Climate change is a disaster in slow-motion: The global temperature creeps up by fractions-of-a-degree each year, the seas rise inches every decade. Except, apparently, when they do much more.
Exhibit A: In just two years, 2009 and 2010, sea levels along the Atlantic coast north of New York City jumped up by more than 5 inches, according to a paper published this week in the journal Nature Communications.
To put this into perspective: five inches of sea level rise equates to 300 inches or 5 feet of erosion in North County SD beaches and cliffs when averaged over the long term. Nothing to sneeze at.