The tale of the house and the man illustrates the Chesapeake’s problem with rising oceans and sinking land. Holland Island reached its peak population between 1890 and 1910. By 1910 approximately 360 people lived on the distinct ridges of high ground. Sea levels in the Chesapeake, scientists say, are rising faster than they are in some other coastal regions of the United States. The land here has been slowly sinking for thousands of years, settling itself from bulges created by the weight of Ice Age glaciers. The weight of glaciers to the north pushed the Earth’s crust down, and the crust in this area went up like the other end of a see-saw Holland Island started to noticeably lose shoreline in 1914. The residents tried desperately to save their island by importing stones to build walls and in some cases sinking boats in an attempt to slow the erosion, but all attempts failed.

credit: baldeaglebluff

The opening plenary of the second session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action took place on Monday morning at the World Conference Center Bonn. It will be held between 29 April – 3 May 2013 at the World Conference Center Bonn, Germany. The Durban Platform represents a finely balanced compromise among the principal negotiating groups in the UN climate-change regime. The aim of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change is to stop global warming by limiting global carbon emissions.

credit: UNclimatechange