Sea Level Rise and Severe Storms in the Chesapeake Bay Region: A Canary in the Mineshaft?

Discussions of implications of sea level rise have tended to focus on distant countries such as Bangladesh or small island nations such as Tuvalu, the Marshall Islands or the Maldives. Yet there is considerable evidence that some of the most dramatic effects of global sea level rise are visible within a hundred miles of Washington, DC. A number of islands in the Chesapeake Bay region have disappeared within the last few decades including most of Poplar Island, a favorite watering hole for major Democratic contributors during the Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. This is now being reclaimed through a massive dredge project to keep Baltimore Harbor functional.

This gripping Power Point presentation prepared by Dr. Michael Kearney, Professor of Geography at the University of Maryland, in collaboration with his colleague, Dr. Court Stevenson, shows that this sea level rise trend has been accelerating. Professor Kearney also shows effects of Hurricane Isabel on the Chesapeake Bay region. Baltimore, Annapolis, Washington and many smaller communities in the region are already vulnerable to hurricanes and other severe storms. Only time will tell whether the loss of these Chesapeake Bay islands including a number that were once inhabited are a harbinger of more severe weather ahead for the greater Washington region.

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