Global Warming Could Take Its Toll On Jersey Shore Sooner Than Many Expect
By David Madden
MIAMI, Fla., (CBS) -- A Florida-based geologist has some dire warnings about climate change. Among them, many of the barrier islands along the Jersey shore could be under water in as little as 50 years.
Professor Harold Wanless chairs the Geological Sciences Department at the University of Miami. He suggests the feds are grossly underestimating the rate at which sea levels are rising because the polar ice caps are melting so rapidly.
His advice? Towns along the shore should start preparing now.
"As sea level rises further, communities need to really start looking at this and start planning so they can know at what point they have to raise the roads," Wanless told KYW Newsradio.
The thing is, even if we stopped burning fossil fuels immediately, greenhouse gases will continue to warm the atmosphere for at least 30 years. "We have to start pulling the CO2 out of the atmosphere because it has a resonance time, an amount of time that it will stay in the atmosphere of many centuries," Wanless said.
He equates his message to that of a doctor telling a patient they have lung cancer after years of smoking. The damage is done. Communities now must get ready for the changes that are coming.
