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Sophia4

(3,515 posts)
Wed May 16, 2018, 12:18 AM May 2018

Rising sea levels will submerge historical sites in the US, scientists say.

Their conclusion says thousands of sites could be submerged within the century. These include the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in North Carolina, and Jamestown, Virginia, the country's oldest permanent English settlement.

Charleston, South Carolina, and St. Augustine, Florida, two of the country's continuously occupied European settlements, were estimated to become high-risk areas as well.

What's startling is that even a measly sea level rise of around three to 10 feet would be enough to threaten the above-mentioned historical sites. It would be more catastrophic if the rise climbs higher, say, around 16.4 feet. In that scenario, 32,000 sites could be affected, many of which are included in the National Register of Historic Places.

. . . .

Sea levels rising hold far more pressing implications than merely damage to the areas. Not only will history and heritage be destroyed, residents of said places will inevitably be displaced in the process.

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/216470/20171202/rising-sea-levels-will-submerge-thousand-of-us-historical-sites.htm

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mn9driver

(4,412 posts)
3. A meter rise over the next century is pretty much baked in.
Wed May 16, 2018, 12:54 AM
May 2018

Based on the current rise in CO2, in 500 years all this land will be under water.

PoindexterOglethorpe

(25,750 posts)
5. Some enormous percentage of everything,
Wed May 16, 2018, 01:20 AM
May 2018

people, historical sites, cities, and so on, are more or less at current sea level. As I understand it, already low-lying places like Miami are experiencing nearly constant flooding.

As wonderful as living by the ocean would be, I'm astonished that anyone has been willing to move there in the last few years.

DFW

(54,056 posts)
6. This is one reason we have never contemplated buying a house on Cape Cod
Wed May 16, 2018, 01:29 AM
May 2018

We love the place and the people, and go through the hassle of coming all the way from Düsseldorf every year (since 1984!). We are just too unwilling to buy a place that could collapse into the sea. We just rent. As it is, the area where we stay has seen beach erosion every year, and one landmark, the Truro Lighthouse, has had to be moved inland to save it.

Much as we love Charleston, we fear for that city, too. We spend every New Year there, but every January 1, when we take a walk along the shore, we notice how little it would take to flood the city. A three foot rise in the ocean level would be a disaster, and a six foot rise would put most of it under water.

0rganism

(23,856 posts)
8. "Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Wed May 16, 2018, 01:53 AM
May 2018

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
P.B. Shelley, Ozymandias
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46565/ozymandias

Doodley

(8,976 posts)
9. The loss of "historical sites" will be the least of the problem. This is like saying a house
Wed May 16, 2018, 02:26 AM
May 2018

that burnt down killing all inside lost the family photos.

 

mr_lebowski

(33,643 posts)
12. It's all just 'natural', you see. TOTAL COINCIDENCE that this 'natural' occurrence just HAPPENS ...
Wed May 16, 2018, 03:41 AM
May 2018

to randomly correspond to the exact timeframe when humans were spewing millions upon millions of tons of previously sequestered Carbon (i.e. safely locked deep underground) ... into the atmosphere.

Imagine that?

I mean, it's sure STRANGE, how this particular coincidence happened...

Ya know, it's really too bad that The Scientists have absolutely zero way of discerning 'natural effects' from 'human induced effects', otherwise maybe we could've known for sure which phenomenon was really in play, but alas ... that capability totally eludes The Scientists.

They say that all time, you know, 'golly, too bad we can't know anything concrete about this particular detail ... but it's just TOO COMPLEX to ever really know ANYTHING for sure about it'.

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