Cape & Islands News

New study raising alarms for coastal safety

Rising seas raising alarms
Major study: Global warming will threaten coasts from Cape Cod to New Orleans by 2100 if pollutants aren't reduced. Home insurance up 75% in Mass.

Shaun McKinnon, The Arizona Republic

Global temperatures are climbing at a rate that will melt ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica before the end of this century, a disaster that could raise sea levels and scramble weather patterns across the planet, according to a new study.

Roiling oceans would redraw coastlines from Cape Cod to New Orleans, threatening low-lying cities with rising sea levels. Arizona and the West would grow hotter and drier, with shorter winters that would produce less runoff and further stress water supplies.

Even the scientists who framed that scenario in the study on global warming admit they were surprised at its grimness, taken aback by how rapidly the melting could accelerate. Moreover, they say, much of what the studies predict is already here: Temperatures are rising, sea levels are inching higher and warmer oceans are playing havoc with weather...

Read the rest of this Arizona Republic story here, and comment below. The Baltimore Sun had another report here stating "Maps released with the studies show extensive coastal areas in Florida, New Orleans and Cape Cod, Mass., that the researchers say might one day be submerged."

Related stories today:

Insurers Raise Rates Far From Gulf Area
The Ledger, FL -
... In Massachusetts some homeowners already are paying higher premiums as insurers abandon certain local markets. While the state hasn't experienced a devastating hurricane in more than 50 years, insurance companies, including Andover Cos. and Hingham Mutual Group, increasingly are refusing to write homeowners' policies on Cape Cod and on the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, where many of the East Coast elite keep vacation homes....  Read the Ledger story here, and comment below. (That's "Bob", the last small hurricane which hit the cape on right. Click image to enlarge.)

Insurers Pull Homeowners Policies Due to Storm Fears
Rates Soar in Coastal Areas as We Head Into Hurricane Season

On Massachusetts' Cape Cod, Doug Azarian hasn't seen a hurricane in years. But he's felt the effects of the Gulf Coast and Florida storms. His private homeowners insurance was not renewed.

"We haven't had damage in 15 years," Azarian said. He believes he's "paying for what happened 1,500 miles away." Homeowners in parts of Massachusetts have seen their insurance rates jump 75 percent...   Read the rest of this ABC News story here, and comment below.