What Does the Future Hold?
This is a question that everyone has been wondering since the beginning of time. What will the future bring? Nobody really knows for sure, and that is the scary part. But scientist can definitely predict some pretty accurate information. And based on the 2016 Sea Level Rise up-date we read at the beginning of the quarter, scientists are predicting a very significant/measurable amount of sea level rise and climate change, 4 feet no matter what and it only gets worse. Enough to cause a lot of damage, mostly in displacement of people and taking away their homelands.
If I had to guess how East Bay is to be effected by climate change (with my non-scientist p.o.v.), I would say that erosion and sea level rise will have the biggest impacts. Based on the highest tide I saw at East Bay, even a few feet could have a severe impact on surrounding business, residents and biotic life. Many species will have to either move or adapt because the sea level rise takes away a major habitat for them, which is the beach. For example the Great Blue Hereon uses the beach to catch fish on the shore. Same with countless other species. Erosion could also pose a serious problem to the park. And probably sooner than sea level rise. Within the next 10 years probably, they will have to re-locate the sidewalk and the road further away from the shore. Or take some other sort of action like putting up a sea wall (ex- Capital Lake).
“Studies by the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group and others predict that water levels in Puget Sound could rise anywhere from 6 inches to 50 inches over the next 100 years because of global warming. The midlevel projection for South Sound is 18 inches of sea level rise by 2050 and 2.9 feet by 2100.”
“At 3 feet, extreme high tides could overflow many areas along the shoreline and flood most of downtown. Such an event could compromise the LOTT wastewater treatment plant on the port peninsula.”
-John Dodge from The Olympian
Read more here.
http://www.theolympian.com/news/local/article25268635.html#storylink=cpy
How long until this is our reality?
