What are some of the armoring techniques, and what is the order of magnitude for the associated costs?
Studies have indicated that the 80 acres per year in losses will occur all over the Cape. To stop all of it we would have to armor the whole Cape, like the Dutch. Estimates range from $100 per linear foot to $800 per linear foot. Spot armoring won’t prevent sea level damage. What about some of the newer studies, which discuss the possibility of abrupt climate change? There is a huge debate over climate change. Some researchers who use evidence from the geologic record have begun to discuss the possibility of rapid climate changes. In the 1950s many were worried about the onset of a new ice age. Then the concerns focused on the planet getting colder. Heuristic observations of past changes in the geological record demonstrate that climate change is not always gradual – it can be quite abrupt. Realize, however, that “short period of time” for some of these researchers is millennia or eons. But there may be climate equilibria that lead to extreme rapid change as opposed to slow shifts. How
