The decade’s end would see natural disasters along with climate change. Shockingly, these would create 50 million environmental refugees in the process, according to the United Nations.
Natural disasters are predicted to displace much more people than any war has ever done. To send a chill down the spine, you may soon also find the North Carolina beaches disappear – eaten away by the rising seas!
As per a new study, North Carolina beaches are suffering from potential sand losses. And, a ‘1-foot rise’ in sea level in just next 25 to 75 years would cause the coast to move inland helplessly by 2,000 to 10,000 feet! This is predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
With this losing of the coast to the rising sea, an estimated $223 million-cost of recreational value will be lost by 2080, as beach-goers in the state alone earn the government this amount.
The beach sand erosion is also at the mercy of hurricanes with the ocean water flooding the beaches pushing onshore — called storm surge — can contribute largely in washing large amounts of sand away.
Though, an estimation of the loss is made, predicting the exact shrinkage-amount of beaches is impossible. It is because; the rates of beach erosion are highly variable. It varies even between points that are only a few miles apart!
What affects the rates of erosion is each beach sand’s make-up — i.e. the absence or presence of jetties along with other man-made structures that are meant for retaining sand. Offshore topography influencing the formation of waves largely affects erosion rates.
Though this prediction is disappointing for the East Coast beach goers, they can still hope to make their summer trips to the West Coast U.S. beaches as erosion treats from sea level-rises and storms is less.
But, we – the humans – don’t seem to be content with the already caused devastations along with what has been predicted, as dams are built along western rivers ‘unscientifically’ to cause the beaches to erode, river transport being the main sources of sand for these beaches.