Over the years, we have observed major climate changes. These changes are having a great impact on human life. A cluster of flooding every year is also the cause of climate change. In the recent research published in the journal Nature Climate Change, scientists predicted that due to global warming, the overall sea level on the earth rises, which results in the amplification of high and low tides by the moon’s lunar cycle in late 2030.
This study is a matter of concern as it results in severe coastal flooding across the U.S. and changes the form of life on the shores of the United States. In the coastal areas, high tide – also referred to as a nuisance – flooding occurs when tides increase approximately 2 feet (0.6 m) from the daily average of high tides. This leads to flooding which has a major impact socially as well as economically.
However, these floods are not as severe as the major catastrophic events that occur due to major climate changes. In 2019, more than 600 floods left their impact on the U.S. But as per a new study by NASA, the next high tide floods in the year 2030 lead most of the American coastline will be flooded by four times the number of high tide flood days every year for a full decade or more.
“The effect built up over time will impact,” said lead author Phil Thompson, Assistant Professor at the University of Hawaii in a statement. “If it floods10 or 15 times a month, the business cannot continue to run on its underwater parking lot. People become unemployed as a result of not being able to get to work. Sumps that flow become a public health issue”.
Reasons for the rising sea level are glacial ice melts and pouring huge quantities of melting water into the ocean because of global warming that warms the atmosphere. Consequently, the mean sea level has increased from about 8 to 9 inches (21 1to 24 centimeters) since 1880. According to NOAA, about one-third of this activity has taken place in the past 25 years alone.
If suitable actions are not taken under this concern then by the year 2100, sea level could rise by 12 inches (0.3 m) to 8.2 feet (2.5 m) higher than it was in 2000. Although the sea level rise alone increases the frequency of floods at high tide, it will benefit from some help from the cosmos, more precisely the moon. The moon’s orbit wobbles due to the change of its relative position concerning the earth every 18.6 years and amplifies the cycle of low and high tides.
According to NASA, the moon suppresses the tides on the Earth, causing lower high tides and higher low tides for the half cycle. In the other half cycle, the tides are amplified with higher high tides and lower low tides. Currently, we are the part of the cycle that amplifies tides. And in the mid-2030’s the next cycle that amplifies tides starts.
Only 14 years from now, floods at high tide will go from a “regional problem to a national problem, with the majority of U.S. coasts affected”, the study said. So, we have to plan a scientific major to control this sea-level rise issue. However, it is very difficult to take full control of them.
If we are determined, we can surely reduce this issue to some extent.