Rising Sea Levels Claim California Beaches

Rising sea levels are probably three of the scariest words having to do with global warming, and according to the Los Angeles Times, California is now forced to pay attention to them. New research shows that Malibu's Broad Beach is shrinking at a faster rate than originally thought, and coastal development isn't helping matters either.

The LA Times writes:

Sandwiched between the advancing sea and coastal armor built to protect multimillion-dollar homes, the strip of sand is being swept away by waves and tides. Soon, oceanographers and coastal engineers contend, the rising ocean will eclipse the clash between the beach-going public and the private property owners: There will be no dry sand left to fight over.

"If the latest projections of sea level rise are right, you can kiss goodbye the idea of a white sandy beach," said Bill Patzert, a climatologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge. "You are going to be jumping off the sea wall onto the rocks below."

The rise of sea levels, which have swelled about eight inches in the last century, are projected to accelerate with global warming.

Depending on the slope of the beach, every inch of sea-level rise claims an average of 50 inches of land. Currently scientists among the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change are predicting that sea levels could expect to rise anywhere from two to four feet over the next century, making the prospects of California beaches all the more questionable.

Coastal development is also making it more difficult for the beaches to replenish their natural sand. Rivers and streams that ordinarily deposit sediment to the beaches are being continually dammed and channeled through concrete to send flooding waters safely out to sea.

As far as finding any hope in the situation, scientists are proposing that residential and commercial development retreat landward so waves and tides can naturally gnaw away at the back-beach dunes and hillsides as they have for millenniums, thus creating the beaches of the future.

Trying to tell Malibu home owners they'll have to give up their ocean-front views is a story for another day, however.


Read More Articles at WeEarth.com

Global Warming Adaptation Plans Begin

Global warming is happening, and we better start preparing for it--so says new reports from the World Bank and Oxfam International. According to the World Bank study that was published in the journal Climatic Change, countries like Vietnam, Egypt, and the Bahamas are just some of the countries likely to face the most catastrophic results of rising sea levels.

The Bank says that a one-meter rise in seal level would flood more than 7% of Vietnam's agricultural land, and wreck nearly 30% of its wetlands--causing living and economic chaos. To make matters even more frightening, many climate experts think a one-meter rise by the year 2100 is a conservative estimate, and perhaps several more are to be expected at current levels of greenhouse gas emissions.

The study which also highlights how a one-meter rise could destroy more than a tenth of the Bahamas, as well as 13 percent of Egypt's Agricultural land, is part of a 50-page document published by the Bank last year. It's currently being used to support Oxfam International's request for at least $50 billion a year to be channeled from international carbon trading schemes into adaptation efforts.

The Guardian quoted Heather Coleman, a senior climate change policy adviser with Oxfam:

"Helping vulnerable people cope with the effects of climate change is desperately needed today because they already face increasingly severe and ever-worsening climate change impacts...

"With a global financial crisis unfolding, these mechanisms could raise enough money from polluters without governments having to dip into national treasuries," Coleman says. "Many negotiators agree that this is one of the more practical approaches. Billions of dollars can be raised and invested to prevent future climate change and to help poor people adapt to the negative impacts of global warming."

Oxfam suggests these countries could prepare themselves with upgraded national flood early-warning systems, plant mangrove "bio-shields," along coasts to diffuse storm waves, and grow drought-tolerant crops. The charity argues that there is little evidence that the international community has seriously considered the implications of sea level rise for population location and infrastructure planning in many developing countries. And since many of these countries cannot afford to fully help themselves, it should be a responsibility of rich countries to avoid catastrophic losses of life.


Read More Articles at WeEarth.com


Want to shop with the Earth in mind? Check out our Earth-minded Marketplace!

Global Warming Already Producing Refugees

In Bangladesh, climate change is creating climate refugees as increasing numbers of people are moving inland, away from rising sea levels that are already submerging coastlines. Despite the fact that the country’s major rivers, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, carry enough sediment to create new sand bars and extend the coastline by a rate of about 8 square miles per year, the number of climate change refugees continues to climb.

According to The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says there will be 20 million people internally displaced people within Bangladesh by 2050 as a result of climate change, while James Hansen of the NASA Goddard Institute predicts that the country's entire population of 144 million are at risk of becoming environmental refugees by the end of the century.

However, some don’t believe that climate change is eroding the land because of visible new land. The Dhaka-based Centre for Environment and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS) has studied 32 years of satellite images and says the country's landmass has increased by 20 square kilometers (eight square miles) annually. In the past 30 years, CEGIS says that 1,000 square kilometers of land have risen from the sea.

But according to one of Bangladesh’s leading climate change experts, Atiq Rahman, the number of refugees is still increasing, despite evidence of new land. He says, "Yes, the new land is forming, but because sea levels are rising so fast that millions of people will still be climate refugees.”

Bangladesh diplomats plan to plea for international support to help fight the consequences of climate change.

Read More Articles at WeEarth.com

Elephant Seals Help Global Warming Scientists

By strapping sensors onto elephant seals, scientists are able to see what lies beneath sea ice.

"They have made it possible for us to observe large areas of the ocean under the sea ice in winter for the first time," said co-author Steve Rintoul from Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO).

Sea ice reflects sunlight back into space, so less sea ice means that the earth is absorbing more energy, causing more warming.

Sea ice also affects the amount of dense around the Antarctic, which in turn drives ocean currents that transports heat around the globe, in addition to providing a critical habitat for krill, penguins and seals.

The seals have already increased the available information by 30-fold, allowing scientists to more accurately calculate how rapidly sea ice forms during the winter months than by topical devices like monitoring from ships, satellites and drifting buoys alone.

"If we want to understand what's going to happen to climate in the future we need to know what the sea ice is going to do. Will there be more or less and will it form more or less rapidly?" Rintoul told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

Both Polar Regions play an important role in controlling the earth’s climate, which is why it is critical to find out why the Southern Ocean is warming faster than the rest of the world’s oceans.

Read More Articles At WeEarth.com