OLYMPIA, Wash. - Today's high tide may be one of the highest of 2010, but a Climate Action Group warns it may soon become the norm if nothing is done to slow it down. The Olympia Climate Action Group, with support from other environmental groups and state agencies, welcomed today's high tide with music, signs and a warning.
"If sea levels rise 1 foot, the 100-year flood happens every 10 years," volunteer Stew Henderson told the group. "And if the sea level rises 2 feet, the 100-year flood happens every year."
The groups say global warming, aggravated by emissions of carbon and other heat-trapping gasses, will result in warmer ocean temperatures and melting glaciers. They say this isn't a political theory, it's already happening and the world's top scientists can prove it.
"Through direct observations, from tide gauges all over the world, to satellites that NASA operates, we've seen a slow and steady rise in sea levels of about 3 to 4 millimeters per year," said Spencer Reeder, the Washington Department of Ecology's Lead Policy Strategist For Climate Change.
A crowd of dozens of supporters gathered at the Olympic Waterfront and listened to a band as they watched the tide rise nearly to the level of the walkways this morning. The message was today this is rare, in the future it might be the norm and parts of Olympia that have been flooded once every century could find water coming in much more often.
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