It is not often that we find the Delmarva Peninsula at the heart of a national environmental article. This Reuters analysis by Ryan McNeill, Deborah J. Nelson and Duff Wilson explores the harsh realities of a rising ocean and its impact environmentally, politically and emotionally on those who are witnessing their property, investments and livelihoods dissolve.
From Annapolis to Chincoteague, arguments flare over how we should address this slow-motion catastrophe. In the meantime the water rises and the land sinks (subsidence) as aquifers are drained.
“Since 2001, water has reached flood levels an average of 20 days or more a year in Annapolis, Maryland; Wilmington, North Carolina; Washington, D.C.; Atlantic City, New Jersey; Sandy Hook, New Jersey; and Charleston, South Carolina. Before 1971, none of these locations averaged more than five days a year. Annapolis had the highest average number of days a year above flood threshold since 2001, at 34. On the Delmarva Peninsula, the annual average tripled to 18 days at the Lewes, Delaware, tide gauge.”
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www.reuters.com
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