Adaptation Community, Climate Change, Extreme Weather, Population Displacement, Sea Level Rise
Climate Report Details Flood Risk to Sites in Washington
September 19, 2014
Adaptation Community, Climate Change, Extreme Weather, Population Displacement, Sea Level Rise
September 19, 2014
WASHINGTON — The nation’s capital is likely to see record flooding by 2050, putting about $7 billion worth of property, three military bases and parts of the National Mall at risk as a result of climate change that is raising sea levels all over the world, according to a report released Tuesday by the research group Climate Central.
That is one of the group’s more conservative estimates in a report titled “Washington, D.C., and the Surging Sea.”
In the worst case, the group draws an end-of-the-century picture of the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials as islands in a flooded Potomac River, and Fort McNair, the Washington Navy Yard and parts of Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling completely under water.
Scientists’ warnings about the effects of climate change are not new, with predictions that melting polar ice will lead to a rise in sea levels that will lap around the edges of New York, turn Houston into a latter-day Venice and force millions of residents in low-lying nations like Bangladesh out of their homes.
Read the full New York Times article here.