Friday, November 11, 2011

Sea level rising in Delaware

Jim Hilgen in WDEL (Delaware): Delaware's Sea Level Rise Advisory Committee is educating residents on the possible impacts of increasing sea levels. The advisory committee is working on a report on the potential impact of rising sea levels in the state, and will be making recommendations to offset those effects based on various sea level rise scenarios.

The latest data shows the sea level in Delaware is rising about 3.5 millimeters a year. DNREC's Susan Love says those numbers mean trouble for the state. "That's twice the global rate of 1.7 mm per year. That's because in Delaware, in addition to the seas rising up, Delaware is actually sinking, or subsiding, due to geologic forces."

Love says things may get even worse. "Scientists believe that it is very likely that the sea level rise is going to accelerate, in part due to global climate change and atmospheric carbon."

This information, and much more is on display as DNREC and members of the sea level rise committee hold informational forums around the state through the end of November. Love says the committee wants public input as it gets ready to propose its recommendations for planning around sea level rise....

Bethany Beach in Delaware, photo by Conn, Kit, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License

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