The Flood the Next Time 

By: Nicole Bengiveno 


"Scientists have spent decades examining all the factors that can influence the rise of the seas, and their research is finally leading to answers. And the more the scientists learn, the more they perceive an enormous risk for the United States."(Bengiveno 1). The country's main focus right now is the East coast because the issues of the storms and devastations. Scientists have been searching through new ideas, like looking at the ancient ice sheets and the effect of the giant meteor. But, when researching, the scientists have observed that the tide are one of the most important things. "The best calculation suggests that from 1880 to 2009, the global average sea level rose a little over eight inches. (Bengiveno 1). Even the smallest change, can dramatically affect the tides and the sea level. This accelerated rise in sea level is really affected from the greenhouse gases in the air. These gases are heating the planet and this heat is traveling into the oceans. (Bengiveno). 

"Scientists say the East Coats will be hit harder for many reasons, but among the most important is that even as the seawater rises, the land in this part of the world is sinking. And that goes back to the last ice age, which peaked some 20,000 years ago." (Bengiveno 2). Another issue that scientists need to look more into is sinking. There has been sinking occurring throughout the areas of Maine, all the way down to Florida. Furthermore, when looking at the Chesapeake Bay region, you can see that there was a population of 400, but now it has completely disappeared. There were homes, stores, buildings, that were completely left and the island eroded. (Bengiveno). This is so concerning. When everything started to disappear, there was only one house that remained and in 2010, that completely went down. Overall, all of these numbers are going and this will soon affect town like the community on the Chesapeake Bay region. There have been so many changes and the question is now how are we going to solve this? What is our plan for the future? (Bengiveno).  



http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/14/science/earth/grappling-with-sea-level-rise-sooner-not-later.html?ref=oceans