It’s a funny thing: so many of the same Leftist whining about sea rise doom from ‘climate change’ are buying homes at the shore/not moving away
Coastal residents on climate change: “The ocean’s coming for you”
Thirty years ago Jim Hartshorne looked out at the endless expanse of blue water and decided North Carolina’s Outer Banks felt like home. He said that back in 1993, sea level rise was not a concern. “I didn’t think it would happen quite as quickly as what it did,” he said. “I thought it wouldn’t happen in my lifetime; I’d let the kids worry about it. But I’ve had to worry about it here the last ten years.”
The ocean has become an increasingly greedy neighbor. Storms are more frequent, and more fierce. Parts of these Barrier Islands have retreated more than 200 feet in the last two decades. Some beaches are now losing about 13 feet a year, according to the National Park Service.
This past summer, video of the Atlantic claiming yet another beach house in Rodanthe, just up the road from Hartshorne, went viral on Twitter.
They’re called “barrier islands.” They move. They’re supposed to move. Not be stationary. Construction on the islands actually interferes with the natural ability.
Hartshorne said, “You gotta take the good with the bad. It’s wonderful to be out here. It’s pretty. But you have to know the ocean’s coming for you.”
He’s trying to delay that day by reinforcing the pilings that hold up his house, and rebuilding a staircase; the old one washed away during a recent storm. He said he’s spent between $20,000 and $22,000 this year alone repairing storm damage.
Hartshorne and his neighbors are getting help from North Carolina’s Dare County, which is spending $25 million to widen 12 miles of coastline along the Outer Banks.
So, not leaving?
“You’re not going to stop the ocean; you’re not going to completely engineer your way out of this challenge,” said Reide Corbett, who runs the Coastal Studies Institute on the Outer Banks. “We will have to think about how we move infrastructure, how we move people.
“Yes, sea level has changed in our past, but it’s changing at a rate that we haven’t seen before.”
Corbett took “Sunday Morning” out to the marsh where he and other scientists collect soil samples that are a peek into the past. He says their research shows the rate of sea level rise here has doubled in the past 100 years.
Really? Yet, zero evidence was provided to uphold this assertion. But, they never do.
“Yeah, and we’re just starting to see the ramp,” Corbett said. “We’re looking at a foot rise in the next 30 years. That’s going to impact most homeowners on the Outer Banks during their mortgage. And so, it’s not about putting it off to the next generation. It’s happening today. We’re seeing those impacts today.”
Pretty bold statement, when there hasn’t even been a foot of sea rise in the last 120 years. What happens if this does not happen? Who pays the price for scaremonger?
What they are dealing with is called “erosion”, not sea level rise. Barrier islands are glorified sand bars that come and go with the tides and wave action. Barrier islands serve as just that: they are a barrier that attenuates wave action to reduce the erosion of the mainland shore, especially during storms They are Nature’s seawalls. I remember back in the 80’s when South Carolina had a problem with idiots building on the barrier islands off Myrtle Beach, and having the buildings washed away with the next storm.
Well said, sir.
Has sea level rise been constant over the last 120years? If not, don’t you think that should be mentioned Teach? If not mentioned that incomplete statement might be misleading. You would not want that to happen, would you Teach?