Rising Sea Levels Are Hurting Home Values in These 40 Cities
Yahoo Finance
As sea levels rise and hurricanes get more and more costly, the effects of climate changeare disproportionately felt in some areas of the country. GOBankingRates studied the costs associated with erosion, analyzing 300 cities from Zillow’s research report on rising sea levels and then looking at the number and values of properties that have been and are expected to be impacted by climate change, as well as the total cost of that impact.
The study analyzes the loss in home values since 2005 and estimates the number of homes likely to be underwater, due to erosion and rising tides by 2100 — using this data to identify the U.S. cities most affected by rising sea levels. Climate change is a national issue, but every state and city needs to understand how much climate change will cost them in the coming years.
San Francisco Bay: New plan to combat sea level rise
Airports, roads, office buildings, sewage treatment plants at risk
The Mercury News
There’s only one San Francisco Bay.
But the Bay Area is made up of nine counties and 101 cities, each with its own politics, local rules and shorelines, differences that can make it complicated to figure out how to protect billions of dollars of highways, airports, sewage treatment plants, homes and offices from the rising seas, surging tides and extreme storms climate change is expected to bring in the years ahead.
A new report released this month aims to make that gargantuan challenge a little easier.
The “San Francisco Shoreline Adaptation Atlas” divides San Francisco Bay’s 400 miles of shoreline into 30 zones, and recommends a range of options — from building more tidal wetlands to constructing concrete sea walls — for each zone, based on local conditions.
Florida’s new chief science officer started off as a surfer dude
Tampa Bay Times
Florida’s new chief science officer didn’t start out as a scientist. Instead he was a surfer dude.
Thomas Frazer, named to the post created by Gov. Ron DeSantis last month, was born and raised in the quintessential surf city of San Diego. When he was 8, he bought his first board — a Lightning Bolt — and spent as much time riding the waves as he could.
That’s what led him to become an expert on water pollution.
“It seemed like I was on the water every day,” he told an interviewer in 2016. “When you are a surfer, you learn about water quality at an early age. You know that when you get an earache after surfing, that it is probably because of runoff.”
Frazer, 54, is the director of the University of Florida’s School of Natural Resources and Environment and has a Ph.D. in biological science from the University of California. He will continue to hold that $176,775-a-year position while also occupying the $148,000-a-year science officer post. Experts say it appears to be the first such state-level position in the nation.
Despite repeated requests from the Tampa Bay Times, state Department of Environmental Protection officials declined to make Frazer available for an in-depth interview.
Some good news for far-future sea level rise
New model finds processes that could help slow loss at some glaciers.
Ars Technica
Glaciers are moody things with myriad personalities. Some are pretty stubborn, refusing to melt too much as Earth’s climate warms. But others are quite sensitive, with the potential to shrink more than you might expect if you push them too far.
Much of this has to do with the shape of the bedrock beneath. Some glaciers that touch the ocean have bedrock bases that slope downward as you head inland. If the glacier starts retreating downhill, seawater can flow in and float the ice more and more easily, destabilizing it so it retreats faster.
Each marine glacier has a “grounding line”—the point where ice stops resting on solid ground and starts floating, instead, like a canoe shoving off from shore. When you hear about an “ice shelf,” that’s the floating portion of the glacier. The position of the grounding line along the bedrock is where topography plays such a big role. But a new study from a team led by NASA’s Eric Larour shows how the bedrock can move, too, making these sensitive glaciers a little less sensitive.
“The Invading Sea” is a collaboration of four South Florida media organizations — the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Miami Herald, Palm Beach Post and WLRN Public Media.
