NYT: Global Warming is causing coastal Flooding NOW.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/09/03/1566475/-New-York-Times:-Flooding-of-Coast,-Caused-By-Global-Warming,-Has-Already-Begun?detail=facebook

The title of the Times’ article quoted above is stark and unequivocal. There is no attempt to “qualify” it or explore “both sides” of the issue. There is no attempt at “debate,” nor is there any concession for “doubt.” The unleashing of billions of tons of carbon pollution into the Earth’s atmosphere is heating up the planet, melting the Earth’s polar and land ice shelves, causing ever-increasing flooding that is now permanently inundating the American coastline. Period.

For decades, as the global warming created by human emissions caused land ice to melt and ocean water to expand, scientists warnedthat the accelerating rise of the sea would eventually imperil the United States’ coastline.

Now, those warnings are no longer theoretical: The inundation of the coast has begun. The sea has crept up to the point that a high tide and a brisk wind are all it takes to send water pouring into streets and homes.

Tidal flooding in Norfolk, Virginia, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Tybee Island, Georgia (all profiled in the Times’ article) has reached well beyond the occasional “nuisance” and is now a fact of life in those cities. Collectively, sea levels have risen to the point all along the East Coast such that many simultaneous instances of uncontrolled flooding are now imminent with only the slightest shift in the tides. These floods may range from a few inches to several feet deep, but they wreak havoc on developed coastal areas, stopping traffic, preventing drainage runoff, and submerging lawns, cars and basements. Floods also poison fresh water wells with salt and other contaminants as they wipe out forests and entire coastal ecosystems.

Local governments are sounding the alarm in places like Miami Beach, where the encroachment of human-induced coastal flooding has prompted that city to raise its own streets and elevate its sea walls. Local officials from both political parties are making their voices heard with increasing urgency as their communities’ very existence are under threat:

But the local leaders say they cannot tackle this problem alone. They are pleading with state and federal governments for guidance and help, including billions to pay for flood walls, pumps and road improvements that would buy them time.

Yet Congress has largely ignored these pleas, and has even tried to block plans by the military to head off future problems at the numerous bases imperiled by a rising sea. A Republican congressman from Colorado, Ken Buck, recently called one military proposal part of a “radical climate change agenda.”