Atlantic Surging, Virginia Sinking

[marmar]

from the American Prospect:


Atlantic Surging, Virginia Sinking
Rising sea level in Norfolk threatens the town, the Navy, and a state in denial.

Nathalie Baptiste


[font size="1"]The Norfolk Naval Station: At the world's largest naval installation, the carriers will float, but the base could go under.[/font]

Standing at the Elizabeth River looking at the Naval Shipyard and neighboring Portsmouth, the climate change carnage looming over Norfolk, Virginia, may not be immediately noticeable. The water is calm, and on this mild day in November, dedicated boaters cruise downstream. Nestled between the river, the Chesapeake Bay, and the Atlantic Ocean, Norfolk is paradise for anyone who loves living near the water.

But paradise comes with a price. The combination of sea level rise, tidal flooding, and subsidence—the sinking ground—has made Norfolk a prime example of what climate is going to do, and has already done, to our coastal cities. The city and surrounding region is on the front line in the battle against climate change, but opinions within city limits on just how bad the flooding is and what to do about it appear to be mixed.

The stakes are high in Norfolk, which is home to the headquarters of the Navy’s Atlantic Fleet. Ignoring the problem will prove costly and dangerous, but for some, tidal flooding and sea level rise are problems for a future generation. The more serious form of denial on climate change is not that of the science-deniers; it’s the everyday denial on the part of ordinary people, communities, and leaders who can’t or won’t acknowledge what is lapping at their feet, because the reality is so frightening and the required scale of change is so immense.

In the 1970s, Norfolk averaged less than two flooding events per year. That number has since tripled. But even when the water isn’t making roads impassable, the signs of climate change are still there: the rusted base of a street sign, debris lines that form when the water carries litter onto the grass, salt patches where nothing grows, and a walkway that’s underwater so often that no one bothers to use it anymore. .....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://prospect.org/article/atlantic-surging-virginia-sinking

[underpants]

1. Yep we stayed in Norfolk in October for a football game

They have a serious (but somewhat artfully hidden) lock system down on the water. Norfolk has done a great job of revitalizing itself. Friends of mine - we grew up 45 minutes away on the Peninsula- were surprised at my praise for it.

[CatWoman]

14. most of my family resides in Tidewater

and my granddaughter just the other day told me about Norfolk flooding last week.

[FSogol]

2. K&R. n/t

[Divernan]

3. Grifters & con men still selling retirement homes in water front communitites.

Like P.T. Barnum is credited with saying (although some say it was said ABOUT him, not BY him) , "There's a sucker born (retiring) every minute."

[FLPanhandle]

4. I guess the US better learn from the Dutch on holding back the sea

I pay close attention as we live on low waterfront land here in Florida.

Last summer was the first time I noticed the water level was a little higher on average with more incursion into the lawn. I guess I'll have to build up the property if that continues.

[packman]

5. Does the asshole in the Senate throwing snow balls

know about this?

[2naSalit]

6. Hard to say..

he is from that landlocked, rolling flat-lands state of Oklahoma... reality doesn't seem to be a strong suit in that patch of the cornfield where snowballs are a novelty.

[DhhD]

15. Subsidence in OK is so bad that they are having earthquakes; one was 5+.

http://water.usgs.gov/ogw/pubs/fs00165/

[2naSalit]

21. I've been

keeping an eye on that. He's so owned by the oil cartel that he has to resort to ignorant crap like this to make his brownie points because they tell him to object to the conversation on our climate with any means...

and this snowball stunt would be one of the results. With the way the petro-industry controls OK, it's no wonder they make sure nobody gets an education so the masses could figure out how to stop them and install local/state democracy.

[Thor_MN]

7. We should give him some lead shoes, walk him out at low tide

until he is at a point where high tide would have come up to his neck the year he was born and leave him to see the difference.

[paleotn]

8. he doesn't care....

....he's more interested in oil money and staying in office.

[City Lights]

19. His ignorance keeps him positively blissful.

If you look closely, you'll see his head is buried in the sand somewhere along the coast.

[RiverLover]

9. "the required scale of change is so immense"

This is our problem nationally, hell, globally.

[KingCharlemagne]

12. I read somewhere that 80% of the world's population lives within 1 km of the

world's oceans. That is a lot of people upon whom climate change and sea level change will force migration (maybe the largest migration in human history?).

[fadedrose]

10. Opinion not scientific

Scientists would probably laugh, but sometimes I think that all the stuff we have taken from the earth - oil, coal, iron, natural gas, water for irrigating, water for any use, etc., have created an emptiness under the United States. Florida's sinkholes are caused by irrigation of crops only possible with clean water under the state..

Part of the sea rising could be a little of the land lowering to fill in the empty areas - a small part, not the whole deal.

[libodem]

11. Waiting for the sink holes

In Florida to open up and swallow George Zimmerman and Rush Limpbaugh. Looking for the good in climate change since 2002.

[spanone]

13. ...and a senator throws a sarcastic snowball in the senate chambers...

inhofe, who else?

[DesMoinesDem]

16. Norfolk is built on an impact crater site. It has been sinking for millions of years.

On top of that it used to be marshland and it was filled in by man. This fill is compacting. The rising water has nothing to do with global warming.

[Duppers]

17. nothing at all to do with global warming?

Last edited Sat Feb 28, 2015, 03:06 PM - Edit history (1)

Your first three statements are factual and very pertinent info, but the rising tides have "nothing" to do with the flooding? Sea levels rising around the world yet global warming has spared the city of Norfolk and Tidewater?

[hatrack]

20. Yes, there's a magic invisible flood barrier, put there by Jeezus and James Inhofe

[roamer65]

18. Coastal fill areas are facing a double whammy.

Soil compaction plus rising sea levels. Those are the areas to avoid in future.