Saving Seafood

‘The future in our hands’: Scientists call for urgent action to curb sea level rise in Hawaii

February 17, 2022 –America’s coasts will be dealing with about a foot of sea level rise on average by the year 2050, a new federal study shows.

The biggest impacts are forecast for the East Coast, where sea level rise estimates are between 14 and 18 inches. Hawaii, meanwhile, is projected to see between 6 and 8 inches in three decades.

NOAA, which is one of seven agencies responsible for the report, says that much sea level rise will cause tide and storm surge heights to increase and reach further inland.

By the year 2050, “moderate” flooding ― the kind that causes damage ― is expected to occur on average more than 10 times as often as it does today.

“The impacts will will depend upon what we do to mitigate against those,” said William Sweet, a NOAA oceanographer. “With less heating under less emissions, the risk of higher sea level rise of mountains is much less. The future is in our hands, and that future does not need to be one of doom and gloom.”

Read the full story at Hawaii News Now

 

U.S. coastline to see up to a foot of sea level rise by 2050

February 15, 2022 — The following was released by NOAA:

The United States is expected to experience as much sea level rise by the year 2050 as it witnessed in the previous hundred years. That’s according to a NOAA-led report updating sea level rise decision-support information for the U.S. released today in partnership with half a dozen other federal agencies.

The Sea Level Rise Technical Report provides the most up-to-date sea level rise projections for all U.S. states and territories by decade for the next 100 years and beyond, based on a combination of tide gauge and satellite observations and all the model ensembles from 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 report updates the federal government’s 2017 sea level rise projections, and provides additional information on tide, wind, and storm-driven extreme water levels affecting current and future coastal flood risk. A suite of federal tools are using this data, including the NOAA Sea Level Rise Viewer, which are critical to the Administration’s commitment to tackle the climate crisis by making actionable climate data accessible to those who need it.

“For businesses along the coast, knowing what to expect and how to plan for the future is critical,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo. “These updated projections will help businesses, and the communities they support, understand risks and make smart investments in the years ahead.”

“This new data on sea rise is the latest reconfirmation that our climate crisis – as the President has said – is blinking ‘code red,’” said Gina McCarthy, National Climate Advisor. “We must redouble our efforts to cut the greenhouse gases that cause climate change while, at the same time, help our coastal communities become more resilient in the face of rising seas.”

“This is a global wake-up call and gives Americans the information needed to act now to best position ourselves for the future,” said Rick Spinrad, Ph.D., NOAA Administrator. “As we build a Climate Ready Nation, these updated data can inform coastal communities and others about current and future vulnerabilities in the face of climate change and help them make smart decisions to keep people and property safe over the long run.”
 
The report also finds that the sea level rise expected by 2050 will create a profound increase in the frequency of coastal flooding, even in the absence of storms or heavy rainfall. 

“By 2050, moderate flooding–which is typically disruptive and damaging by today’s weather, sea level and infrastructure standards–is expected to occur more than 10 times as often as it does today,” said Nicole LeBoeuf, NOAA’s National Ocean Service Director. “These numbers mean a change from a single event every 2-5 years to multiple events each year, in some places.” 

“This report supports previous studies and confirms what we have long known: Sea levels are continuing to rise at an alarming rate, endangering communities around the world. Science is indisputable and urgent action is required to mitigate a climate crisis that is well underway,” said Bill Nelson, NASA Administrator. “NASA is steadfast in our commitment to protecting our home planet by expanding our monitoring capabilities and continuing to ensure our climate data is not only accessible but understandable.”

This multi-agency effort is a product of the Interagency Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flood Hazard and Tool Task Force, composed of NOAA, NASA, EPA, USGS, DoD, FEMA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as well as several academic institutes. The report leverages methods and insights from both the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 6th Assessment Report and supporting research for the U.S. DoD Defense Regional Sea Level database.

Read the Sea Level Rise Technical Report.

NOAA, partners to issue long-term sea level projections

February 11, 2022 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

On February 15, NOAA’s National Ocean Service and interagency partners will release a report updating long-term sea level projections for the United States.

The Sea Level Rise Technical Report delivers projections by decade for the next 100 years and beyond. The report updates the federal government’s 2017 sea level rise projections, with additional information on tide, wind, and storm-driven extreme water levels to support decision-making for a Climate Ready Nation.

The report is a product of the Interagency Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flood Hazard and Tool Task Force, composed of NOAA, NASA, EPA, USGS, DoD, FEMA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as well as several academic institutes.

When

Tuesday, February 15, at 1:00p.m. Eastern

What

Virtual media briefing on the interagency Sea Level Rise report

Who

Rick Spinrad, Ph.D., NOAA Administrator

Bill Nelson, NASA Administrator

Nicole LeBoeuf, Director, NOAA National Ocean Service

William Sweet, Ph.D., Oceanographer, NOAA’s National Ocean Service

Ben Hamlington, Ph.D., Sea Level Change Team Lead, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

How

GoToWebinar: The briefing will be followed by a Q&A session. An accompanying news release will be issued at the start of the webinar. 

