erosion

If you've been feeling anxious about the North Carolina coast in recent years, get ready to dial up your Prozac prescription. Things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. Kirk Ross has the analysis at Indy Week.

The North Carolina Coastal Resource Commission just finished the first study of sea level rise in the United States. The most significant part of the study was what the report said about what the market has decided about sea level rise.

... even if the public and governments drag their feet on reacting to a changing coast, others aren't waiting to adapt. State Farm, for example, announced this week that it will no longer write or renew insurance policies for structures on barrier islands to reduce its exposure in areas prone to catastrophic events like hurricanes.

Many of us have some information from the scientific community about the changes caused by global warming. Growing up in North Carolina, one can see the changes of sea level rise over a 10-20 year period quite easily. North Carolina is home to some of the most unique and fragile land formations in the coastal area, the Outerbanks.

About the study:

After being identified as one of the three states most vulnerable to sea-level rise by NOAA, the state of North Carolina has been allocated $5,000,000 in funding to perform a risk assessment and mitigation strategy demonstration on the potential of sea level rise and the impacts directly linked to climate changes.