scholarly journals The Path of Least Resistance: Projections of Social Inequalities as a Result of Climate Change in the United States

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathew Hauer ◽  
R. Kyle Saunders ◽  
Daniel Shtob
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
The United States ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Environmental Inequality ◽  
The Future ◽  
The U.S

Environmental inequality and environmental racism are well-documented in the United States (U.S). Unlike typical approaches where sociologists investigate environmental inequality as it exists in the present, climate change hazards are known to compound over time, worsening in the future. Although the current demographic characteristics of the U.S. are known, here we account for the anticipated demographic changes likely to occur this century that could substantially compound climate inequality in the U.S. We use sea-level rise as an example of compounding environmental risk to uncover the magnitude of future inequalities. Specifically, we analyze how climate change may amplify inequalities in the future by disproportionately impacting presently vulnerable groups (e.g., by race, sex, and age). We find that communities of color and the elderly will face intensified impacts of sea-level rise by the end of the century. These processes of environmental inequality formation would go undetected using current, rather than projected, demographic data. Our results suggest climate change will continue to develop as a source of inequality this century and beyond, transmitting inequality across time and saddling future generations with environmental and social disadvantage. Our results, therefore, represent an important new approach to predict inequality formation in the distant future.

scholarly journals Creeping disaster along the U.S. coastline: Understanding exposure to sea level rise and hurri-canes through historical development

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Braswell ◽  
Stefan Leyk ◽  
Dylan Connor ◽  
Johannes Uhl
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Coastal Hazards ◽  
Coastal Cities ◽  
Data Compilation ◽  
Structure Density ◽  
Saturation Effects ◽  
The U.S

Current estimates of U.S. property at risk of coastal hazards and sea level rise (SLR) are stag-gering, evaluated at over a trillion U.S. dollars. Despite being enormous in the aggregate, po-tential losses due to SLR depend on mitigation, adaptation, and exposure and are highly uneven in their distribution across coastal cities. We provide the first analysis of how changes in expo-sure (how and when) have unfolded over more than a century of coastal urban development in the United States. We do so by leveraging new historical settlement layers from the Historical Settlement Data Compilation for the U.S. (HISDAC-US) to examine building patterns within and between the SLR zones of the conterminous United States since the early twentieth century. Our analysis reveals that SLR zones developed faster and continue to have higher structure density than non-coastal, urban and inland areas, patterns which are particularly prominent in locations affected by hurricanes. However, density levels in historically less-developed coastal areas are now quickly converging on early-settled SLR zones, many of which have reached building saturation. These “saturation effects” suggest that adaptation polices targeting existing buildings and developed areas are likely to grow in importance relative to the protection of previously undeveloped land.

scholarly journals Economic damages from Hurricane Sandy attributable to sea level rise caused by anthropogenic climate change

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin H. Strauss ◽  
Philip M. Orton ◽  
Klaus Bittermann ◽  
Maya K. Buchanan ◽  
Daniel M. Gilford ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
East Coast ◽  
The United States ◽  
Hurricane Sandy ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Anthropogenic Climate Change ◽  
Economic Damage ◽  
Sea Levels

AbstractIn 2012, Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast of the United States, creating widespread coastal flooding and over $60 billion in reported economic damage. The potential influence of climate change on the storm itself has been debated, but sea level rise driven by anthropogenic climate change more clearly contributed to damages. To quantify this effect, here we simulate water levels and damage both as they occurred and as they would have occurred across a range of lower sea levels corresponding to different estimates of attributable sea level rise. We find that approximately $8.1B ($4.7B–$14.0B, 5th–95th percentiles) of Sandy’s damages are attributable to climate-mediated anthropogenic sea level rise, as is extension of the flood area to affect 71 (40–131) thousand additional people. The same general approach demonstrated here may be applied to impact assessments for other past and future coastal storms.

scholarly journals Is China Trying to Push the U.S. out of East Asia?

