Transcript:
As the climate warms and glaciers and ice sheets melt, sea levels are rising, and many coastal communities are flooding.
Mitchell: “That flooding is going to get worse in the future. How fast it’s going to get worse depends a lot on where you are.”
Molly Mitchell of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science explains that seas rise at different rates along the coast because of variations in factors like ocean currents, temperature, and whether land locally is rising or sinking.
In San Francisco, for example, the sea is rising about two millimeters per year. But in Rockport, Texas, it’s rising about three times more quickly.
To help communities know if their plans to address sea level rise will keep pace with the rate of change in their area, Mitchell’s team created sea level report cards for more than 30 U.S. communities.
The reports use data from tide gauges to track how much sea levels have already risen in each area – and how fast they might rise in the next few decades.
Mitchell: “I think the important thing to me is that people just keep in mind that the coastline is changing, so that we develop our towns and our cities, and we build our roads and everything with the idea that the coastline in 30 years will be different from what it is now.”
Reporting credit: Ethan Freedman / ChavoBart Digital Media
