Up to 13 million Americans along the coast are at risk of floods from rising seas due to climate change, says a new study out Monday. Based on population forecasts for the year 2100, a six-foot sea level rise would expose more than 13 million people to flooding and other hazards from rising seas. Florida faces the most risk, where up to 6 million residents could be affected. One million people each in California and Louisiana also could be impacted. "Projections are up to three times larger than current estimates, which significantly underestimate the effect of sea-level rise in the United States,” said study co-author Mathew E. Hauer of the University of Georgia. “In fact, there are 31 counties where more than 100,000 residents could be affected by 6 feet of sea-level rise,” he said. The study was published in the peer-reviewed British journal Nature Climate Change. Millions of people may need to relocate, with the expected migration similar to that of the 20th-century Great Migration of southern African-Americans to the North, the study said. Relocating the people would come with a price tag of $14 trillion, study authors found. If the seas rose by three feet, roughly 4.2 million Americans would have to move. Scientists say man-made climate change will be the primary cause of future sea-level rise. As the Earth's temperature warms, so do the seas. Heat-trapping greenhouse gases cause more land ice (such as glaciers and ice sheets) to melt and water to expand. Warmer water simply takes up more room than cooler water. Copyright 2016 KPNX
Following our note last month revealing that the world is unprepared for rapidly rising sea levels, a new study in the Nature Climate Change shows that rising sea levels are predicted to expose three Americans to flooding and other dangers, by 2100, 13 million times higher than existing estimates. Though numerous studies have reported the impacts of rising sea levels on current populations, very few have taken growth in population size into account when assessing the future effects. The researchers in this report state; "these results suggest that the absence of protective measures could lead to US population movements of a magnitude similar to the 20th century Great Migration of southern African-Americans."