Just a year after Sandy, and scientists are giving us some
pretty glum predictions about future flooding possibilities for the middle of
this century.
Rutgers and Tufts scientists have just published a study
(link here) suggesting that sea level could rise by 1.5 to 2.3 feet at the
shore by 2050. In addition to
climate change (including changes in the Gulf Stream), other factors at work
include such esoteric forces as sediment compaction and adjustments following
the last ice age! You would have
thought climate change was scary enough!
Fortunately, planners in New Jersey and elsewhere in the
middle Atlantic area are taking the issue very seriously. Still, I don’t think anyone has really
mentally processed the enormity of large portions of the densely populated East
Coast potentially disappearing into the surf.
At a minimum, it seems to me, transportation planners need
to seriously focus on building “allweather” transportation systems to provide
travel during emergencies. A
hundred years ago, that meant paved roads. Now it needs to be much more.
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