As climate risks worsen, U.S. flood buyouts fail to meet the need
The U.S. approach to buying out properties vulnerable to flooding is rife with uncertainty and delays. Now, as climate change drives more extreme coastal storms and precipitation events, the system must undergo a drastic overhaul or risk stranding millions in flood-prone homes.
Rising seas already overwhelm the Bay Area. Time is running out for California to act
In Foster City, where the ‘king tide’ over the weekend reached 9 feet, the answer is a taller levee, costing $90 million. The plan comes as legislators warn that California is running out of time to prepare for sea level rise.
A huge iceberg just broke off West Antarctica’s most endangered glacier
On the ice-covered edge of a remote West Antarctic bay, the continent’s most imperiled glaciers threaten to redraw Earth’s coastlines. Pine Island Glacier and its neighbor Thwaites Glacier are the gateway to a massive cache of frozen water, one that would raise global sea levels by four feet if it were all to spill into the sea. And that gateway is shattering before our eyes.
New research supports previous studies on global sea level rise
A new study has demonstrated that the global sea level rise has accelerated over the past four decades. In other words, as a result of global warming, the oceans are rising faster every year.
Arctic ice melt is changing ocean currents
A major ocean current in the Arctic is faster and more turbulent as a result of rapid sea ice melt, a new study from NASA shows. The current is part of a delicate Arctic environment that is now flooded with fresh water, an effect of human-caused climate change.
In the Afro-Caribbean heart of Puerto Rico, locals fight erosion
The waves crashed loudly on the collapsed ruins of the Paseo del Atlántico, a walkway that once partially protected residents here from the volatile ocean. Erosion along this northernmost coast of Puerto Rico, nearly 20 miles east of San Juan, precipitated the promenade’s destruction, it finally fell into the Atlantic, exposing the Parcelas Suárez neighborhood to the water’s edge.
Sea level rise accelerating along US coastline, scientists warn
The pace of sea level rise accelerated at nearly all measurement stations along the US coastline in 2019, with scientists warning some of the bleakest scenarios for inundation and flooding are steadily becoming more like.
Scientists alarmed to discover warm water at “vital point” beneath Antarctica’s “doomsday glacier”
Scientists have found for the first time, warm water beneath Antarctica’s “doomsday glacier,” a nickname used because it is one of Antarctica’s fastest melting glaciers.
Sea level rise to cause major economic impact in the absence of further climate action
Sea level rise is one of the most severe impacts of climate change, with rising waters amplifying coastal floods, threatening coastal communities, infrastructure, and agriculture. The period 2010-2020 was the planet’s hottest decade on record and the long-term trend is upward.