Delaware DOT and the University of Delaware, 2017 Draft Objectives What are the worst case effects of hurricanes, riverine flooding, high tides, and sea level rise inundation on DelDOT’s assets? The University of Delaware Water Resources Center (UDWRC) and Center for Applied Demography and Survey Research (CADSR) utilized climatic, hydrologic, hydraulic, and geographic information systems (GIS) data to document and …
The ‘Forever Legacy’ of decisions we are making (and not making now) to decarbonize
Excerpt from Yale360 by Daniel Kammen and Rob Wilder What badly needs to be brought home to the public is the massive inertia in the climate system, which means changes in temperature and sea level will go on and on long past the year 2100. For example, about 20,000 years ago, rising temperatures due to cyclical, non-human-caused swings in the climate were bringing …
Storms bringing extra rain with climate change and breakdown of polar vortex can lead to temperature lows
This year’s intense Atlantic storm season had another element tying its biggest events together: a monstrous, and sometimes deadly, amount of rain. Images of the flooded metropolises of Houston, Jacksonville, and San Juan with overtopped dams, billowing sewage, and flooded homes show that torrential rain can be one of the most devastating consequences of hurricanes, especially in urban areas where concrete makes …
“How are we going to pay for this?” agencies ask re: climate change costs?
Whether it is 4½ feet of sea level rise by 2100 that would leave more than 75,000 people in San Francisco and Alameda County vulnerable to inundation, and threaten $100 billion worth of existing property along the California coast… Or 137 large wildfires raging across 7.8 million acres in what might be the worst fire season ever Agencies are asking, …
Where the (highest king) tide of the year reaches on November 5th is where you can expect the water to be just about every day at mid-century
On the morning of November 5th, the highest astronomical tide of the year — the so-called King Tide — will swamp low-lying areas throughout Hampton Roads, with water peaking at 2 feet above mean sea level. By 2050, that is likely to be the new normal. “King tides are increasingly viewed as harbingers of things to come as sea levels …
Toxic Emissions From 46 Petrochemical Sites, Flooding At 14 Toxic Waste Sites, & ~100 Hazardous Substance Spills — Hurricane Harvey’s Talley To Date
September 11th, 2017 by James Ayre on Clean Technica Now that a bit of time has elapsed since Hurricane Harvey tore a path of destruction along the coast of Texas, things have begun to get clearer as regards the fate of Houston’s many petrochemical facilities. The tally on that count, as it stands right now, is: flooding and/or damage reported at 14 toxic …
Disasters are, and now is a good time to talk about climate change. Public health risks are rising
By Jason Samenow, Washington Post, August 29 at 4:07 PM The rain from Harvey is in a class of its own. The storm has unloaded over 50 inches of rain east of Houston, the greatest amount ever recorded in the Lower 48 states from a single storm. And it’s still raining. John Nielsen-Gammon, Texas state climatologist, said a rain gauge in Mont Belvieu, about …
New research finds that most previous estimates for sea level rise were too conservative, while visualizations show what U.S. cities may look like by 2100
On Common Dreams, by Nika Knight, April 2017 President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort would be completely drowned in the most extreme scenario for sea level rise. (Image: Climate Central) A new report shows that many previous estimates of global sea level rise by 2100 were far too conservative, the Washington Post reported Thursday, and the research comes as new maps and …
Pence took part in crafting post-Katrina “Shock Doctrine” reducing rights and privatizing services
By Naomi Klein in The Intercept, 24 Jan 2017 Here’s a lot of recovery and adaptation work:”After all the layers of subcontractors had taken their cut, there was next to nothing left for the people doing the work. For instance, the author Mike Davis tracked the way FEMA paid Shaw $175 a square foot to install blue tarps on damaged roofs, even though …
Coastal cities could flood three times a week by 2045
By John Updike, 9 Feb 2017, Originally published on Climate Central The lawns of homes purchased this year in vast swaths of coastal America could regularly be underwater before the mortgage has even been paid off, with new research showing high tide flooding could become nearly incessant in places within 30 years. Such floods could occur several times a week …