Δ KNOWLEDGEBASE
« Responding to Climate Change
Excerpt from In Search of Environmental Excellence:
Moving Beyond Blame
by Bruce Piasecki and Peter Asmus
CHAPTER 3
A Global Greenhouse: Framing the Debate
Page 4 of 14
« 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 »
Global warming's worsening of air quality would be dramatic. Ozone levels in the San Francisco Bay would triple those of today, which are already in excess of EPA standards.
In Greater Miami, climate change could require at least a half-billion-dollar investment for retrofits and dikes to protect the area's freshwater drinking supplies, roads, airports, and waste-treatment systems from the potential sea rise. The nearby Everglades National Park would be severely threatened, also.
Global warming would aggravate existing beach erosion in Florida and throughout the East Coast. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers already considers two thousand miles of beach to be in critical condition, at a time when half of the ten thousand miles of shoreline in the lower forty-eight states is under some sort of proposed development. These shoreline investments may suffer serious declines in value if global warming strips away our beaches.4
In the Tennessee Valley and lands located within the river basins of the Chattahoochee and Apalachicola rivers, the EPA predicts that between ten and fifty percent of agricultural acreage could become unusable. In many cases, such declines will create economic dislocation in already depressed areas. In the Southeast, for instance, which presently supplies roughly half of America s softwood and hardwood, significant dieback in timber could occur as early as 2020, wrecking local economies.
Studies also note a likely increase in U.S. human mortality. The cities most affected would be New York City, Chicago, and Philadelphia. The EPA global-warming report states: "In the absence of any acclimatization, total summertime mortality in the United States under conditions of doubled carbon dioxide is estimated to rise from an estimated current 1,156 deaths to 7,402 deaths, with deaths in the elderly (aged 65 or over) subset contributing about 70 percent of each figure (727 and 4,605 respectively). Currently, the percentage of elderly in the U.S. is increasing. Thus, the number of mortalities estimated to result from climate change may be larger."5
COST OF PLACING SAND ON U.S. RECREATIONAL BEACHES
AND COASTAL BARRIER ISLANDS AND SPITS
(in millions of dollars)
| Sea Level Rise by 2100 | ||||
| State | Baseline | 50 cm | 100 cm | 200 cm |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maine | 22.8 | 119.4 | 216.8 | 412.2 |
| New Hampshire | 8.1 | 38.9 | 73.4 | 142.0 |
| Massachusetts | 168.4 | 489.5 | 841.6 | 1545.8 |
| Rhode Island | 16.3 | 92.0 | 160.6 | 298.2 |
| Connecticut | 101.7 | 516.4 | 944.1 | 1799.5 |
| New York | 143.6 | 769.6 | 1373.6 | 2581.4 |
| New Jersey | 157.6 | 902.1 | 1733.3 | 3492.5 |
| Delaware | 4.8 | 33.6 | 71.1 | 161.8 |
| Maryland | 5.7 | 34.5 | 83.3 | 212.8 |
| Virginia | 30.4 | 200.8 | 386.5 | 798.0 |
| North Carolina | 137.4 | 655.7 | 1271.2 | 3240.4 |
| South Carolina | 183.5 | 1157.9 | 2147.7 | 4347.7 |
| Georgia | 25.9 | 153.6 | 262.6 | 640.3 |
|
Florida (Atlantic coast) |
120.1 | 786.6 | 1791.0 | 7745.5 |
|
Florida (Gulf coast) |
149.4 | 904.3 | 1688.4 | 4091.6 |
| Alabama | 11.0 | 59.0 | 105.3 | 259.6 |
| Mississippi | 13.4 | 71.9 | 128.3 | 369.5 |
| Louisiana | 1955.8 | 2623.1 | 3492.7 | 5231.7 |
| Texas | 349.6 | 4188.3 | 8489.7 | 17608.3 |
| California | 35.7 | 174.1 | 324.3 | 625.7 |
| Oregon | 21.9 | 60.5 | 152.5 | 336.3 |
| Washington | 51.6 | 143.0 | 360.1 | 794.4 |
| Hawaii | 73.5 | 337.6 | 646.9 | 1267.5 |
| Nation | 3788.0 | 14512.0 | 26745.0 | 58002.0 |
Source: Leatherman for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Next Page »
Footnotes
-
These round figures come from research performed by Skidaway Institute of Oceanography for a position paper entitled Saving the American Beach, presented by the Concerned Coastal Geologists at Savannah, Georgia, in 1981. These figures, therefore, understate the extent of the damage. Orrin H. Pilkey, Jr., of Duke University, along with William J. Neal of Grand Valley State College, have edited a series of reports sponsored by the National Audubon Society, entitled Living with the Shore. This series goes into great detail on the numerous restoration projects now underway on all American coastlines. [« back]
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, The Potential Effects of Global Climate Change on the United States, draft report (vol. 2), Oct. 1988, pp. 12-14. [« back]
