East Coast at Risk in Sea Level Rise

July 17 -- As U.N. negotiations resume to try and curb the warming of the planet, some Americans are already preparing for a corresponding rise in sea level that is projected to submerge significant portions of the U.S. coastline.

Many beach communities along the Eastern and Gulf coasts have begun to build up their beaches to protect them from the creeping rise of the ocean's tide. Scientists say it is one projected effect of the melting of icecaps and glaciers that is caused by global warming.

Global warming is caused by pollutants that trap the sun's heat in the Earth's atmosphere, heating the planet above normal levels.

East Coast at Risk

Earlier this year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nation's scientific body on global warming, said sea level is likely to rise by at least 4 inches or perhaps as much as 3 feet by the year 2100 if current trends in climate change continue. In the past century, sea level has risen 4 to 8 inches, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The projected long-term rise in water levels may be a century away, but it could have near-term effects in the form of sudden weather systems. Studies have predicted that climate change will make weather systems more unpredictable, with more flooding, hurricanes and drought.

"People wonder who is going to get hit first [by a rise in sea level]," says Jim Titus, director of the Sea Level Rise project at the EPA. "The United States gets hit first."

Louisiana, Florida, North Carolina and Maryland are the U.S. states that will first see significant damage as seawater floods coastal areas, says Titus. But every state between Maine and Texas has regions that will be flooded if the oceans rise, according to EPA projections (see map to left).

North Carolina and Maryland in particular, he says, are likely to see the most damage to developed dry land. The areas at risk in Florida and Louisiana are mostly wetlands, home to many threatened species of animals and plants that are already stressed by human activities.