DIRTY HARRY Loc: Hartland, Michigan

Rising US sea levels, erosion threatening historic lighthouses

Wayne Parry

ASSOCIATED PRESS

MAURICE RIVER TOWNSHIP, N.J. - Rising seas and erosion are threatening lighthouses around the U.S. and the world. Volunteers and cash-strapped governments are doing what they can, but the level of concern, like the water, is rising.

New Jersey's East Point Lighthouse has been lighting up Delaware Bay for the better part of two centuries. But those same waters that the lighthouse helped illuminate might bring about its demise.

With even a moderate-term fix likely to cost $3 million or more, New Jersey officials are considering what to do to save the lighthouse. Nancy Patterson, president of the Maurice River Historical Society, says something needs to be done now.

State and local governments routinely shore up the perimeter of the lighthouse property with 3,000-pound (1360-kilogram) sand bags and hastily bulldozed earthen walls. During normal conditions, the bay is about 40 yards (37 meters) from the lighthouse; aerial photos from 1940 show at least four times as much beach between the lighthouse and the bay as there is now.

And during storms, the surf pounds against an earthen wall just 10 yards (9 meters) from the lighthouse's front steps.

“This lighthouse is in incredible danger; it's getting worse and worse and worse,” Patterson said. “The water is right there, often within feet of the lighthouse.”

She recently led a save-the-lighthouse rally to call attention to its plight and push the state Department of Environmental Protection to do something to save it before it falls into the bay.

It's a threat affecting lighthouses around the country and the world, including those in low-lying areas being inundated by water, as well as those on bluffs or cliffs being eroded by storms and rising sea levels.

“It's happening faster than anybody had predicted,” said Jeff Gales, executive director of the U.S. Lighthouse Society in Hansville, Washington.

While some of the lighthouses continue to be relied upon for navigation, others have been supplanted more modern technology, and are treasured more for historical and tourism purposes.

C*****e c****e hastened by manmade greenhouse gases is not only melting polar ice, adding to sea levels, but the warmer waters are expanding and some land formations sinking.

Globally, sea levels have been rising over the past century, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the rate has increased in recent decades. In New Jersey, seas have risen by 1.3 feet (0.4 meters) over the past 100 years, said Benjamin Horton, a Rutgers University professor and leading expert on c*****e c****e and sea level rise. That is a faster pace than for the past 2,000 years combined, he said.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Whoops! You're not supposed to refer to that here. Some members think all that talk is nonsense. "That climate is always changing."

In another article from yesterday, green houses gasses in the atmosphere haven't been this high in about four million years. At that time, temperatures were about 3° C higher, and sea levels were about 50' higher.

"To put that in perspective, a sea level rise of just six meters would put parts of Florida and the east coast underwater, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. A rise in surface temperatures by 3°C, predicted to occur by the end of the century if not sooner, would lead to a largely uninhabitable Earth."
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/mbybny/greenhouse-gas-record-high-drive-c*****e-c****e-un-report

DIRTY HARRY Loc: Hartland, Michigan

If you believe you have to maintain your possessions (cars, house, anything with a motor, cameras, etc) why would you understand that you have to maintain your planet? Cant live or do business on a dead planet.

BboH Loc: s of 2/21, Ellicott City, MD

The thought that humans can:...maintain your planet?" is pure egotistical arrogance. How do you suggest that we control the sun's flares and spots?

WessoJPEG Loc: Cincinnati, Ohio

Shellback Loc: North of Cheyenne Bottoms Wetlands - Kansas

Do what you want - Mother Nature will win in the end -

Plieku69 Loc: The Gopher State, south end

Fox had an article last week predicting that we were about to enter a prolonged period of solar activity resulting in a second mini ice age. It was all about the sun, nothing about human activities. And the predictions were that we would see if it were true in 6 months, not 10, 50 or 100 years in the future.
To my sceptical mind this could be a more true prediction.

leftj Loc: Texas

Yes, climate is always changing. C*****e C****e hype is a religion that false profits are making billions of $'s from.

BboH Loc: s of 2/21, Ellicott City, MD

its also for egotistical power!

leftj Loc: Texas

That too.

LWW Loc: Banana Republic of America

To add a touch of reality:

1 - GW has happened, but began roughly 100 centuries ago and appears to be continuing in the long run.

2 - The Earth is still in an ice age, and as we deglaciate it only makes sense that temperature increased at the same time.

3 - CO2 rises precede temperature increases, as opposed to following it. Even Al Gore conceded that.

4 - Even if CO2 were driving temp increases, there is essentially nothing the human race can do to stop it. Even the drastic Kyoto accords were struggling to lower their predictions by hundred's of a single degree over many decades.

5 - Prior to deglaciation the Earth was nearly uninhabited in comparison.

6 - Deglaciation has led to increased farmlands, longer growing seasons, longer lifespans, advanced civilization and more.

Now, for those who are still following along, I'm an environmentalist well beyond the average American. At least in the top 1%.

NOBODY wants dirty air and water, anyone who starts out a debate with that jibba jabba has already lost.

I lead an eco-friendly lifestyle not because someone scares me into believing that I'm going to burn.

I do it because it leads to a cleaner and safer planet.

Shellback Loc: North of Cheyenne Bottoms Wetlands - Kansas

.

BboH Loc: s of 2/21, Ellicott City, MD

WW - you make good points.
I will add that all of the wh**ever you want to call it about curtailing g****l w*****g is, again in one word - jibberjabber. The effort and money being wasted in that regard would be much better spend in developing the necessary accommodations that human kind will need in the future to live with the ever so "glacially" warming climate, not in trying to stop the warming should it continue.

pendennis

Let me add, that Third World countries, as they develop economically, can't just jump in at First World infrastructure levels, and suddenly we have a clean planet. Economic evolution requires that emerging economies use the cheapest available technologies to literally power their growth. Right now, that technology is f****l f**ls in various forms, whether coal, gasoline, diesel, wood, wh**ever is available and cheap. As those economic growth goals are achieved, then those obsolete technologies are dumped in favor of newer ones.

Just as the U.S. used coal, wood, and rudimentary steam and water power in the 18th and 19th centuries, we're now in a position to opt for the most efficient technologies available which can be used in mass quantities to further and expand growth.

It's always been the market which drives technology, which drives science. It's only the folly of those who think we can do things in reverse order, that creates problems.

LWW Loc: Banana Republic of America

Who can guess the greatest man made ecological disaster of all time?