New Orleans Today, New York Tomorrow
Discouraging trends in storm intensity and sea level rise don't just threaten to destroy America's beaches, salt marshes and barrier islands, but the cities, industries and lives they protect.
-- a conversation with Mike Orbach
(Ann Kellan)
New Orleans sank into chaos and had to be evacuated
by force in the wake of hurricane Katrina. The Federal Disaster Area
on the US gulf coast was close to the size of Great Britain. Nearly
a million people had to abandon their homes. Is what happened there
an exception... or a trend?
(Mike Orbach)
The sea level is clearly rising. Global temperatures are warming. Neither
of those trends are going to stop for literally centuries. The question
is the rate in which it will occur and therein lies the controversy.
(Ann Kellan)
Mike Orbach, Marine Lab Director at Duke University's Nicholas School
of the Environment and Earth Sciences, advises government agencies,
corporations, trade organizations and community groups on how to prepare
for these ominous trends. North Carolina, for example, loses about 1200
acres of land every year to bad storms combined with the rising sea
level.
(Mike Orbach)
Within a generation, a substantial portion of the outer banks could
simply disappear beneath the surface. The same thing that's going to
cause this problem in the Outer Banks is going to cause problems on
almost all coasts in this country.
(Ann Kellan)
As hurricane Katrina has shown, it is easier to ignore the disappearance
of beaches, salt marshes and barrier islands than to ignore the destruction
of the cities, industries and lives they protect. The risk to all low-lying
coastal cities will rise with the sea level.
(Mike Orbach)
Manhattan, New Orleans, Houston... Houston is a very low lying city.
A lot of Southern California - San Diego, Los Angeles is built on fill
in the harbors which is very low land. San Francisco Bay.
(Ann Kellan)
While taxpayers spend billions to shore up eroding coastal development,
new construction is booming like there's no tomorrow. For the latest
on how quickly high tide is rising - and what can be done to prepare
for it - put Earth File dot O-R-G in your web browser. I'm Ann Kellan
and that's another one for the Earth File.
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