the rix mix

Wading through the new report Future Sea Level Rise and the New Jersey Coast: Assessing Potential Impacts and Opportunities, a 37 page Pdf document from the Princeton Policy Research Institute. Not exactly a National Geographic kind of presentation. A large section is given over to Cape May Point, which the authors acknowledge isn't really representive of Jersey's tidal shoreline because it is subject to faster, greater changes. But that area has been measured & studied closely for a variety of economic & environmental reasons. Their conclusions are obvious: Rising sea levels will force ongoing adjustments, & eventual retreats from barrier beaches regardless of whatever long term plans we make or fail to make. We can do just so much, delay the processes, but some houses are going to fall into the ocean anyway, as has happened at Cape May over the past 100 years. So the more interesting parts of the report are about sea water intrusion into our fresh water aquifiers, & which tidal wetlands might have a natural capacity to keep pace with rising ocean levels. The faster the sea level rises, the less able marshes are to adapt, which puts a lot of already endangered wildlife at risk. Humans just pack up & move inland; birds, turtles & Horseshoe Crabs don't have that option, especially if storms radically change their habitat & food supply in a short period of time - a possibility that global warming makes more & more likely.