Live on the U.S. coastline? The 2024 "report card" tracking sea levels is in line with previous projections, confirming that the sea is coming for your beach house—unless it's in Alaska.
Overall, most locations continue a trend of accelerating sea level rise. However, Mitchell notes that projections have remained mostly uniform since reporting began in 2018, apart from a few notable exceptions.
"One interesting new trend is the acceleration occurring in southeastern states such as South Carolina and Georgia," said Mitchell. "We continue to see the fastest rates of sea level rise in Gulf states like Texas and Louisiana, but many of the East Coast stations are accelerating quite quickly, likely due to patterns of water distribution related to glacial melt from the Greenland ice sheet."
Mitchell also notes that most West Coast localities have been fairly stable, despite past predictions that they would increase rapidly. "This has led to some questions about why," she said.
The "funny" thing about it is that when coasts are inundated, those losing property to Aquaman will get bailed out by everyone else. That's why flood bait like this still sells for $225,000,000. Search your feelings, you know it to be true! The new owner knows who bears the risk, and it isn't them.
Previously:
• Panama evacuating densely-populated islands as sea levels rise
• Global sea levels could rise 6 feet by year 2100, twice as high as previous estimates
• ScienceBlogs on the acceleration of rising sea levels
• Fashion designers prepared for rising sea levels
• Survey finds big cities slowly sinking into ground
