Some of the scientists researching the impacts of global climate change (aka global warming) are now predicting that it would not be out of the question to see a 20 (twenty) foot rise in sea level by the year 2050. That is only 43 years away! Beyond my possible lifetime, but not that of my kids.
Think about it, especially those of you who live along the beautiful coastlines of Hawaii. Think about all the manini (small) changes in sea level and storm effects you’ve seen over the last decade. But by 2050 you will look back at that ocean area and dream of how it use to be. How it was back in 2007 when the shoreline was 20 feet lower, and your place was still there. If you live on Oahu in parts of Honolulu, Kailua, Kapolei, or Ewa Beach, you will be displaced. A new shoreline will be way mauka (inland) from where it is today.
There is clear evidence on Oahu and Kauai that the ocean was more than 20 feet higher than it is now. It’s called a “higher stand of the sea.” The Ewa Plain is all coral. Where all the new homes are being built now. Coral, from a former time when the sea was higher and the reefs were alive.
And Kailua, on the windward side, all those residents and businesses sitting on the former sand dunes and filled lands of Coconut Grove, and “Enchanted Lakes.” This area will return to the correct name for Kailua, two seas. Two bays, like the way Kaneohe Bay is now. Kailua as we currently know it will be gone by 2050. So much for the multi-million dollar homes, and the concern over flood liability coming from the mauka watershed.
Geology rules. Global warming will not be stopped before then. That swooshing sound you hear are the waves of change lapping at your doorstep.
