As sea levels rise, little of the United States will be unaffected
The United States is rich enough, industrialized enough, and far enough from the tropics that the rising temperatures of our changing climate aren't going to make any place uninhabitable. But a side effect of those rising temperatures-rising oceans-most certainly will. Already, an ever-growing list of places is facing what's called "nuisance flooding," in which even a high tide can leave streets underwater. Major storms just make matters worse. And, by the end of this century, the expected rise of the oceans may be over five times what we saw last century.
As a result of this, many areas of the country will simply become uninhabitable, lost to the sea. Well over a third of the United States' population lives in counties that are currently on the coast, and over 10 million currently live on land that will be lost to a sea-level rise of 1.8 meters. They'll have to go somewhere-and people who might otherwise move to the coast will have to find some place else to relocate. All of which will change the dynamics of the typical relocation of people within the US.
A new study released in PLOS ONE tries to estimate what that will mean for the rest of the country. Their results suggest that coastal regions will be far from the only ones affected by sea-level rise. A huge number of counties far from the coast-some deep in the US interior-will see dramatic changes in the number of people relocating there.
Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments