An article from Inside Climate News reports on a major new scientific assessment showing that sea-level rise is accelerating in New Jersey, sharply increasing the state’s exposure to flooding, erosion, and other climate-driven coastal hazards. Produced by the New Jersey Climate Change Resource Center at Rutgers University, the 155-page report synthesizes the latest science on rising seas and coastal storms. It projects that, under current global emissions trends, New Jersey is likely to see 2.2 to 3.8 feet of sea-level rise by 2100, or up to 4.5 feet if ice-sheet melt accelerates—an outcome with significant implications for coastal communities, infrastructure, and natural ecosystems.
A central contributor to the report is Robert Kopp, RCEI Affiliate, a Rutgers climate scientist and member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who led the study. As the article explains, Kopp emphasized that today’s emissions align with the report’s “intermediate” scenario. He noted that under this pathway, “New Jersey sea level at Atlantic City would rise between 2.2 and 3.8 feet by the end of the century”. This quote underscores how present-day global emissions trajectories already lock the state into substantial water-level increases—making the findings relevant for long-term planning across communities, regulators, and policymakers.
The article highlights additional context provided by Kopp, who explained that current emissions trends would lead to approximately “2.7 degrees [Celsius] by the end of the century,” situating New Jersey’s sea-level projections within broader global-warming pathways. This framing helps readers understand that the local impacts described in the report are inseparable from global emissions patterns.
Beyond projections, the article explains why the findings matter:
- Sea levels at Atlantic City have already risen 1.5 feet since 1912, triple the global average, partly because the land is sinking.
- Flooding is dramatically worsening, with Atlantic City experiencing 23 flood days in 2024, up from fewer than one per year in the 1950s.
- By 2050, the city may see 29 to 148 flood days annually, depending on emissions and ice-sheet behavior.
- Rising seas will intensify erosion, overwhelm existing shoreline-protection efforts, stress wetlands, and infiltrate drinking-water aquifers—particularly on barrier islands.
Although the report refrains from prescribing policy solutions, it urges state and local officials to review projections at least every five years, recognizing the rapidly evolving climate science and the unpredictability of ice-sheet dynamics.
Read the full article here.
