sea-level rises predicted will mean that flooding will occur ten times more often in 2050 than it does in 2022. In the most vulnerable locales, this means mean a change from a single event every 2-5 years to multiple events each year.
Some areas are set to be worst affected, like California. With rising sea levels along the California coast, there exists an increased threat to populated areas already at risk from rising water tables.
The report also upends the U.S. government’s 2017 sea level rise projections, providing additional information on tide, wind, and storm-driven extreme water levels affecting current and future coastal flood risk.
As to why this happening, the evidence points to human-caused climate change, together with some natural variability. This is based on the Earth System Model operated at NOAA.
For example, within thermodynamic laws, sea level variability increases in a warmer climate because the same temperature variations, such as related to the seasonal cycle, cause larger buoyancy and sea level fluctuations.
This is as per the article published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, titled “Increase in sea level variability with ocean warming associated with the nonlinear thermal expansion of seawater.”
In terms of implications, businesses and communities situated along the coast we know what to expect and how to plan for the future. The issue that the worst-considered aspects of this future are set to happen and sooner than expected.
