Well, obviously the situation in Ukraine is, quite rightly, the main news story right now. War is always terrible for everyone and everything, including the environment. It will take a while not only to understand what’s happening but also to consider the implications, including for an economic and political order long structured around the fossil fuel industry. I’ll watch for pertinent news stories in the next two weeks and report back.
Meanwhile, not to pile on the bad news, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released a technical report that confirms the seriousness of current and future ocean rise.
Bottom line: We can expect 10-12 inches of ocean rise by 2050. That’s baked in: no changing that. We’ll also see between 3.5 and 7 feet by 2100, depending on the climate actions we take now (or don’t).
Here’s a
link to the full report, but the article by Bob Berwyn from Inside Climate News linked below is a helpful summary of what ocean rise at these levels will mean around the world.
Berwyn quotes researcher Dr. Andrea Dutton: “'The coastline is going to move,‘ Dutton said, adding that some places simply won’t be able to persist.“
That’s the grim outcome here: some places just won’t be inhabitable anymore. Floods, higher tides, infrastructure and ecosystem damage, and what looks more and more like the necessity of "forced retreat”–these are the realities many will be facing.