Rising sea levels: Is global warming making the US East Coast a 'hot spot?'

The pace of sea-level rise along much of the East Coast is accelerating three to four times faster than the worldwide average, a US Geological Survey study says. Global warming is the chief suspect.

By Pete Spotts,?Staff writer / June 25, 2012

This Aug. 2011 photo shows a flooded road on Hatteras Island, N.C., after Hurricane Irene swept through the area the previous day cutting the roadway in five locations. From Cape Hatteras, N.C., to just north of Boston, sea levels are rising much faster than they are around the globe.

Jim R. Bounds/AP

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The pace of sea-level rise along a swath of the US East Coast ? from north of Boston down to North Carolina's Cape Hatteras ? is accelerating three to four times faster than the worldwide average, according to a new study from the US Geological Survey (USGS), turning the region into a hot spot for sea-level rise.

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At stake: the increased vulnerability of coastal communities to severe damage from storm surges or even high surf caused by storms off shore.

The prime suspect: global warming, through its direct effect on heating water at the ocean surface as well as the effect warmed seawater and air temperatures can have on speeding the pace at which Greenland is losing ice.

Warmer seawater in the North Atlantic and increasing amounts of fresh water from?melting Greenland ice can slow ocean-circulation patterns in the ocean basin, which can trigger the accelerated rise, modeling studies have suggested.

Indeed, models indicated that the East Coast could develop such a sea-level hot spot ? and in the location the new study identifies ? because of these factors, explains Asbury Sallenger Jr., a research oceanographer who heads a USGS project to assess changes in the hazards that US coastal communities could face from climate change.

But earlier real-world measurements did not always support the theoretical models. One study, published in May 2011, looked at more than a century's worth of tide-gauge measurements from around the US and globally. The team not only found no US hot spot. It found no acceleration of sea-level rise over the 20th century and into the first decade of the 21st.

The results triggered spirited debates as to why, in the face of other evidence to the contrary, the team came up dry. If the warming the climate has experienced during the past century has triggered no rise in sea-levels, projections of future increases ? already laced with uncertainties ? would be heavily overstated at best.

Dr. Sallenger and two USGS colleagues decided to take their own look.

They used tide-gauge measurements from around the US coastlines spanning a 60-year period beginning in 1950. They found that from 1950 through 2009, as global average sea levels rose at a pace of 0.59 millimeters a year, they rose 1.97 mm per year in the East Coast ?hot spot.? Between 1970 and 2009, the pace picked up, with global average sea levels rising 0.98 mm per year and the hot spot's pace increasing to 3.8 mm per year.

South of Cape Hatteras the pace shows no significant change for either time span. North of Boston, the pace either was zero or slightly negative for the 1950-2009 period, but between 1970-2009, the rate rose into positive territory well into the Canada, Sallenger's team reports.

The results were "surprising, actually," Sallenger says. "We found what we call a hot spot of acceleration. This is the only location within the country and a good chunk of North America where this kind of thing is happening."

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91% Safety Not Guaranteed

All Critics (81) | Top Critics (28) | Fresh (74) | Rotten (7)

"Safety" can't sustain its own offbeat energy. By the end, even Aubrey Plaza would roll her eyes at it.

Neatly, the script embarks on one journey while dangling the possibility of another: the prospect of taking a sudden leap from comic reality into the realm of pure imagination.

"Safety Not Guaranteed" is most vibrant and vital at its edges, in the way that the characters interact with each other while waiting for something to happen.

It's brisk and assured and never begs the audience's indulgence. No time is wasted. The movie is, at every moment, either funny or pushing the story forward, or both.

The film is modest but skillful and heartfelt, spiced just so by Plaza and company.

Safety Not Guaranteed casts an enchanting spell from its opening scene.

The superbly-balanced tone of this sweet and sour outsider-romance is the real star of [Trevorrow's] feature debut, though breakout turns by on-the-cusp players Audrey Plaza and Jake M Johnson add to the film's warm and wondrous sense of discovery.

It is an offbeat charmer that is fun and engaging from a storytelling standpoint, but one that also brings a surprisingly rich emotional payoff.

Unlike time travel or jet-setting, "Safety Not Guaranteed" shows that making movies can still be more about the journey than the destination. Whether or not you have first-class tickets.

"Safety Not Guaranteed" is eccentric enough to get mistaken for an uplifting fantasy, but it's Plaza who belongs in the penthouse.

Hope is a powerful thing and Safety Not Guaranteed delivers in its tale of longing, deliverance and connection during the here and now.

An intriguing yet erratic effort...

Less of a philosophical argument and more of a character piece driven deep into the heart by Duplass and Plaza.

Have you ever wondered what mumblecore sci-fi would look like? Wonder no more.

Rather than trying to beat Hollywood at its own game of high-tech gadgets and weaponry, director Colin Trevorrow and writer Derek Connolly achieve a sly mix of the insane and the mundane.

A character-driven piece about regret and true partnership - our basic, primal need for someone to take the journey with us even if safety is not guaranteed.

Aubrey Plaza is the best thing about this iffy mock-sci-fi doohickey.

