CRUCIAL GLOBAL WARMING FACT 7

 

BUILDING CODES AND ZONING LAWS ALONG COASTLINES ARE HAVING TO BE COMPLETELY REWRITTEN, WITH TOTALLY DIFFERENT GOALS THAN BEFORE; AND, ANYONE WHO WANTS TO SEE ANY OF THE ISLANDS ALONG THE ATLANTIC OR GULF COAST – WHILE THEY STILL HAVE HOUSES, SHOPS, ROADS, AND PLACES TO STAY FOR A FEW DAYS – HAD BETTER GO SOON.

 

 

​            To try to get at least somewhat ready to deal with the facts described above, government agencies with authority over coastlines are scrambling to try to figure out what to do, in the future. A good case study is offered by New York City. After Hurricane Sandy (in 2012) caused billions of dollars of damage (and more than 120 deaths) in New York and New Jersey, the planning and zoning agencies in and around New York harbor knew they had to do more, to get ready for future storms and hurricanes that will be even worse. So, they hired experts to provide their best estimates of how much the sea-water level likely will rise, in New York harbor, over the coming 50 years. They were hoping the answer would come back in the vicinity of, “Sea levels, here in New York harbor, are likely to rise about 4 inches, over the next 50 years.” But the answer they got from the experts was, “If you want us to project things out over the next 50 years, then, to be realistic, we need to warn you that sea levels, here in New York harbor, may rise by four FEET, within those 50 years.”

​            So, at that point, the planning and zoning agencies shifted any analysis and planning away from things like dikes, levees, and pumps, which might try to protect certain portions of New York City, and they took a totally different approach, which simply accepts that there is going to be repeated and chronic coastal flooding; and, therefore, the task now is to create different types of buildings which can withstand repeated flooding. To try to reach that goal, the new laws they will be using involves “zoning laws”, which impose new conditions on any new building that anyone wants to build, near a coastline.

          Their totally-revised “zoning law” approach now requires things like (paraphrased): “In any new buildings, the entire first floor, from ground-level up, has to be limited to things like parking, storage, and mechanical-type things that can be moved up to the second floor, or higher – preferably, with only one day’s warning, and by the building owner and/or tenants, without requiring a special work crew, since those kinds of crews might not be available, when truly needed (i.e., when a massive threatening storm is approaching). And, the bottom floor must allow water to move readily into that bottom floor (to avoid creating water pressures which might cause the bottom-floor walls to buckle, fail, and collapse, which could destroy the entire building). And, any flood waters also must be able to leave that bottom floor, on its own, without requiring pumping, after a storm has passed.”

            Those zoning laws were passed, by New York, in March 2021, under the name, “Zoning for Coastal Flood Resiliency” (ZCFR). Summaries and copies can be downloaded from websites such as www1.nyc.gov/site/ planning/plans/flood-resilience-zoning-text-update/flood-resilience-zoning-text-update.page.

            Lest anyone think that other coastal communities can simply take that same approach, to solve (or at least delay) THEIR problems, it should be pointed out that the New York City region can do that, because it has an exceptionally strong and solid granite foundation, directly beneath it. That granite layer is a crucial part of how and why New York City can have so many skyscrapers, so close to each other, while skyscrapers in numerous other places often have problems (the "Millennium Tower" in San Francisco is an example, since it has already begin to lean and tilt, to one side, rather dangerously; one should rightly wonder whether it will last even a century, let alone a millennium).

            The problem is, most other coastal communities are NOT built on foundations of solid granite. Many are built on `sedimentary rock’, which (as most people will recall from high school) is the type of rock that is formed when tiny particles (such as sand, which forms sandstone) or minerals (such as calcium, which forms limestone) carried by water become affixed to each other, over the course of geologic time. Along coastlines, sedimentary rock is common, since rivers tend to spread out into wide `delta’ areas as they approach an ocean or sea; that widening action causes the flow speed of the water to slow down; that reduced speed allows sediments to settle out of the water; and, over millions of years, some types of particles or minerals will bond to each other, in ways that form sedimentary rock.

          The problem is this . . . in the same way that water created sedimentary rock, water also can erode it, dissolve it, and destroy it. And, that is exactly what is already happening (and, at accelerating rates) to a whole lot of sedimentary rock, along major portions of America’s (and the world’s) coastlines.

            As just one example, pretty much the entire state of Florida sits on top of limestone, which can be dissolved by water, and that entire state has become badly pockmarked by growing numbers of large `sinkholes’ that have suddenly opened up, often in sizes that swallow (or at least destabilize, and often destroy) entire houses. Below is a map of sinkholes that already had appeared in Florida, before the year 2015. And, their rate of formation jumped to substantially higher levels after Hurricane Irma occurred, in 2017. In just the first year after Hurricane Irma hit Florida, more than 400 new sinkholes were reported (e.g., abcactionnews.com/news/region-pasco/experts-warn-number-of-sinkholes-in-florida-have-surged-since-hurricane-irma-hit).

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            In addition, there are large stretches of America’s coastlines where the buildings don’t even sit on rock, at all; instead, they have been built on sand (often on top of so-called `pilings’, which usually are steel beams, sometimes encased in concrete, that have been driven a dozen yards or more down into the sand). Here's a picture which proves – still in the realm of hard fact – that a house can indeed be built directly on sand, on a beach:

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            That home was on the “Outer Banks” islands, off the mainland of North Carolina. Those islands are one of the greatest “second home” destinations anywhere in the world, and they are remarkably beautiful. So, anyone who wants to see those islands really should put it on their bucket list to go there, within the next few years. Because – and THIS is the turning point, between hard facts, as set forth above, and predictions about what is likely to happen, in the future – not all that many years from now, there likely will be more ugly wreckage and debris, from destroyed buildings, than natural beauty and charm. And, one might predict, with both logic and reason, that some of its roads and bridges may no longer be passable. Indeed, for anyone who knows what is actually happening, with sea level rise, it becomes an exercise in melancholy, and sadness, to simply but seriously ponder what the area in the map below (on the coast of North Carolina) will actually look like . . . 20 . . . or 30 . . . or 40 years from now.

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