Global Warming Causing Sea Levels to Rise Faster

I grew up within a heartbeat of the ocean on the Northeast coast of the U.S. and spent most of my summers in the pretty little town of Brant Rock, Massachusetts. Brant Rock, a tiny corner of Marshfield, is beautiful in a gritty, off-the-beaten-path summer resort kinda way. The rocky beach there makes it not conducive to the seaside mansions that line a lot of the coastline further to the south - even just a mile or so down the coast. It's the wrong side of the tracks in a town that has no tracks - the part of the town where the rich folks didn't build because it wasn't as picturesque and didn't have the sandy, smooth beaches that you find in Duxbury or further along in Green Harbor. Instead, the streets are lined with little two and three bedroom summer cottages built by the middle class workers of the 1950s and winterized so that they could be rented year round. 

Living in Brant Rock has its trials. Every few years, a nor'easter sweeps in off the ocean and the waves crash against the sea wall and threaten everything within blocks of the beach. When it's especally bad, streets flood and houses fill up with sea water and sand. At its worst, houses get swept off foundations and carried away. Regardless, I love the little town, even more than I love the town where I grew up. So when I read earlier this week that northeast coast towns like Brant Rock are more vulnerable to the effects of global warming than most other parts of the country, it hit me in a part of my heart where I keep special teen and childhood memories.

On Monday, the Washington Post published an article that was headlined East Coast May Feel Rise in Sea Levels the Most.

Sea levels could rise faster along the U.S. East Coast than in any other densely populated part of the world, new research shows, as changes in ice caps and ocean currents push water toward a shoreline inlaid with cities, resort boardwalks and gem-rare habitats.

- David A. Fahrenthold Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, June 8, 2009

While the story had some very personal resonance for me - no one likes to think of their childhood haunts disappearing underwater - it's not really the big news that I took away with me. The big news is this:

While global warming skeptices wave temperature charts to deny global warming and try to stall any efforts to curb carbon emissions and greenhouse gasses, they're ignoring one very measurable and real effect of climate change - the rise in sea levels. We know that global warming is causing the polar ice caps to melt - and a couple of reports in the last few months point to the fact that those ice caps are melting faster than we thought - but few people are talking about one of the more subtle effects of that melting - to wit, cooler ocean waters diluted by fresh water melt from the ice caps, and the way that changes the tides and the traditional ocean currents.

Generally, sea level has been rising at the rate of about .07 inches per year over the last century - that's 7 inches since about 1900. According to a study released last month, while most of the world may see sea levels rise about 23 inches by 2100, the northeast coast - my beloved northeast coast - could actually be hit by a sea level rise of 40 to 48 inches by that time. That, says geologists from various states, probably won't destroy any major cities. It could, however, wipe out little seaside towns like Brant Rock from Maine all the way down to North Carolina. Also in danger are barrier islands, marshes and wetlands, including some that harbor rare animals and plant life that are a part of our biodiverse world.

It all makes me feel a little bit helpless, and that's not an emotion I'm used to feeling. My hero has always been the little boy throwing starfish back into the sea - because "that one will live". I believe in planting gardens in the face of neighborhood violence and turning off lights when you leave a room to help save the planet. I believe that every piece of trash I pick up off the road is one less piece of trash littering the landscape and if we all picked up one piece of trash, the world would be a far cleaner place. This story, though, makes me feel like I'm trying to empty the ocean with a teacup. All by myself.

Part of the reason I feel that way is that a Google search for Global Warming brings up some very disheartening results. The first three news results for that phrase are to three "news" stories about global warming skepticism. And the third regular search result for global warming is to globalwarming.org - a site that bashes the notion that global warming exists, and refers to those of us who support efforts to slow it as "climate alarmists". It's also chock full of references to how expensive it will be to change our energy needs, and how the push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2050 is at odds with reports that we'll need 70% more energy by that same year. It's discouraging that students looking for information about global warming and climate change will find screeds by big business shills and vituperous attacks on "alarmists" instead of the research that is accepted as real around the world.

And then I run into something like this op-ed piec by U.S. Rep Michael Honda and I remember that I'm not the only one with a teacup. Honda writes in part

But to go green with your wallet without pushing policymakers to protect the planet leaves elected officials with either too much wiggle room (if they are against climate change action) or too little support from their base (if they are for climate change action). The time to pick up the phone is now. Global warming will not wait for a sufficient number of phone calls, e-mails, letters, or visits to your elected officials — so neither can we.

I couldn't have said it better myself - so I won't. I will, however, make it really easy for you to contact your representative about global warming. Just go to this page to contact your U.S. rep - you don't even have to know who it is as long as you know your zip code.