Increasing seas threaten lamps & # 39; USA

MAURICE RIVER TOWNSHIP, N.J. – The rising seas and erosion threaten to crush across the United States and the world. Volunteers and cash strappjati governments are doing what they can, but the level of & # 39; concerns, such as water, is increasing.

The lighthouse & # 39; East Point of & # 39; New Jersey beach today & # 39; Delaware better part & # 39; two centuries. But those same waters helped to illuminate the lamp can & # 39; leading to his death.

B & # 39; iffranġar that even moderate & # 39; probably worth $ 3 million or more, officers & # 39; New Jersey are considering x & # 39; to make to save the lighthouse. Nancy Patterson, president of the Historical Society Maurice River, says something needs to be now.

The state and local governments regularly have the perimeter of the lamp property & # 39; & # 39 of sandbags; 3,000 pound and walls sprinkled pottery hurry. During normal conditions, the beach is & # 39; about 40 yard from the lighthouse; aerial photographs from 1940 show at least four & # 39; fold beach between the lighthouse and the beach as there are now.

And during storms, the staining pounds & # 39; against walls & # 39; land only 10 yards from the facades & # 39; in front of the lighthouse.

"This lighthouse is in & # 39; incredible danger;'re going worse and worse and worse," said Patterson. "The water is right there, often lantern feet."

Recently led a meeting of the lamp to draw attention to her plight and pushing the state Department of Environmental Protection to do something to save before falling & # 39; at bay.

A threat to hit the pharma lamps across the country and the world, including those in & # 39; low areas are flooded with water, as well as on bluffs or cliffs declining from storms and levels rising sea.

"It happens faster than predicted by anyone," said Jeff Gales, executive director of the Society of Lighthouse & # 39; in the United States & # 39; Hansville, Washington.

While some of the lamps still benefit navigation, others have been replaced & # 39; art technology, and highly treasured historical and tourist purposes.

The rapid climate change from greenhouse gases man is not just polar ice melting, adding to sea level, but the warmer waters expanding and some land formations are falling.

Overall, the sea levels have been increasing over the past century, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the rate increased in & # 39; the last few & # 39; years. In New Jersey, the seas rose by & # 39; 1.3 feet over the past 100 years, said Benjamin Horton, a professor at Rutgers University and a leading expert on climate change and the rise in sea level . This is a faster pace than the last 2,000 plus years, he said.

The researchers & # 39; Horton and other Rutgers project that by 2050, the waters off New Jersey climb b & # 39; an additional 1.4 feet.

Tim Harrison is the editor of Lighthouse Digest, Maine-based publication that keeps "Doomsday" List of & # 39; 53 faroż across the United States considered to be in danger of being lost due to storms, erosion or other causes.

"Factories were built for one purpose: to save lives", he said. "Now is our step to strengthen save these ports lamps."

The rising waters have already forced relocation & # 39; several beacons. In 1999, the National Park Service ran Faro in Cape Hatteras & # 39; Buxton, North Carolina, 2,900 feet & # 39; inside, at a cost of & # 39; $ 11.8 million. In 1993, the Southeast Lighthouse & # 39; Block Island, Rhode Island, moved 300 feet & # 39; inwards.

In 2014 Lighthouse & # 39; Cape San Blas moved from the edge of & # 39; prone to storm peninsula on the Gulf Coast & # 39; Florida to park in Port St. Joe. A year later, the lighthouse & # 39; Gay Head on the Vineyard of & # 39; Martha & # 39; s a & # 39; Massachusetts left for 129 feet back from cliff jher.

Others were not so lucky. The lighthouse & # 39; & # 39 in Galveston Jetty, Tax and Bank Lighthouse & # 39; Sabine Bank in & # 39; La Louisiana lost by storms or rising seas, and Lighthouse & # 39; Kauhola Point on the Big Island of Hawaii was demolished & # 39; after the close erosion was considered too harsh to rescue, Harrison said.

Pharmaceutical lamps across the country considered at & # 39; safe from the waters rising include Lighthouse & # 39; Sand Island at the mouth of Mobile Bay in & # 39; Alabama, the Faro of Morris island near Charleston, South Carolina and New Point Comfort Lighthouse in Virginia.

Around the world, the seas are getting destroyed near the Lighthouse Orfordness f & # 39; Suffolk, England; the Troubridge Island Lighthouse south & # 39; Australia; and Lighthouse & # 39; Kiipsaar in Estonia. In 2010, the Half Moon Caye in Belize lighthouse was destroyed by a storm.

There are few easy answers, financially or scientifically. The East Point Lighthouse is already at the top of sput & # 39; across the floor, which is only a few inches & # 39; above sea level, so that moving is not an option. Nor is it always to be dumping more sand and put down before.

Patterson has some sort of & # 39; bulkhead or barrier set up between the beach and the lighthouse to convene & # 39; the force of the waves.

Larry very rich, spokesman for the Department of & # 39; & # 39 Environmental Protection; New Jersey, recognizes that the lamp was "very vulnerable to storms because erosion" for years. And he realizes the fire bags state and local governments keep plopping on shore they measure & # 39; stop at best.

But while affirming the state's interest to save the lighthouse, he notes that the movement or its protection b & # 39; cages filled with rocks can & # 39; cost several million & # 39; dollars.

Due to the high cost of being displaced or protected Lighthouse & # 39; abroad, the group & # 39; volunteer conservation & # 39; often partner with & # 39; one has spent at least $ 5 million on Faro Island in Morris & # 39; South Carolina St. And the cash strappati governments often can not lose funds to save the beacons.

Patterson, the lawyer Lighthouse & # 39; New Jersey, says there is a need to build a quarry near Point Lighthouse Point immediately.

"This story is important", she said. "We need to do something – now – while there is still something to save."

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