Our Very Strange Search for “Sea Level”

In this world of climate breakdown, reporters are repeatedly referring to a ‘new normal’, perhaps hoping that we’ve reached a new equilibrium, similar to when the term was coined after the post-2008 financial crash. But climate change is not a boom and bust cycle. There will be no equilibrium, never again in our lifetimes. It’s increasingly difficu

How were two million people going to live in a region that was sinking into oblivion? The losses were particularly acute, he noted, in their own backyard. The area around Plaquemines had already shrunk by some seven hundred square miles. “We’re in an uphill battle against sea-level rise and subsidence,” Barth said. CPRA would continue to drill and

A higher sea level would not only encroach directly on existing infrastructures but also accelerate the rates of coastal erosion, increase the damage due to storm surges, and contaminate coastal aquifers with salt water.

The boiling point of water is straightforward, but the boiling point of societies is mysterious.

For one of the essential characteristics of land is that it is higher than water. Gravity causes water to flow down to the lowest point, which should cause the continents to dry out.