NOTE: For credentialed reporters only. 

Interested reporters must register here: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/579382575564147468

To participate in the Q&A portion of the media briefing, please be sure to register using your full name and media affiliation. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. Please do not share your invite link with anyone, it is unique to you.

 

Why the U.S. East Coast could be a major ‘hotspot’ for rising seas

February 1, 2016 — New research published Monday adds to a body of evidence suggesting that a warming climate may have particularly marked effects for some citizens of the country most responsible for global warming in the first place — namely, U.S. East Coasters.

Writing in Nature Geoscience, John Krasting and three colleagues from the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration find that “Atlantic coastal areas may be particularly vulnerable to near-future sea-level rise from present-day high greenhouse gas emission rates.” The research adds to recent studies that have found strong warming of ocean waters in the U.S. Gulf of Maine, a phenomenon that is not only upending fisheries but could be worsening the risk of extreme weather in storms like Winter Storm Jonas.

“When carbon emission rates are at present day levels and higher, we see greater basin average sea level rise in the Atlantic relative to the Pacific,” says Krasting. “This also means that single global average measures of sea level rise become less representative of the regional scale changes that we show in the study.”

In the new research, the scientists used a high powered climate change model based at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, N.J., that simulates the ocean, the atmosphere and the cycling of carbon throughout the Earth system. The goal was to determine how much sea level rise would occur in the Atlantic, versus the Pacific, under a variety of global carbon emissions scenarios.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

 

Scientists worry that the Chesapeake’s natural shoreline is turning into a wall

December 26, 2015 — On the banks of the Potomac River, construction cranes that look like metal dinosaurs tower over Southwest Washington. They swivel in all directions, delivering concrete and other heavy material to workers building a large development behind a steel-and-concrete wall that holds back the water.

Within two years, the Wharf will begin emerging as a playground of trendy apartments, shops and entertainment venues. But below the river’s surface, animals that depend on vegetation in the water may continue to struggle, marine scientists say.

The Wharf is part of the great wall of the Chesapeake Bay. Because of development along the bay and its rivers, vast swaths of soft shorelines have been turned into stone. The spread of what scientists call “the armored shore” is depriving young fish, crabs and other organisms of food and shelter. And it is yet another reason why life in the bay is disappearing, according to new research funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Houses, offices, bike paths, marinas — and walls built to protect them from erosion and rising sea levels — are replacing marshy shores, uprooting plants that young fish, crabs and other organisms use for food.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

 

Maine business owners explore challenges, opportunities of climate change

October 30, 2015 — SOUTH PORTLAND — Several Maine business owners said Friday that adapting to climate change doesn’t have to be costly and, in many cases, can help a company’s finances as well as the environment.

Climate change presents considerable challenges but also potential opportunities to Maine businesses and communities, many of which are witnessing the impacts of a changing ocean environment before their counterparts elsewhere around the country. That was a key theme of a forum co-sponsored Friday by the South Portland Chamber of Commerce and the Natural Resources Council of Maine.

“Ultimately, this has to make economic sense,” U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said via Skype because early-morning budget votes in Washington prevented his return to Maine. “We can’t depend on everybody simply being good guys or nice men and women. It has to work in terms of a return on investment.”

Laying out the challenges facing Maine due to a changing climate, King and Gulf of Maine Research Institute President and CEO Don Perkins discussed how lobster and other fish species are already changing their habits as the Gulf of Maine warms. A recent six-part Portland Press Herald series explored the ecological and economic implications of the fact that the Gulf of Maine has warmed faster than almost every part of the oceans around the globe during the past decade.

“It’s real and it has very sobering implications for our fishing industry, obviously,” said Perkins, whose staff at GMRI recently co-authored a scientific study showing cod populations were not recovering because of warming Gulf of Maine waters. “Once you get over agonizing about that – and it is cause for agony – the fact is that we’re dealing with that problem a decade or a few decades earlier than many other ocean regions. And as a result, there is a huge opportunity in this state to figure out how to understand a changing system.”

Read the full story at Portland Press Herald

 

Climate Change a Pervasive Reality on Cape Cod

October 27, 2015 — What if climate change isn’t something that is going to happen in the distant future, somewhere far away? What if it’s happening right here, right now? That’s the question the Cape Cod Times is asking – and answering – all week in a special series on the local impacts of climate change, from shrinking beaches and disappearing lobsters to more aggressive storms.

Cape Cod Times reporter Doug Fraser has been covering Cape Cod since 1993, and photographer Steve Heaslip has been on the beat for thirty four years. Both say they’ve witnessed climate change with their own eyes, and relish every opportunity to shine a spotlight on the issue.

But the picture isn’t a pretty one. Consider:

  • Air temperatures have been rising rapidly. Changes in winter temperatures have been particularly dramatic, increasing an average of 1.3 degrees F per decade between 1970 and 2000. Summer temperatures have risen just half a degree per decade during that same time. Still, if greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase, Massachusetts could see between 3 and 28 days over 100 degrees F by the year 2100; we currently see fewer than two such days.

Read the full story at WCAI