2015 ◽  
Vol 01 (01) ◽  
pp. 59-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dong Wang
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
East Asia ◽  
International System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Willingness To Participate ◽  
Monroe Doctrine ◽  
Western Discourse ◽  
The Future ◽  
Regional Order ◽  
The U.S

One of the key questions for understanding the future trajectory of regional order is whether or not China is trying to push the United States out of East Asia and build a China-dominated regional order. Some Western analysts accuse China of pursuing the Monroe Doctrine and excluding the United States from the region. This article argues that the Western discourse of China practicing the Monroe Doctrine is a misplaced characterization of China's behavior. Rather than having intention of pushing the United States out of East Asia and build a China-dominated regional order, China is pursuing a hedging strategy that aims at minimizing strategic risks, increasing freedom of action, diversifying strategic options, and shaping the U.S.' preferences and choices. This can be exemplified in five issue areas: China's ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and China's foreign policy activism, China-Russia relations, the Conference on Interactions and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) and the New Asian Security Concept, as well as China-U.S. relations. Beijing has explicitly acknowledged the U.S. predominance in the international system and reiterated its willingness to participate in and reform the existing system. It concludes by suggesting that, for a more peaceful future to emerge in East Asia, the United States and China, as an incumbent power and a rising power, will have to accommodate each other, and negotiate and renegotiate the boundaries of their relative power, as well as their respective roles in the future regional order where Beijing and Washington would learn to share responsibilities and leadership.

The North Caucasus in Contemporary U.S.-Russia Relations: Key Problems and Implications for the Future

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-166
Author(s):  
Maxim A. Suchkov
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Present Article ◽  
The United States ◽  
North Caucasus ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
The North ◽  
The Future ◽  
Boston Marathon ◽  
The U.S

The North Caucasus is a most significant but a least understood problem in contemporary U.S.-Russia relations. The United States as one of the prime pace-setters in the region shaped its own attitude towards Russia’s most volatile region. Over more than twenty years, Washington experienced at least three major stages in its “Caucasus strategy”, and each stage had its impact on the North Caucasus. Since the beginning, the two states stuck to conflicting narratives of developments in the region. With time, some of the assessments were re-evaluated, but some continue to impede cooperation on key security issues. The present article explores these phenomena and examines what implications major events like the 9/11 attacks, the Caucasus Emirate enlistment among top terrorist organisations, the Boston marathon bombings, etc. had for the U.S.-Russia joint efforts in fighting terrorism. It also assesses areas of potential disagreement in the North Caucasus between the two countries.

Buffer Growing Inequality

2019 ◽  
pp. 152-168
Author(s):  
Hill and
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
The United States ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Island States ◽  
Existential Risk ◽  
Wide Angle Lens ◽  
Social Prejudice

Climate change will touch virtually every country in the world and every region of the United States, but it will not affect every place and person equally. Small island states, for example, face an existential risk from sea-level rise and industry loss. The impacts of climate change deprive communities of resources, and social prejudice can impose the bulk of that scarcity on women and girls, with severe consequences. This chapter describes how climate change magnifies existing economic and social inequalities and identifies strategies that can help buffer this effect. Looking through a wide-angle lens, it views the nexus of climate change and inequality from a global perspective before homing in on the United States.

scholarly journals Tidal wetland resilience to sea level rise increases their carbon sequestration capacity in United States

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Faming Wang ◽  
Xiaoliang Lu ◽  
Christian J. Sanders ◽  
Jianwu Tang
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Accumulation Rate ◽  
C Sequestration ◽  
Tidal Wetlands ◽  
Tidal Wetland ◽  
Climate Change Scenarios

AbstractCoastal wetlands are large reservoirs of soil carbon (C). However, the annual C accumulation rates contributing to the C storage in these systems have yet to be spatially estimated on a large scale. We synthesized C accumulation rate (CAR) in tidal wetlands of the conterminous United States (US), upscaled the CAR to national scale, and predicted trends based on climate change scenarios. Here, we show that the mean CAR is 161.8 ± 6 g Cm−2 yr−1, and the conterminous US tidal wetlands sequestrate 4.2–5.0 Tg C yr−1. Relative sea level rise (RSLR) largely regulates the CAR. The tidal wetland CAR is projected to increase in this century and continue their C sequestration capacity in all climate change scenarios, suggesting a strong resilience to sea level rise. These results serve as a baseline assessment of C accumulation in tidal wetlands of US, and indicate a significant C sink throughout this century.

scholarly journals Impact of Anthropogenic Climate Change on United States Major Hurricane Landfall Frequency

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma L. Levin ◽  
Hiroyuki Murakami
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
The United States ◽  
Anthropogenic Climate Change ◽  
Buffer System ◽  
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory ◽  
Long Duration ◽  
Major Hurricane ◽  
The U.S

