You may have read recently that ocean levels are predicted to rise by one foot/.3 of a meter in the next thirty years. That is equal to the total rise in the past 100 years. Although I am at the moment far inland, my primary home is on ocean’s edge. At high tide, Skull Creek comes within about ten yards of the base of our building. There is a bank there four feet high. I don’t expect to be around in 2050, but Carol may well be and so I have more than passing interest in the ocean level.
NOAA has an online map into which you can type an address and adjust a slider on one side to show what land will be covered by increased ocean levels in 1’ increments. I am pleased to see that our condo will still be above water in 2050. It will even be dry when the ocean is 3’ higher than it is now.
I don’t believe our condo is property we could leave to our grandchildren, but then we don’t have any.
Here is the link to the NOAA map if you want to check a location.
I want to thank Jim for making me aware of a stunning PBS Nature program, The Ocean’s Greatest Feast.
Off the tip of Africa takes place the greatest biomass migration on the planet, far greater than the famed Serengeti migration. The creature is a sardine. Billions of them in a mass sometimes twenty miles long follow a cold water current east along the South African coast and are fed upon by predator after predator. Sea lions, gannets, dolphin, sharks, whales, sea gulls, tuna. There is no known advantage to the sardines to make this migration. There is a huge advantage to the predators.
The lessons of nature are harsh. Life feeds on life. Aggression is rewarded.
I have sailed that coast several times and never knew this migration was happening beneath me.
You can stream the program online. I recommend you do.
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