[euromodder]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

It has risen about 1 1/2 feet, there, I believe they said?

I'm looking for facts, not beliefs.

From hearing part of the radio talk - I won't be spending 45 minutes on it - it's mostly tidal.
So it could just as well be that the usual amount of water being pushed into Chesapeak Bay at high tide simply has no place to go anymore ?
That's what has been happening anywhere where dikes have been put up and land raised to counter flooding.

We've seen it here after the Dutch went ahead with their famous Scheldt Delta plan.
They closed off a major arm of the river delta, making more of the tidal water pour into the remaining, open arm of the Scheldt river, flooding Belgium at high tide and with NW winds.

The more entrances you close off from the water, the higher the water will get elsewhere.
We're now seeing a reversal of policy, where areas that traditionally got flooded, are once again allowed to flood at high tide, reducing the impact elsewhere.

If a river's ability to transport mud out to sea is hindered, the mud stays behind, reducing total water content in the delta, raising flood tide.
A delta that isn't tampered with by humans, changes constantly, forming and then reclaiming islands as water seeks the easiest way to the sea.

It is about half from each cause (sinking land is about 6-7 inches, and the rest is rising water).

So a mere 10" increase is already overwhelming the dikes around Norfolk ???

There are at least two island nations that are starting to plan to move their people to other land.

They live on the kind of low islands that have always appeared and then vanished (rather: submerged)
How long have these islands been lived on ?

shorelines will move significantly, salt water will infiltrate more groundwater -- this is already happening.

Small wonder : it has always happened.

We could sail from the sea into Bruges in Medieval times, until the water gradually retreated and the sea inlet sanded, some 600 years ago.
Where did the water go then ?And why ?

You can still get to Bruges by boat, but it'll be through canals for the entire trip.
Most people around here don't realize that most of what they see as the shoreline, is artificial. It's been reclaimed from the sea as it retreated.

The shoreline around Chesapeak Bay extends inland for well over 100 miles judging by Google Earth.
It was shaped by the sea, and the sea continues to do so - only those humans got in its way ...

Miami FL cannot get by with building dikes -- the land is porous limestone/corral and the water will come in under them.

AFAIK, the entire Florida coastline was formed that way, and is constantly being reformed, through erosion by the sea.
Nothing new.
Except they built Miami in the meantime without asking for Ma Nature's advice.

Once this gets high enough, the city will probably have to be abandoned. India is already building a wall to try and keep the Bangladeshis out; as their land floods.

Bangladesh / East Pakistan has always flooded.
It's flat and has no natural defense against the seas.
The earliest natural distaster that I personally recall being reported when I was a kid, is actually one of the many floodings in Bangladesh.
Nothing changes, nothing stays the same.


The floodings don't really get worse, their consequences do however as more people go and live in natural flooding areas despite the risks.
And any natural disaster gets far more coverage than even 5 years ago as it fits the GW theme.
Even if it doesn't , it'll be reported as such anyway.
You've surely noticed that any weather phenomenon or natural disaster is nowadays blamed on GW ?
Well, all except Eyjafjallajokull.