Pirate's Cove

We’re not on to invisible threats!

Officials sound alarm as invisible threat creeps closer to major U.S. city: ‘An issue of concern for all of us’

Pennsylvania is one of the few states in the U.S. to have a Constitutional amendment stipulating the people’s right to clean water. However, rising sea levels threaten to flood the state’s drinking water with a salt front.

The Delaware River Basin Commission is working hard to manage the river and prevent seawater from approaching its intakes — the structures that collect and channel water. As Carol Collier, former executive director of the DRBC, recently told Inside Climate News, “It should be an issue of concern for all of us.”

Millions of residents living in the areas of Philadelphia and southern New Jersey could see their drinking water contaminated with seawater if sea levels continue to rise, Inside Climate News reported.

The previous plan to stop salt water from entering the drinking water intakes — referred to as the Trenton flow objective — may not be enough to protect the supply if the seawater levels are not kept under control.

Rising sea levels threaten coastal cities and those who live in them. According to The Washington Post, in just the past decade, sea levels have risen faster than anticipated along the southern and southeastern coasts of the U.S — five inches total from 2010 to 2022.

Which is BS, not born out by actual gauges. The Philly station shows 1.03 feet per 100 years, and no acceleration. Damned sure not 5 inches in 12 years. They are making things up, and the WP article fails to provide any substantive science for that figure.

The scientific consensus is that human activity has exacerbated these conditions. Human-caused pollution — which sends far more carbon dioxide, methane, and other gases into the atmosphere than would naturally occur — has supercharged the problem. This has led to more frequent and more powerful weather events around the world that are triggered in some way by heat. One such example: hurricanes and the flooding they can cause.

And there it is: your fault. The seas are always going to rise during a Holocene warm period. Then you combine that with the land subsiding and older infrastructure, and, yes, you have a problem. Which we can solve with technology. Because it is not a thousand years ago during the Medieval Warm Period.

Finally, using renewable energy sources like solar and geothermal energy can help to reduce the heat-trapping pollution from gas-powered energy. All of these actions can add up to reinforce our drinking water systems and our communities.

OK, let’s switch Philly, a mostly Democrat city, to 100% renewables. Ban all fossil fueled vehicles. Shut down the airport. Shut down the sea ports. They’re good with that, right?