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Poseidon Lost

We thought the sea was infinite and inexhaustible. It is not. Calling for a new vision to save our oceans. Table of Contents | Digital Edition
Guardian Environmental Network

Reporting and commentary from OnEarth editors and correspondents
Irene's Potential for Destruction Made Worse by Global Warming, Sea Level Rise
By Michael Lemonick
August 26, 2011 | (2) Comments

We're now a day out from Hurricane Irene’s projected landfall in the Outer Banks of North Carolina (or near-miss, and it doesn’t make a lot of difference which it is). A day later -- sometime Sunday, that is -- the storm’s assault on the New York metropolitan area will begin. And unless Irene’s track veers sharply and unexpectedly out to sea, the Northeast will suffer its worst hurricane in decades. Evacuations have begun from Cape Hatteras all the way up to New Jersey; in New York City, hospitals and nursing homes in low-lying areas in Brooklyn and Staten Island have begun emptying, and the city’s subway system could shut down entirely on Saturday, for safety reasons.

At the moment, the immediate question for anyone in the path of the storm is -- or should be -- "how can I keep myself and my loved ones safe?" But another question may be lingering in the background. It’s the same question that came up in April, when a series of killer tornadoes tore up the South in April, and in May, when floods ravaged the entire Mississippi River basin, and in July, when killer heat waves seared the Midwest and Northeast, and in August, when Texas officially completed its worst one-year drought on record -- a drought that isn’t over by a long shot.

The question: is this weather disaster caused by climate change?

Wrong question.

Here's the right question: is climate change making this storm worse than it would have been otherwise?

Answer: Absolutely.

The relationship between hurricanes and climate change isn't settled yet, but what we know for sure, is that thanks largely to climate change, sea level is about 13 inches higher in the New York area than it was a century ago. The greatest damage from hurricanes comes not from high winds and torrential rains -- although those do cause a lot of damage. It’s from the storm surge, the tsunami-like wall of water a hurricane pushes ahead of it to crash onto the land. It was Hurricane Katrina’s storm surge, not the wind or rain, that destroyed New Orleans back in 2005.

With an extra foot of sea level to start with, in other words, Irene’s storm surge is going to have a head start. And climate change is a big part of the reason why.

This post originally appeared at OnEarth partner Climate Central.

Image: Storm surge of Hurricane Eloise in 1975, via NOAA.

More from OnEarth

tags: climate change global warming hurricanes sea level rise extreme weather Climate Central Mike Lemonick hurricane irene
Michael Lemonick
Mike Lemonick is the senior science writer at Climate Central. He has covered science and the environment for TIME magazine for nearly 21 years, and has also written for Discover, Scientific American, Wired, New Scientist and The... More
As new content on your chosen topic gets posted, you'll receive an automated email via FeedMyInbox. You can unsubscribe at any time. Send Me New Posts By Michael Lemonick
#2
Terry Mock Wrote on August 26, 2011 - 15:11
Going Carbon Negative James Lovelock says the only way we could do something meaningful to avoid catastrophe is to extract and permanently store CO2 from the atmosphere, in addition to dramatically reducing our emissions. And the approach with the most potential, says Lovelock, is to turn biomass material into charcoal, now re-branded as “biochar,” in a process known as “pyrolysis” and then bury it. The biochar, unlike the original biomass, can’t rot and release CO2 into the atmosphere. It doesn’t oxidize. It is chemically stable for hundreds of years, meaning the carbon is permanently sequestered. “This makes it safe to bury in the soil or in the ocean,” writes Lovelock. If we’re serious about halting the rise of – and eventually lowering – CO2 concentration in the atmosphere, biochar could prove the best way. It also allows us to more sustainably manage organic waste from municipalities, croplands, wastewater treatment plants, and a certain amount of residues from forests. The problem, as with all other climate-mitigation approaches, comes with reaching scale. Can biochar be produced to a large enough scale to make a measurable impact? The answer lies in the triple-bottom-line perspective. In other words, the only way this will happen is if it can be produced in ways that meet the needs of people, planet and profit. Biochar and Sustainable Land Development Key factors in developing the social, environmental and economic potential for biochar lie not only in its carbon-sequestration abilities, but in the other valuable properties that the process brings to sustainable land development best practices... http://www.triplepundit.com/2010/09/sldi-project-carbon-negative/
#3
Harvey Stone Wrote on August 29, 2011 - 09:41
Thank you for making that link. Another one: it's not just higher sea. It's also warmer seas. Warm, moist air fuels hurricanes the way gasoline fuels cars. In this regard, climate change is raising the odds that we'll have stronger, more intense storms that bring all kinds of health, economic and financial disasters to people.