A report in the Journal of Climate asserts that the impact of climate change has increased faster than expected with sea levels rising along Southern states hitting rates that put cities along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts at risk, Yahoo News reports.
The study found sea levels have risen an average of one centimeter per year since 2010 along Southern states. The researchers argue that increase in sea level and a similar increase in water temperature helped fuel more powerful hurricanes that have battered the region.
Should that rate continue, the sea would threaten cities along the coast like Miami, Houston and Mobile. Miami has already installed a series of high-volume “water movers” that can pump a total of 800,000 gallons of water per minute back into Biscayne Bay, at the cost of $300 million; continuing water level rise would make such pumps virtually useless within ten years, when water levels would be ten inches higher than 2010.