The Drowning South: Where Seas Are Rising at Alarming Speed

[mahatmakanejeeves]

THE DROWNING SOUTH
WHERE SEAS ARE RISING AT ALARMING SPEED

By Chris Mooney, Brady Dennis, Kevin Crowe and John Muyskens
April 29, 2024 at 6:00 a.m.

Share
https://wapo.st/4aZm46l

One of the most rapid sea level surges on Earth is besieging the American South, forcing a reckoning for coastal communities across eight U.S. states, a Washington Post analysis has found. ... At more than a dozen tide gauges spanning from Texas to North Carolina, sea levels are at least 6 inches higher than they were in 2010 — a change similar to what occurred over the previous five decades.

Scientists are documenting a barrage of impacts — ones, they say, that will confront an even larger swath of U.S. coastal communities in the coming decades — even as they try to decipher the precise causes of this recent surge. ... The Gulf of Mexico has experienced twice the global average rate of sea level rise since 2010, a Post analysis of satellite data shows. Few other places on the planet have seen similar rates of increase, such as the North Sea near the United Kingdom.

“Since 2010, it’s very abnormal and unprecedented,” said Jianjun Yin, a climate scientist at the University of Arizona who has studied the changes. While it is possible the swift rate of sea level rise could eventually taper, the higher water that has already arrived in recent years is here to stay. ... “It’s irreversible,” he said.

{snip}

Share
https://wapo.st/4aZm46l

Chris Mooney
Chris Mooney is a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter covering climate change, energy, and the environment. He has reported from the 2015 Paris climate negotiations, the Northwest Passage, and the Greenland ice sheet, among other locations, and has written four books about science, politics and climate change. @chriscmooney

Brady Dennis
Brady Dennis is a Pulitzer Prize-winning national reporter for The Washington Post, focusing on environmental and climate stories, primarily around the Southeast. He previously has covered the Environmental Protection Agency, international climate policy, the Food and Drug Administration and the nation’s economy. @brady_dennis

Kevin Crowe
Kevin Crowe is a Climate data reporter at The Washington Post. Before joining The Post, he was an investigative data reporter at USA Today, where he worked on stories about climate and housing. He earlier worked for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, inewsource in San Diego and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He works in Wisconsin and Puerto Rico. @kcrowebasspro

John Muyskens
John Muyskens is a graphics reporter who focuses on climate change and environmental justice. @JohnMuyskens