Politics

A rising tide of concern

State agency’s warning on climate change spurs action, skepticism
Clark Alexander, director of Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, photographed on the causeway connecting the Savannah communities of Sandfly and Isle of Hope. Many residential areas of Chatham County are very close to sea level leaving them prone to localized flooding during heavy rain especially when accompanied by high tides.
Clark Alexander, director of Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, photographed on the causeway connecting the Savannah communities of Sandfly and Isle of Hope. Many residential areas of Chatham County are very close to sea level leaving them prone to localized flooding during heavy rain especially when accompanied by high tides.
By Dan Chapman
Aug 9, 2015

ST. MARYS -- Georgia's wildlife agency minced no words recently in declaring climate change "a threat inherent with uncertainty," perhaps the state's starkest warning ever on a politically sensitive subject dismissed by many elected officials.

Here, though, on Georgia’s 100-mile-long coast, most everybody takes seriously rising seas and dying marshes caused by drastic changes in the Earth’s climate. They live already with the proof: greater tidal surges; flooded roads; and ages-old trees killed by salt water creeping further inland.

If the dire predictions of state, federal and university scientists prove true, then billions of dollars of property in Brunswick, Darien, St. Marys and Savannah and on the islands of St. Simons, Sea and Tybee will be under water within a century.

» GET THE FULL STORY: See our special presentation of 'A rising tide of concern' on MyAJC.com

About the Author

Dan Chapman

More Stories