Of all the potential consequences of climate change, sea level rise is one of the most predictable–and potentially catastrophic. As global temperatures rise, glaciers are melting at an accelerating rate, increasing the volume of water in the world’s oceans. The two largest ice sheets in the world, Antarctica and Greenland, have lost a combined average of over 200 billion metric tons of ice per year since the 1970s, according to the European Union’s Earth Observation Programme, Copernicus
Glacial melt has already contributed to a measurable rise in global sea levels, including along U.S. coastlines–particularly the Atlantic Coast. According to the U.S. Interagency Task Force on Sea Level Change, ocean levels have climbed by more than 8 inches along the Eastern Seaboard since the 1970s. This trend will likely only accelerate in the coming decades.
Over the next 30 years, government researchers predict the Atlantic Ocean will rise by between 10 and 14 inches along the East Coast of the United States, exposing tens of thousands of Americans and households to high-tide flooding. A recent study published in the scientific journal Nature, examined the threat sea-level rise poses to 11 U.S. cities on the Atlantic Coast, and found that an additional 336 square miles of land area will be exposed to coastal flooding in these places by 2050…