As a hipster rom-com about people trying to shake off their pasts to make present-day connections, it's pretty satisfying.

A strange, light-hearted bit of quasi-sci-fi, with no small amount of heart.

The material is played mostly for laughs and succeeds in that regard. The undercurrent of lament in Safety Not Guaranteed, though, is what holds the film together.

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DirecTV quietly shifts n3D channel from 24/7 to part-time broadcasts

Nearly two years after launching its n3D channel broadcasting 3D content around the clock, DirecTV has reduced the channel to part-time programing hours as of June 1st. Whether the change is due to a lack of fresh content or viewer adoption is unclear and DirecTV's bland statement about waiting for both to grow doesn't hint either way, that the change had gone largely unreported for nearly a month does not bode well. In the meantime, 3Net and ESPN 3D continue to broadcast unabated with the latter going live from Wimbledon this week, and DirecTV has confirmed it will be airing tape delayed 3D footage from the Olympics provided by NBC this summer. After seeing all the early HD-only channels fall by the wayside we're not at all surprised to see this one go dark at least part-time, but the question will be whether 3D uptake is fast enough to keep broadcasters interested going forward.

[Thanks, KM]

DirecTV quietly shifts n3D channel from 24/7 to part-time broadcasts originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jun 2012 06:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Timothy Eden: Is Meditation Self-Indulgent?

"I just feel like there are so many problems out there in the world, me sitting in silence doesn't really do anything for them." Juan is a close friend and meditation student. His question rattled me. He continued, "It just feels too self-indulgent."

Many new meditators have the experience of questioning not just the utility of meditation but also the morality of it. But, is he right? Is meditation indulgent? Absolutely.

Meditation is complete indulgence in the experience of the present moment. We often think of indulgent behavior as being morally wrong, which it can be when it comes at the expense of a deeper connectedness.

We are sometimes taught to put the needs of others before the needs of ourselves -- even to our own detriment. Roshi Joan Halifax brilliantly refers to this as "pathological compassion." Health care workers are often described as having "compassion fatigue," a form of burnout that is widely discussed in more than 200 published papers. Interestingly, studies of compassion fatigue in health care workers show that it is associated with worse outcomes for their patients. Simply put, ignoring our own well-being in the face of stress can actually result in harm to others.

These findings are not just relevant to health care workers. Stress levels are extremely high throughout our country, especially in the midst of an economic crisis. Higher levels of stress have consistently demonstrated higher levels of chronic health problems, psychological illness, and violence.

As a means of dealing with stress, there are acceptable and unacceptable outlets. Escapism -- through alcohol, overeating, watching television, overworking, and legal or illegal medicating -- is seen as an acceptable, and paradoxically non-indulgent, outlet. Many patients appear for counseling after these methods have failed, or worse, done harm. Escapism does not address the root causes of stress; it gives temporary reprieve -- a quick stir of a boiling pot -- at the expense of deeper connectedness with self and others. And often, the very methods that we use to escape stress may cause further harm down the line.

Rather, acknowledging and being present with our stress through meditative practice is the best way of reducing it. By fully acknowledging our pain, we learn to be more authentic with ourselves and with others. Sitting quietly every day and focusing on the breath and the experience of oneself alone can be, as Jon Kabat-Zinn says, "a radical act of love."

Meditation is spiritual housekeeping. To meditate is to sweep the rooms of the stress of daily life. Would it be seen as overly self-indulgent to vacuum the living room before the arrival of a guest? The intimate silence afforded by meditation allows us to communicate with fewer interruptions from the mental static of stress.

What about the vast problems of the world, as Juan had asked? How does meditation help global starvation? Meditation doesn't purport to solve all the problems of the world, it simply focuses on developing a place of inner calm. But if 7 billion people found a place of inner calm, the world would know a greater peace.

Is meditation self-indulgent? Maybe selfless-indulgence might be a more accurate description.

For more on meditation, click here.

For more by Timothy Eden, click here.

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Follow Timothy Eden on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TimothyEden

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HBT: Oswalt impressive in Rangers debut

Roy Oswalt was a little shaky in his recent minor league tuneup starts, posting a 5.87 ERA over 15 1/3 innings between Double-A Frisco and Triple-A Round Rock, but he rendered any concerns meaningless last night.

Oswalt was very impressive in his Rangers? debut, allowing just one run over 6 1/3 innings as part of a 4-1 victory over the Rockies. It was his first start in a major league game since Game 4 of the NLDS against the Cardinals last year. The 34-year-old right-hander scattered nine hits while striking out six and walking just one. He didn?t allow a run until his 110th and final pitch of the evening via an RBI double by Marco Scutaro in the top of the seventh inning.

According to Brooks Baseball, Oswalt?s fastball topped out at 93.1 mph and averaged 91.5 mph, which was nearly identical to his average velocity last season with the Phillies. However, that?s still a tick below his career average of 92.9 mph. It will be interesting to see how Oswalt fares in his first go-around in the American League, especially coming off a season where he posted his lowest strikeout and swinging strike rate of his career, but he should be a stabilizing force for a rotation which has already battled numerous injuries and features a rookie pitcher, Yu Darvish, who is trying to find his way in his first season stateside.

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