Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
7
Disappearing Civilizations
The Problems with Coastal Living
near ocean shorelines. In the last century
this proportion has increased measurably.
In fact, there would appear to be a global
rush to the shore, and at the same time the
shore is rushing toward the human invad-
ers. Today in the United States, for exam-
ple, 53% of the population lives on the 19%
of the land area near the coast.
But there are flat coasts and steep coasts.
The coastal zone of the western margin of
North and South America, for example, is
higher and steeper than its counterpart on
the much flatter coastal zone on the eastern
margin of the Americas. Thus the potential
for damage from sea level rise is greatest
on the east coasts of these continents. But
all port facilities, critical components of the
global economy, will be affected, whether
on a steep coast (Long Beach Naval Ship-
yard) or flat coast (the Port of Miami).
Over the years a number of small East
Coast communities have disappeared. Some
have been lost to the waves, such as Edings-
ville, South Carolina, in 1893. Others have
fallen into the sea, such as Broadwater,
Virginia, in 1941. Still others were aban-
doned in the face of storm hazards: Dia-
mond City, North Carolina, for example,
What do Boston, Hong Kong, Shanghai,
Lagos, Rotterdam, Alexandria (Egypt), Ho
Chi Minh City, and Durban have in com-
mon? They are all major coastal cities in
real danger of suffering major inundation
from rising sea levels, and increasing dam-
age from storm surge waves elevated by the
higher sea level. These cities are but eight
of thousands of low-lying communities,
large and small, whose inundation by the
sea may be the first catastrophe on a global
scale caused by climate change. The hu-
man and economic costs of responding to
the simultaneous flooding of all the world's
low-lying coastal cities are almost unfath-
omable. Whether the solution is retreat,
moving back buildings, abandonment, or
construction of levees, dikes, and seawalls,
it will divert much national treasure. And
the high priority that will inevitably be
given to protection of the major cities will
take much national treasure away from the
response to sea level rise in smaller com-
munities and nations.
A significant portion of the world's hu-
man population has always lived next to or