Although anthropogenic climate change has contributed to warmer ocean temperatures that are seemingly more favorable for Atlantic hurricane development, no major hurricanes made landfall in the United States between 2006 and 2016. The U.S., therefore, experienced a major hurricane landfall drought during those years. Using the high-resolution Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory 25 km grid High-Resolution Forecast-Oriented Low Ocean Resolution (HiFLOR) global climate model, the present study shows that increases in anthropogenic forcing, due to increases in greenhouse gasses, are associated with fewer long-duration major hurricane landfall droughts in the U.S., which implies an increase in major hurricane landfall frequency. We create six different fixed-distance ‘buffers’ that artificially circle the United States coastline in 100 km radial increments and can compensate for the bias in hurricane landfall calculations with six-hourly datasets. Major hurricane landfall frequencies are computed by applying the buffer zones to the six-hourly observed and simulated storm track datasets, which are then compared with the observed recorded major hurricane frequencies. We found that the major hurricane landfall frequencies generated with the 200 km buffer using the six-hourly observed best-track dataset are most correlated with the observed recorded major hurricane landfall frequencies. Using HiFLOR with an implemented buffer system, we found less frequent projections of long-duration major hurricane landfall drought events in controlled scenarios with greater anthropogenic global warming, which is independent on the radius of the coastal buffer. These results indicate an increase in U.S. major hurricane landfall frequencies with an increase in anthropogenic warming, which could pose a substantial threat to coastal communities in the U.S.

The effects of tidal changes on the frequency of nuisance flooding events in the United States

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sida Li ◽  
Thomas Wahl ◽  
David Jay ◽  
Stefan Talke ◽  
Lintao Liu
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
High Tide ◽  
The United States ◽  
Tide Gauges ◽  
Relative Sea Level ◽  
Relative Sea Level Rise ◽  
Tidal Changes ◽  
Cape Fear ◽  
The U.S

<p>Nuisance flooding (NF) or high tide flooding describes minor nondestructive flooding which can nonetheless cause substantial negative socio-economic impacts to coastal communities. The frequency of NF events has increased and accelerated over the past decades along the U.S. coast, leading to changes ranging from 300% to 900%. This is mainly a result of sea level rise reducing the gap between high tidal datum and flood thresholds. While long-term relative sea level rise is the main driver for the increased number of NF events, other factors such as variability in the Gulf stream, the storm climate, and infragravity waves can also contribute. Another important driver that is often overlooked is related to changes in coastal and estuary tides, through secular trends in the amplitudes of major tidal constituents. In this presentation we assess the role of tidal changes in modulating the frequency of NF events along the U.S. coastline. We analyze hourly records from 49 U.S. tide gauges for which the National Weather Service has defined NF thresholds. We find that (1) overall across all tide gauges the number of NF days has increased since 1950 due to changes in coastal tides, adding up to 100 NF days in recent years (on top of the increase due to relative sea level rise), (2) more tide gauges experience an increase in NF events than a decrease due to changes in tides, (3) tide gauges in major estuaries which have undergone major anthropogenic alterations experience the strongest changes; in Wilmington (Cape Fear estuary), for example, 10-40% of NF events in recent years can be attributed to tidal changes. </p>

Hurricanes and their Environmental Effects in the United States

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Telisa Fears ◽  
Katrina Walls ◽  
Jeffalyn Johnson ◽  
Courtney Boston
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Hurricane Katrina ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Ecological Effects ◽  
Human Understanding ◽  
The U.S

Previous research concerning climate change in the United States clearly illustrates the necessity for observing how ecological systems are influenced by natural disasters (Staudinger et. al. 2013; Nelson et. al. 2013). Traditionally, ecology is concerned with the relationships between organisms (human and other living beings) and their environment (Tyler & Spoolman, 2013). Human understanding of how organisms are affected by, how they adapt to, and how they work to sustain their environment has become even more diverse in recent years (Staudinger et. al. 2013). This may be due to a number of environmental factors that have occurred in recent years. However, this paper seeks to examine the ecological effects of the wind factor. In particular, we address the ecological effects of hurricanes as it relates to (1) environmental outcomes and alterations among organisms in the United States, (2) the well-being and adaptation of human and organismic life (i.e. animals, plants, etc.) post Hurricane Katrina and Camille (3) and how hurricanes alter and transform health and restoration patterns in the U.S.

scholarly journals Spatial variability of late Holocene and 20th century sea-level rise along the Atlantic coast of the United States

Geology ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 37 (12) ◽  
pp. 1115-1118 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. E. Engelhart ◽  
B. P. Horton ◽  
B. C. Douglas ◽  
W. R. Peltier ◽  
T. E. Tornqvist
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Spatial Variability ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Atlantic Coast ◽  
The United States
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