00:00We're focusing on sea level rise and its impact on coastal communities and infrastructure.
00:05First, a look at toxic tides, Brett.
00:08This from Climate Central that mapped the number of locations across the U.S. in coastal areas, hazardous material sites, nuclear plants, and many others,
00:19and how they will be impacted by rising sea levels over the coming century.
00:22Yeah, not good news. Over 5,500 of these facilities are located along the coastline of the west coast and the east coast of the United States,
00:31including the Gulf of Mexico.
00:32Two-thirds of these are at risk over the next 25 years of seeing a 100-year flood, so that's very significant.
00:41That's obviously a concern. Anytime you have a hazardous material site, sewage treatment plants, different fossil fuel plants, refineries,
00:48all these included in this analysis, and if you were to get a flood in those situations, that would certainly cause problems that could linger for a while, too.
00:56Yeah, absolutely. We see that in many storms, lingering flood, and those floodwaters, very contaminated, open wounds.
01:03If you're walking through those flood areas, they can become a very serious problem.
01:07Now, what the study found was that the risk of flooding of a 100-year flood under a high-emission scenario,
01:14which is less likely than the intermediate scenario, Dan, one-fifth of the coastal sewage treatment plants could be at risk,
01:21one-third of coastal power plants, 40% of coastal fossil fuel ports and terminals.
01:27As I said, pretty startling numbers there. It clearly shows the importance on continuing to reduce our pollution
01:32and also focusing on adaptation and planning for these types of flood events.
01:37We'll turn to our second story, this focusing on New Jersey, specifically in the sea level rise in that state, a very vulnerable state.
01:43I grew up in New Jersey, been to Long Beach Island many times, and the many barrier islands along the Jersey coast,
01:49but also the tidal marshes, wetlands are all very vulnerable to sea level rise.
01:52Absolutely. Projections now are 2.2 to 3.8 foot rise in sea level by the end of the century if trends continue.
02:02Now, if we see an acceleration of ice sheet melting, it could go as high as 4.5 feet.
02:07That's a lot of rise in not too much of time.
02:10This study focused on the entire state of New Jersey, but especially on Atlantic City.
02:14What did it find there?
02:15Yeah, I found that sea level rose 1.5 feet from 1912 to 2021, 4 inches just between 2005 and 2020.
02:25But here's the interesting thing.
02:26Flood days in Atlantic City, 1 per year in the 1950s, 12 per year between 2007 and 2024.
02:34We could see as much as 29 to 148 by 2050.
02:40So the number of days where there are issues, we've seen that in places like Charleston, South Carolina.
02:44It seems like it will be the case in Atlantic City and other parts of the Jersey Shore as well.
02:49It also talked about compound flooding. What's that?
02:51Yeah, compound flooding, the sea level rise, but this is combined with storm surge, heavy rain, swollen rivers.
02:57That all adds to the flooding, makes it much worse.
03:00So a lot more work to do in terms of understanding the risk of sea level rise and also helping to protect our coastlines from this risk of climate change.
03:08Thank you, Brett, for that insight.
03:09Other stories about climate can be found at AccuWeather.com slash climate.
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